Travel advice: What's a good train trip to take from New York to Los Angeles or San Francisco

MY HUSBAND AND I ARE CONSIDERING A TRAIN TRIP ACROSS THE US FROM NEW YORK TO EITHER LOS ANGELES OR SAN FRANCISCO. ANY SUGGESTIONS? N. BIDMEAD, ARUNDEL, QLD

There are several possible routes. You could take Amtrak's (amtrak.com) Cardinal from New York City to Chicago via Washington DC, possibly spend a couple of days in the national capital and Chicago then continue to San Francisco on the California Zephyr. If you want to go on to Los Angeles from there, take Amtrak's San Joaquins. Even better might be to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles aboard the Southwest Chief, which goes via Flagstaff, where you could stop off to visit the Grand Canyon. If you book 11 months in advance, train travel in the US can be amazingly cheap. The most informative website for train travel in the US is The Man in Seat 61 – seat61.com/.