The autotrain for us has been a most pleasurable way to travel. We live in Northern NJ (Bergen County) and the drive to Lorton, VA is about 5 hours for us (4 1/2 actual driving with 2 pit stops along the way). We left on a Saturday around 7AM and arrived at the Autotrain station about noon. We were concerned that we'd hit the dreaded Saturday NJ shore traffic along the way, but we didn't - probably because we took the NJ Turnpike. It was completely enjoyable, starting with our drive down - getting there was half the fun!
Last July there were 4 of us traveling - Myself, husband, teen daughter and friend (both 15).
We travelled coach and there was enough room for us to spread out and have a double seat each. We were in a car with mostly adults and teens. The girls had a great time.
There was another mom there with 4 teens - she has travelled by autotrain for many years and had tried all the different types of sleeping car accomodations and her preference was to travel coach - and cost was least motivating factor. Sleep wise - she said she had just as restful sleeps in coach as she did in the most restful nights she spent in a sleeper. Food wise -her verdict was that the food presentation in first class was a little nicer, but the quality and certainly the quantity was not noticeably better than that in coach. Diversion wise - it was definitely much better in coach. She especially emphasized that - once the children were over 6 years old they were better behaved and were better travelers in coach since there was more room to move around and more to see.
Our girls planned to "stay up all night" - they didn't want to miss anything. For the most part, they did and planned to do it again on the trip back. My husband slept some on the way down because he was sure he wouldn't sleep at all (for the record, he sleeps very little as it is and always has problems sleeping in any bed that's not his own - it takes him a few nights in a hotel to get used to a bed before he gets a restful nights sleep). I probably slept the most and was more rested than I thought I'd be. The rocking of the train was actually helpful. I think your mindset has a lot to do with how much rest you get.
We met many interesting people on the train and had some great conversations. The girls both amused themselves and met others their age and spent some time talking with the others and observing the onboard "living coach theater" (and I don't mean the movie in the lounge car!. The ability to get up, walk around and be a part of the group made the short trip quite pleasurable. We figured that our time on the train was only 16 hours - with only a few that were really conventional "sleeping" hours. We never even considered a sleeper car and after talking to some of the coach passengers on the train who had travelled both in sleepers and coach and switched to coach we're happy that we didn't spend the extra money to do so.
We're going back by autotrain in August. Instead of a friend for my daughter, my sister will be joining us - we'll be going coach again.
The cost for the 4 of us - all adult fares - is a few hundred dollars less (a very substantial saving!) than 4 air fares and car rental for 12 days. It is definitely a very relaxing and comfortable way to travel. We've done the drive once (never again, even if we were to hire a driver!) and we always took airlines previous to last July, but even before September 11, air travel hassles were getting on my nerves. For the forseeable future, the autotrain will be our preferred mode of travel.
(He has the mentality that it's a vacation, it's ONLY $140 - no big deal.) But I'm trying to cut corners.
. We prefer to drive 
