Of Interest: downtown Sacramento, old Sacramento
Tourist Office: no
There are two hotels close to Sacramento Station, but the city makes it a little hard to walk there. The hotels are in front of the station to the right, but to cross the street in front of station, you have to go left from the station. In fact, to get to those hotels, you have to cross the street three times. You have to cross the street to the left of the station then cross the street in front of the station then cross the street that is to left of the station again (this time going right). Are you lost yet? You need to cross the street in the crosswalk because cars drive on and off the highway on this street, and you need the lights AND the crosswalk to keep from dying horribly.
(In California, cars are required to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. This doesn’t actually help pedestrians since crosswalks are often badly placed. Remember you must have [indirectly] killed at least one small animal on any significant trip to get any respect.)
Once you have crossed the street, just walk along the street that runs in front of the station until you see the first one, a motel. In back of that is a Denny’s and in back of that is a Holiday Inn.
Luckily, the hotels.com page for Sacramento is accurate as long as you can find the link to the Sacramento Amtrak station under the landmarks list. (They are getting better. Near the Holiday Inn, there is an underpass to Old Sacramento (see picture). There are some historic buildings and a railway museum here.
Walking left from the station will take you downtown which also has its fair share of historic buildings, although this area is further away from the station than Old Sacramento. There is a mall right next to the station. You will see it during the twenty minutes you spend crossing the street.
Oh, one of Sacramento’s light rail lines stops at the station. No one knows where it goes. I know because somebody asked. The cars are empty. (Gee I wonder why.)
Sacramento is the last stop for most Capitol Corridor trains. It is three hours from San Jose and two hours from Berkeley. The route is beautiful and environmentally friendly too. There is one Capitol Corridor train daily to and from Auburn which is about an hour away. Also the California Zephyr (to Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Chicago) and the Coast Starlight also stop here daily. Both these trains also cover the Capitol Corridor route.
The San Joaquin has twice daily service to and from Stockton (an hour away) and Bakersfield (three and a half hours) with bus connections to Los Angeles.
Trainstar 