Grand Canyon Railway Depot — Local services in Williams

I’m going to break up my review bc there’s more to the experience than just the train ride. I’m going to the review the ride, the train entertainment, taking our bicycles and how they did with COVID guidelines.

Train ride itself to the Grand Canyon (arrive at the train depot - not the visitor center) = 5 stars. Smooth, easy (slow) 2 hr 15 min ride one way from Williams. Since they are running 1 train up and back during COVID, you arrive at the Village / Train Depot (not the Visitor’s Center) at 1145am and need to be back on the train at 3pm to depart at 330pm. This gives you about 3 hours in this area to walk around, eat and sit / enjoy the canyon views.

The train “entertainment” for me = 3 stars. I get the need for an emcee - it’s a tourist attraction and they want to make it entertaining and fun. But be prepared (or not) to cough up tips both up and back - there are several guitar playing singers, a photographer who will take and sell you the pic of you in your train seat for $35, a joke telling Marshall and pretend robbers - all walking up and down the train car hoping for tips. The robbers were the worst - literally standing over you demanding money. We borrowed $1 from a friend worried what they would do if we had nothing to give. I don’t know if there’s a “quiet car”, but something to a check into if you don’t want to deal with the “entertainment”.

The people giving information via calling the train company’s phone number on their website = 2 stars. Since we wanted to see as much of the South Rim as possible vs just the Village, we asked if we could bring our bikes on the train and they said yes for no extra cost - great!! We assumed (wrong) they would be going on the train and would have the full time to use them - 12pm - 3pm. So we ride our bikes to the Williams station, get our tickets, and are then told by the ticket window person - they don’t go on a train, they go with a guy who drives a truck up to the GC with people’s luggage who are staying the night up there and he leaves the GC at 130pm. We figured 90 min with bikes is better than no bikes. So we walked them over to the hotel lobby, found the guy who didn’t seem to be expecting us or our big, heavy electric bikes. He said he would get them there, but I was thinking there was clearly no “bike reservation” and no communication from the train company to this guy. We are happy to see our bikes made it, rode like crazy up to the Visitors Center, all along the east side to the last lookout point and back to the train depot in 90 min. Grateful for the guy who took care of the bike transport but not happy with the phone people and the lack of information they gave us about the bike process.

The train’s COVID prep and experience = 2 stars. They did space everyone out on the train so all good there. They did ask people to wear their masks on the train, but didn’t (maybe couldn’t?) enforce because some did and some didn’t. What didn’t work - we were in an enclosed space with others, but they didn’t take our temp, one guitar playing singer who encouraged the people to sing along didn’t wear his mask when he sang walking up and down the aisle and the people not wearing masks sang loud and proud along with him and finally, when exiting the car both times, 2 cars are exiting out the same exit, so a lot of people are then standing close together while waiting to exit. If they fixed these things, it would have been a much better experience...

Overall, I can't recommend this train ride enough! I've been to the Grand Canyon a lot but this is the most fun way to visit. I'll go through some details below if you're interested but, whether you're traveling with kids, or are a couple looking to have fun on your way to the Grand Canyon, this is for you!

To start, huge shoutout to Johnny & Sierra from Coach B! They were a blast. I particularly appreciated the history Johnny shared with us throughout the trip. I know each attendant has their own talking points, so you may not get the same experience I did, but I hope you'll get something just as insightful and fun!

Some of the other entertainment you can expect includes live music, meet and greet with the sheriff, various sightings along the ride, and on your way back to the station in Williams, a train robbery! Our little gal is too small to fully appreciate all of it but she still seemed to enjoy herself and was happy for the more than 4 hours of train ride, so there's something to say about that!

One recommendation is to have some cash. I know most of us don't carry much cash on a regular basis anymore but, it's good to have for a few tips throughout the ride. I maybe did a little more than others as I spent about $75 in tips for the various entertainers, snack cart, the robbery, and the attendants. A mix of $1s, $5s, and $10s worked well.

The snack cart on board has a great variety of snacks, regular beverages, and adult beverages. I didn't partake in this but it was great to see some of the local brews on board. Important to note that the snack cart is credit card only.

Once you get to the Grand Canyon, you'll have 4ish hours to look around. Since we've been there multiple times before, we were not trying to rush and get to anything in particular. We had plenty of time to get lunch, walk to the arch on the Bright Angel Trail, visit Verkamp's Visitors Center, and visit some of the shops between El Tovar and the Bright Angel Trailhead. If this is your first time, I think the walk to the arch along Bright Angel Trail is the best thing to do. Gives you a great feel for the canyon!

As you'll hear several times on the way into the Grand Canyon, do not be late for the train ride back to Williams. It is a very expensive Uber back to Williams!! Luckily, most people make it back from what we heard but there have been people left behind before. They have a strict schedule because of other trains that use the line.

Well, if you made it this far, I hope you feel that you have some valuable tips for when you visit! Enjoy!! 🙌

PS - We heard great things from others on board about the Polar Express. We may come back up and visit in...

It was our first time visiting the Grand Canyon and we decided to take the train ride as it was also our anniversary gift to ourselves. It was so much fun! The depot itself was impressive. The gift shop and ticket booth, where we picked up our prepaid tickets, was beautiful. There's the Fred Harvey restaurant, which if you're not familiar with, is a famous historical restaurant chain from the late 1800's made specifically for train passengers at the time. I wish we had time to explore the Grand Hotel and the whole town of Williams when we returned from our train trip, but we had to get going to the next leg of our trip. We definitely want to come back again and see more of the area. So much history! There is a 15 minute wild west show just before you board the train which takes you to the South Rim, the popular entrance to the Canyon. We picked the Pullman car. We were told by our host, who was hilarious and entertaining, that our car was over 100 years old. My husband and I love history so to us it was great. The seats were so plush and inside it was beautiful. The ride itself was a little over 2 hours and the weather was good. Late September seems to be a good time to go if you want to beat the heat. There's also very talented musicians aboard as well. There's also a Cafe car located conveniently next to our car. It's available both first and return trips. The Grand Canyon took our breath away with all its splendor!! There's so much to see in the three hours you are given once getting off the train. There's the rustic El Tovar hotel. The century old Hopi house which was filled with so many gorgeous indigenous artifacts, jewelry etc available for purchase. Keep in mind, you are at 7,000 elevation level and yes it will get to you after awhile. You will need water and plenty of it like the tour guides recommend! Thankfully there are water fountains and there's a water bottle refill station for free inside the El Tovar hotel. Once back on the train, the host and musicians still kept us entertained and in the last hour there is a staged robbery which you can take part of if you want. It's all in good fun folks! In fact, our host encourages you to make the robbers work for the money. And my husband had a blast in doing so! 😂 This train is definitely something everyone should experience! It's a comfortable and fun way to see the Canyon. We highly...