These New Amtrak Fares Between East Coast Cities Are Comparable To A Drink At Starbucks

A Starbucks grande pumpkin spice latte can cost you around $7.25 before you even tip your barista. Believe it or not, if you're willing to skip the caffeine boost and you're in a major city on the East Coast, you might be able to use that money to take an overnight train trip to another city. These are Amtrak's Night Owl fares, special discounted tickets for passengers who are willing to leave their departure station between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. These train routes were announced back in 2023, but since then, Amtrak has expanded the number of cities you can get to while paying super-discounted prices. You won't spend more than $25 on stops between Washington, D.C., and New York City, or between NYC and Boston. And other routes — like Philadelphia to Baltimore — are only $5. 

These rates are for coach tickets, and while they might not be luxurious, the coach seats on Amtrak trains are not like the economy seats you may be used to on flights. For one thing, there's significantly more legroom. There are also only two seats to a row, so wherever you fall on the great debate about whether the window or the aisle is the best seat on a plane, you have a good chance of snagging your preference on an Amtrak train and won't have to worry about getting stuck in a middle seat. Plus, you can even grab a regular Starbucks coffee at the cafe onboard to wake you up before you arrive — but you can expect to pay about $3.50 for it.

Plan a trip to Fell's Point, Baltimore's lively waterfront neighborhood, for the Fell's Point Fun Festival or a visit to the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park Museum. Check out Medfield and get some things off your chest by scribbling down your secrets and throwing them into the anonymous "vent box" at Vent Coffee Roasters. Make your way to Poppleton to enjoy the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in the morning and some karaoke at Samson's Restaurant in the evening. You can't go wrong with a day trip to Charm City, but what about a night trip? You can book extremely cheap Night Owl tickets on Amtrak from Philadelphia to Baltimore and spend the day exploring the city for just a few dollars.

At the time of writing, a venti caffè latte will cost you $5.45 before tax at a Starbucks in Philly, but if you book far enough in advance, you can set your alarm for early in the morning, head to the Amtrak station in downtown Philadelphia, spend an hour and a half on the train, and be in Baltimore by dawn for just $4. You'll come in at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. If you're flying out, that's ideal, but if you're hoping to get into the heart of the city, you can take the Light Rail directly from the airport for about $2. If you need a pick-me-up after your late-night trip, try an El Salvador coffee at Café Los Sueños, whose founder grew up farming coffee beans near Santa Ana. Then walk through Wyman Park Dell to visit the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Boston is an iconic New England gem, but if you need to get away for a little bit, it might be time to set your alarm and get an early morning train to explore Providence, Rhode Island. You can book yourself a discounted Night Owl Amtrak trip with a seat in coach for just $5. That is almost $2 less than an iced chai latte would be at a Starbucks in Boston.

Believe it or not, this underrated East Coast city has one of America's best Little Italy neighborhoods, the fantastic Providence Flea, a market packed with local makers selling their wares, and pieces by iconic artists from Vincent Van Gogh to Albrecht Dürer at the RISD Museum. These are all walkable from the Amtrak station within half an hour, so if you get in around 7 a.m. on your quick 40-minute Night Owl train ride, you'll be able to see a lot of the best spots in Providence even if you're only there for one day.

If you had to catch the train before you got a chance to have your morning coffee and don't feel like hopping back on the train for another 20 minutes to get to Pawtucket, Rhode Island to get a perfect pour over from Dissent Coffee Co., you can pick up some freshly roasted beans from New Harvest Coffee Roasters and make yourself a delicious cup of coffee when you get back to Boston.

Wilmington, Delaware might be one of the most affordable weekend getaways, but from there you can actually reach the incredible neighborhoods of New York City without breaking your budget. If you like a particularly decadent and chaotic Starbucks drink (think a vanilla honey white mocha oat iced matcha latte with two shots of espresso, cinnamon dolce sprinkles, caramel drizzle, and caramel crunch topping), you might be able to swap it out for a $10 trip to New York City. Fortunately, NYC is the city that never sleeps, so it won't matter too much that you'll probably be getting in from Wilmington somewhere between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. It might not be the most comfortable nap you've ever taken since you'll be in coach, but you can always take a nap on the way there, since the ride is around two hours.

Once you're there, getting from Penn Station (where your train gets in) to Times Square and Central Park on a budget is as simple as navigating the New York City subway system. If you're really craving that Starbucks you skipped back in Wilmington, you can head to the Starbucks Reserve New York Roastery, but you should also consider the Lower East Side's Roasting Plant Coffee, where you can pick out the coffee beans while they're still green and then watch them be roasted fresh just for you. If you were really dreaming of a matcha, though, you can walk along Broome Street for about 10 blocks and then turn onto Mulberry to visit the trendy Nolita Matchaful. From there, you're only 15 minutes away from delicious dumplings in Chinatown's iconic Nom Wah Tea Parlor, so you can grab a bite to eat before you head back to Wilmington.

If you like to start your morning walking down Elfreth's Alley by drinking a quad double blended soy vanilla bean matcha crème frap, you can save yourself over a dollar by skipping your drink and buying Night Owl Amtrak tickets to the U.S. capital. Leave Philadelphia at the crack of dawn, and for just $10, you could be arriving in Washington D.C. to explore the largest natural history collection in the world, wander the National Mall, or find the city's quirkiest attraction: the D.C. Joke Phone. For your caffeine fix, stop by the Indonesian specialty coffee shop Dua DC for the citrusy coconut espresso tonic they call Klafee or a cozy and sweet Kopi Susu latte.

The trip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., is only about two hours, but you should definitely plan to get to the William H Gray III 30th Street Station long before the sun rises if you want to take advantage of Amtrak's discounted rates. Fortunately, you'll arrive bright and early at Washington D.C.'s Union Station, which is within easy walking distance of the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and plenty of the museums that gave D.C. the nickname "the capital of free museums," so you won't have to rush to see the things you're interested in before heading back to Philly.

You could head to a New Haven Starbucks and grab yourself a double-blended five-shot venti peppermint white chocolate mocha frappuccino with frappuccino chips, mocha drizzle, vanilla sweet cream, and cold foam for about $16, or you could save a dollar and take a trip to Boston. Planning this trip to take advantage of Amtrak's Night Owl fares can be tricky logistically, because you will get into Boston just after midnight, but if you have family in the city, it might just be the perfect way to visit without spending too much to get into town.

You'll be on the train for between two and two and a half hours. It will be dark outside, so there won't be much to see out the windows between New Haven and Boston. Make sure to pack a book and some headphones, or plan on a nice nap. Don't forget to look up at the domed atrium ceiling of South Station on your way out. Everything will probably be closed when you get in, but on your way back to the station, plan to visit the Boston Children's Museum if you're traveling with the family. It's only ten minutes away along the Summer Street Bridge.

You should also consider leaving some extra time to check out the nearby Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, which is floating on the harbor, especially if you can time your visit with a live reenactment. They also have a tea room you can visit, but if you walk 10 minutes away from South Station along Summer Street in the other direction, you can grab a coffee at George Howell Coffee's flagship store. They definitely won't have that frap, but it's worth it for the train ticket to Boston.