San Diego by train

7 March 2018.

Today I picked up my hire car from San Diego. Jack and Norma dropped me off at San Juan Capistrano station so I could get the train to San Diego.

What a wonderul trip on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train. If my plan wasn’t the road trip, I would seriously think about a trip around USA just on the train. Amtrak is so easy to book online.
https://m.amtrak.com/h5/r/www.amtrak.com/home.html

I had to change my reservation because the traffic getting to the station was heavier than expected and it was easy to modify the ticket without penalty and quickly online. I booked an unreserved seat as I was travelling a week day and not during peak hour and there were plenty of comfortable seats. Cost $USD23 is only a little more expensive than a train trip from Sydney Central Station to the Blue Mountains but the Amtrak train is much more comfortable.

The 1.5 hour trip from San Juan Capistrano to San Diego was so scenic and interesting I would like to do the whole Pacific Surfliner trip from T Luis Obispo.

There is so much to see on the train trip – surfers, beach fishermen, naval ships, helicopters which appeared to be loading supplies onto the ships, landscape which changes from beach, grassy hills, piers, parks, RV sites and houses which get more and more Adobe style as you get closer to the Mexican border. I needed to have a nap and thought the train would be perfect but the scenery is worth foregoing sleep.

I took the train to San Diego Old Town and then an Uber to San Diego Airport Alamo car rental office. A friend recommended I use a broker site https://m.billiger-mietwagen.de as they have the best deals for car rentals worldwide. The earlier you book the better the savings.

I booked and paid for a Mitsubishi Mirage (the smallest vehicle available) on 31 December 2017 and saved $AUD2000. I would have saved another $AUD1000 if I booked 2 weeks earlier. You can cancel the reservation and get a full refund up to 24 hours before the trip.

One problem I had when picking up the vehicle was the sales agent was trying to sell me additional insurance I didn’t need. The car hire includes all insurances as well as the excess. I don’t even need the additional travel insurance to cover this, although this is automatically covered in my Cover 1 travel insurance. You can’t have it removed from the policy.

If I didn’t know this information I could have very easily paid all these extras again. He tried to tell me that he would give me a triple upgrade as the Mitsubishi Mirage didn’t have bluetooth and it was too small a car to hold luggage. He was upsetting me and made me doubt myself but I insisted that I did not need any of the extras he was trying to sell me and I was sure that all new cars have bluetooth now.

When I went to pick up the vehicle upstairs, I advised the manager what I was told and she reassured me I didn’t have to pay anything extra and that I had a choice of cars and I chose a Toyota Camry. There are scammers everywhere.

I have the vehicle for 160 days and need to go to any Alamo office to swap the vehicle each 4000 miles.

I have to admit that I had worked myself up into a panic about driving on my own, on the wrong side of the road, without my navigator, Dion (the last trip I did to the USA included a road trip with Dion where we drove the Interstate 10 from Los Angeles to New Orleans in 28 November 2014 to 20 December 2014 around 3000km or 1900 miles ).

Today I drove out of the airport and just drove for an hour turning right and left geting used to whatever signs possible.

I ended up in a pretty suburb called Mission Hills and decided to have lunch there. It is so difficult to find parking in San Diego that even in this small suburb I parked about 5 blocks from the restaurants. But the walk was worth it. I had Clam Chowder for lunch.

Author: Edi

I am a 63 year old mother, of 2 adult boys. In March to August 2018 I completed my goal to visit every USA state by driving 30,000 kilometres solo. I am now continuing documenting my local and other country adventures. View all posts by Edi