• US presidents travel in a variety of secure vehicles, including planes, helicopters, and cars.
• He flies on Air Force One, a militarized Boeing 747, and occasionally a militarized Boeing 757.
• For shorter trips, presidents use Marine One or a secure limousine known as “The Beast.”

The president of the United States never has to sit in traffic or fight for the last space in a plane’s overhead bin.

With a fleet of planes, helicopters, and vehicles at the US president’s disposal, the leader of the free world travels in style.

While aesthetics are certainly a consideration when designing official planes or limousines, presidential transportation prioritizes safety and functionality.

Every plane, helicopter, or car also becomes a moving Oval Office with features that allow the president to lead the country and communicate securely while in transit.

Take a look at the modes of official transportation available to the US president.

Perhaps the president’s most famous mode of transportation, the best-known Air Force One is a militarized Boeing 747 designated VC-25A.

Air Force One is the call sign given to any US Air Force plane carrying a US president.

The first plane built specifically for use by the US president was the “Sacred Cow,” a Douglas VC-54C Skymaster used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt beginning in 1944. Since then, presidential aircraft have evolved with state-of-the-art technology to function as a “flying White House” with all the capabilities of the Oval Office and the Situation Room.

Today’s presidential plane, a modified Boeing 747-200B designated VC-25A, measures 231 feet long and features 4,000 square feet of floor space, including offices, rest areas, an executive stateroom with a full bathroom and dressing room, and a conference room.

It can hold 30 crew members and 71 passengers. Each VC-25A plane cost around $325 million.

The president also occasionally flies on a militarized Boeing 757 known as a C-32.

At 155 feet long, the C-32 is smaller than the VC-25A with room for 16 crew members and 45 passengers.

It usually functions as the vice president’s plane, but the president uses it to fly into and out of smaller airports that aren’t built to support the massive primary 747 aircraft.

Each C-32 cost around $145 million to produce, according to the Air Force.

In July, Trump flew for the first time on a new Air Force One jet gifted by Qatar, a Boeing 747-8 retrofitted as a VC-25B Bridge.

With Boeing running years behind schedule on delivering new 747-8 planes, President Donald Trump looked elsewhere in his efforts to upgrade the presidential fleet.

In May 2025, the Trump administration accepted a Boeing 747-8, a private business jet previously used by the Qatari royal family, saying he’d be “stupid” to turn down the gift. The White House said the plane would be “retrofitted to the highest standards” to serve as a new Air Force One.

Known as the VC-25B Bridge since it serves as an interim presidential aircraft, the plane is larger than the VC-25A, measuring 250 feet long, and about 20 years younger. The newer-generation jet can also fly faster and farther with a range of 8,900 miles at 660 miles per hour.

The luxurious jet features spacious interiors with lounges, offices, dining areas, and bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.

The new plane is valued at around $400 million. In June 2025, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink told Congress that retrofitting it for presidential use would cost less than $400 million.

In July, a New York Times investigation identified $934 million had been transferred from a nuclear modernization program to a top-secret project, which the outlet reported could be used to upgrade Trump’s Air Force One. The Air Force declined to comment.

Trump flew on the VC-25B Bridge for the first time on July 1 to dedicate the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. On July 8, Trump switched back to the old VC-25A Air Force One to fly back from a NATO summit in Turkey. He then boarded the VC-25B Bridge for the flight back to Joint Base Andrews.

The switch sparked questions about the new plane’s security and defensive capabilities, but at the time, Trump said it was so that US service members could see the plane.

Trump told reporters on July 19 that the VC-25B Bridge would soon be removed from service for a month to be “maxed out.”

There’s also the E-4B Nightwatch, nicknamed the “doomsday plane,” which is designed to survive nuclear war.

In the event of a national emergency, such as a nuclear attack, the E-4B can protect the president and other senior officials and serve as the US military’s command-and-control center.

A militarized version of a Boeing 747-200, the “doomsday plane” can refuel mid-flight to stay airborne for days at a time. It features thermal and nuclear shielding, as well as greater communication capabilities than regular Air Force One planes. Each E-4B cost $223.2 million to build.

Five Boeing 747-8 passenger jets acquired from Korean Air are being converted by the American aerospace company Sierra Nevada Corp. for the Air Force’s next-generation E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Center program under a $13 billion contract.

Marine One’s ability to land and take off from the White House lawn makes it a popular choice for short trips.

Like Air Force One, any Marine Corps aircraft with the president on board uses the call sign Marine One.

Past helicopter models used as Marine One include the VH-60N White Hawk, which can fit 11 passengers, and the Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King, which can fit 14.

The president often flies shorter distances in Marine One to places like Joint Base Andrews and Camp David as a faster alternative to the presidential motorcade.

The helicopter’s interior space is soundproofed to allow the president and staff to speak at a normal volume.

A new Marine One model, a Sikorsky VH-92A Patriot, entered service in 2024.

The Marine Corps declared the VH-92A operational in 2021, but concerns that it kept scorching the White House lawn delayed its use by the president. Joe Biden took the first presidential flight aboard the model in August 2024.

The VH-92A was intended to fully replace the fleet of VH-60N and VH-3D Marine One helicopters by 2023, but the project has been delayed until 2030, The War Zone reported.

At 69 feet long, it can hold four crew members and 14 passengers.

Each VH-92A cost about $217 million, according to a June 2021 Government Accountability Office report. Trump is also overseeing construction of a new granite helipad on the White House‘s South Lawn, which he said would cost about $5 million to $6 million and be funded by Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary.

The presidential limousine is affectionately known as “The Beast.”

Weighing 20,000 pounds, The Beast is designed to look like a Cadillac XT6 with the chassis of a Chevrolet Kodiak.

It is bulletproof, sealed against biochemical attacks, and stocked with a refrigerator containing the president’s blood type.

It travels with the US president domestically and abroad, and can seat up to seven people. The Beast reportedly cost around $1.5 million to build.

Since Trump is an avid golfer, the Secret Service also uses a secure vehicle nicknamed “Golf Force One” to protect the president on the course.

The presidential golf cart appears to be a Polaris Ranger XP utility task vehicle, or UTV. It was first spotted in July 2025 as part of Trump’s entourage while he was golfing at his Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland.

Polaris Ranger XP models start at $21,499 in 2026, and a Polaris XP 1000 Ranger UTV armor kit manufactured by Scaletta Armoring was previously listed on the US General Services Administration’s website for $188,922.92.

“The US Secret Service employs a variety of tools and resources to safeguard our protectees,” a Secret Service spokesperson told Business Insider in July 2025. “This vehicle is part of our presidential fleet of specialty vehicles. In order to maintain operational security, the Secret Service does not discuss the specific means and methods used to conduct our protective operations.”

• Donald Trump’s Truth Social API launched on Saturday for paying customers.
• The API tool offers faster access to posts from the “highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.”
• Democratic senators wrote to the SEC that it “appears to be an outrageous abuse of the President’s office.”

Truth Social’s new paid service for faster access to the president’s social media posts is raising questions — including from some of his own supporters.

Trump Media & Technology Group launched Truth API on Saturday. The service sends paying customers a machine-readable feed of posts from the “highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.” The company says the updates arrive in “milliseconds.”

While Trump Media’s announcement doesn’t explicitly name Trump, the president has the largest following on Truth Social, where he regularly posts market-moving information on issues such as Iran and tariffs.

Here’s what we know about the service so far, and why it has been drawing criticism.

How does Truth API work?

An application programming interface, or API, is a standard way for one computer system to communicate with another.

For those paying for the Truth API — likely investment firms with deep pockets — it means plugging their trading tools directly into Truth Social’s flow of data.

Even though eligible posts appear on Truth Social at the same time for everyone, Truth API customers will be notified of them a fraction of a second before those waiting for a push notification, refreshing the Truth Social feed, or using third-party alert tools.

An API like this one ensures the data arrives ready for a machine to read, so no time is lost while software loads a webpage and figures out what has changed.

How could it benefit customers?

For firms executing automated trades at scale, even a small speed advantage could be valuable when a post moves markets.

“Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” Kevin McGurn, the interim CEO of Trump Media, said in a July launch announcement.

Throughout his presidency, Truth Social has often been the first place that Trump has shared information about trade, tariffs, and foreign policy. Wild market swings have sometimes followed his posts, although Morgan Stanley analysts said last month this was happening less frequently.

The service went live on Saturday. That day, Trump posted that he was again close to a deal to end the war with Iran. Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday.

Trump Media did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Whose posts are included?

It is not limited to the president. Trump Media’s announcement referred only to the platform’s “highest-ranking” accounts. The company has not published the full list or said how it ranks them.

Trump’s account is the largest on Truth Social, with 13 million followers. Other popular accounts include the White House and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with about 3.9 million each, and FBI Director Kash Patel, with 1.9 million.

Not all posts are likely to be valuable for traders. In the days since launch, Trump has also posted a video of himself playing golf, with a message saying he had won the club championship at his Bedminster course.

Kennedy has recently used the platform to promote his new cooking show, while Patel urged senators to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.

Who are the customers?

Trump Media has not named any customers, but said in a press release that the service is designed for organizations most affected by the cost of information delays, including “high-frequency and algorithmic trading firms.”

That could mean hedge funds, proprietary trading desks, and banks; firms that run automated systems capable of placing a trade without human involvement.

Trump Media said it signed customers before launch and is onboarding more.

Trump Media has not published a price for Truth API, either. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported that the company discussed charging up to $100,000 a month, along with a discounted rate of about $60,000 a month for firms committing to three years.

“As adoption grows, we expect Truth API to become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders,” McGurn said.

Trump owns about 41% of Trump Media through a revocable trust, according to a 2025 filing.

What are people saying?

The launch of Truth API has drawn criticism, including from some Trump supporters. Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a vocal Trump supporter, wrote on X that moves like this cheapen what he sees as Trump’s policy wins.

Last week, Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff wrote to the chair of the SEC that the service “appears to be an outrageous abuse of the President’s office.”

Meanwhile, Vuk Vuković, a founding partner of the hedge fund Oraclum Capital, said his team compared Trump’s posts with market moves and found no reliable signal, writing on X that “he’s selling you noise.”

• Trump Media launched Truth API on Saturday.
• Truth API sells early access to posts from prominent Truth Social users like President Donald Trump.
• Reuters reported that Trump Media considered selling that access for $100,000 a month.

There’s a new way to make and lose money.

Trump Media has officially launched the Truth API, a business-to-business data feed that provides customers with faster access to posts from prominent Truth Social accounts. That includes President Donald Trump, whose constant stream of posts can cause shifts in financial markets.

Institutional customers gained access to the service on Saturday. A few hours later, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was, again, close to a deal to end his war on Iran. On any other day, that post would have affected oil futures, and anyone with early access could have made a buck.

“Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” Kevin McGurn, interim CEO of Trump Media, said in a press release. “Truth API delivers a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths while advancing our strategy to monetize proprietary assets through a high-margin, recurring revenue stream.”

Trump Media has not publicly disclosed how much the service is costing customers. Reuters reported that the company discussed charging up to $100,000 a month, or $60,000 a month as part of a three-year plan.

The whole thing got people talking.

Here’s what smart people in finance, academia, and policy are saying about Truth API.

• I traveled from San Diego to Tokyo with my 4-year-old daughter.
• Jet lag meant predawn convenience-store runs, naps, and a few public meltdowns.
• Waking early also let us experience a quieter side of Tokyo that most tourists miss.

At 3:47 a.m., my daughter sat fully upright in bed, wide awake and ready to start the day. It was still dark outside our hotel room in Tokyo, but trying to explain time zones to a 4-year-old is futile.

I’ve never struggled with jet lag. I run on caffeine and enthusiasm until my circadian rhythm catches up, and within a day or two, I’ve adjusted. But a 16-hour time difference is a different problem with a preschooler in tow, one that’s hard to manage, let alone explain to someone whose body is telling them it’s noon even though the sky is dark.

We flew from California to Tokyo

We’d flown from San Diego to Tokyo, the first stop on a long trip through Asia. We took a red-eye I had booked because it was the only direct flight, without thinking through the arrival schedule; we landed at Narita at what felt like 1 a.m. to our bodies, after only a few hours of sleep. By the time we’d wearily cleared customs and immigration and made the hour-and-a-half drive into the city, the sun setting behind skyscrapers, we could barely tell if it was morning, evening, or night.

I’d picked Tokyo as our first stop intentionally. It’s about as safe and efficient as a city gets, and I figured that ease would make for a gentler landing. What I hadn’t fully considered was the flip side: a city built on quiet and orderly calm, plus a jet lagged 4-year-old who still learning to modulate her volume. I spent more time than I’d like to admit picturing her having a loud, public meltdown in Japan.

The first night is about damage control

We checked into our hotel in the early evening, with immediate relief. The room was dark enough that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face once blackout curtains were pulled tight against a sky that hadn’t fully gone down yet. I set up her inflatable toddler bed, and we were both sound asleep by 8 p.m. local time.

I planned to keep us resting quietly in the dark until 5 a.m., even if we woke up early. But when she sat up fully alert before 4 a.m., I had already been up for well over an hour, so we moved to plan B.

We walked to the closest 7-Eleven to split an egg salad sandwich and explore the neighborhood before dawn. Japanese convenience store food has a cult following for good reason, and at 4:30 in the morning, it was the right mix of comforting and exciting. We ate it at Shiba Park nearby, dazed, watching a cluster of cosplay teens parade past in full costume. Then, we headed to the closest playground, which we were alone at except for a couple of stragglers that seemed to still be finishing their night from the nearby bar district. They kindly tossed their empty drink cans into recycling when they saw us approach and headed out.

It wasn’t until several hours later, once the hotel’s actual breakfast buffet opened, that the magic of dawn slipped away and reality kicked in. “MOM, CAN YOU GET ME SOME FRUIT?” she shouted, from clear across the room. I tried giving her my best mom big-eyes and gestured for her to quietly come closer to me, but she shouted it again, louder, standing up on her chair. A room full of quietly eating guests did not react, which somehow made it worse.

We got a kimono shoot with no one else around

Tourist Japan, the travel agency that planned our Tokyo itinerary, arranged our pick up at 7:45 a.m. for a kimono rental and professional photo shoot in Asakusa. The studio wasn’t supposed to open that early, but every morning slot had already been booked, so they’d arranged for it to open early just for us. After the buffet, I was grateful for it: we had the entire place to ourselves before any other guests arrived, no crowds and no audience if the morning went sideways again.

It didn’t. We spent close to two hours in Asakusa being photographed in front of temple gates while she held still, wrapped up like a present and loving every minute. Back at the hotel, we took a two-hour nap, then afternoon karaoke to lure my tired, K-pop-loving daughter out of her bed and back out into the day.

When in doubt, get ice cream

If day one is adrenaline, day two is when the bill comes due. We had a small-group Tourist Japan food tour through Tsukiji Market that morning, with an 8 a.m. pickup. I felt cautiously optimistic walking in, since she’d slept until 5 a.m. that morning, more than an hour later than the day before.

That optimism didn’t survive contact with the market. Tsukiji at full volume, crowds pressing in, dead fish laid out everywhere, was more than my 4-year-old could handle. She spent the first half hour hiding under my skirt, until our tour guide crouched down and asked if she liked ice cream. She emerged an eager, fully engaged tourist for the rest of the morning fueled by chocolate, vanilla, and Japanese strawberries.

Maybe it’s that she’s a born foodie, or maybe it’s how meals help regulate our internal clocks, but eating turned out to be the most reliable cure for her jet lag the entire trip. That evening, we’d booked dinner at NiNi, 38 floors up at 1 Hotel Tokyo with a panoramic view of the city, and it was the best meal of the trip. The restaurant brought out toys for her to play with at the table, and the wagyu hamburger steak off the kids’ menu was good enough that I had to stop myself after stealing just one bite.

Food didn’t, however, cure everything. Back at the hotel, someone else pressed the elevator “up” button before she could, and once the tears started, they didn’t quit. We were only a few floors from our room, and I have never been so relieved for a short ride.

She made me see Tokyo in a different way

One unexpected advantage of traveling with a jet-lagged preschooler is that you see parts of a destination that most tourists might miss.

Tokyo at sunrise feels entirely different from Tokyo at noon; it felt like getting a glimpse behind the curtain before the city officially opened. We lingered in small neighborhood parks. We spent time watching trains instead of rushing to the next attraction. We discovered quiet morning moments that weren’t listed in any guidebook.

The meltdowns I’d braced for did come, but they weren’t nearly as devastating as I had feared.

• I live in a rent-stabilized one-bedroom apartment in the West Village that’s about $2,000 a month.
• It’s small, with no built-in closets or a sink in the bathroom, and it is above noisy restaurants.
• This apartment is still a gem despite the drawbacks, though, and I don’t want to ever give it up.

My three-story walk-up apartment in the West Village has some dreamy qualities: original exposed brick walls, classic crown molding, and a claw-foot tub.

Perhaps best of all, it’s rent-stabilized, meaning annual rent increases are capped, and tenants retain the right to renew the lease each year.

Rent for the one-bedroom, 380-square-foot space is about $2,000 a month. It feels like a steal considering it’s rare to find even a studio apartment in this desirable neighborhood for under $3,000 a month.

I’ve been here most of my life, as this apartment is where I was raised with my dad and stepmother. When I tell people this, they often look at me with one eyebrow raised and ask, “How did you all fit in here?” to which I respond, “Tightly.”

Growing up having no personal space and sharing one tiny bathroom was challenging, to say the least. I still sleep in my childhood “bedroom,” which is really just part of the living room sectioned off by a curtain.

In high school, if I wanted to have my boyfriend over, I had to warn him that anything he said would be used against him, since my father was most definitely listening from his bedroom less than 5 feet away from mine.

Now that I’m in my 20s and my dad doesn’t plan to stay in the city forever, I’m hoping to take over the lease. The apartment is small with many quirks and drawbacks, but it’s basically a dream come true for any native New Yorker.

I can’t imagine giving up such a gem in the competitive, pricey market.

Living here has come with some challenges

When I was younger, I always felt so grateful to live in the West Village that I was ignorant of many of the apartment’s flaws, including its lack of built-in closets.

Quite literally, all the storage space I have had has come from Ikea dressers and wardrobes I built with my dad. Everything I own has to fit inside them, so I’ve learned to be extremely selective about what I keep in my life.

Still, the small space feels unnecessarily cluttered almost all the time.

Because of the apartment’s tight dimensions and strange layout, I have also become skilled at playing Tetris while furnishing and redecorating.

The bathroom is directly adjacent to the front door, with the kitchen counter jutting out and blocking a significant portion of the already tiny walkway into the apartment. If the bathroom door is even halfway open, no one can get into or out of the apartment.

This layout also means that trying to lug a massive couch, mattress, or chairs into the living room requires multiple shifts of the object to find the pesky angles of the entranceway.

Unfortunately, I’ve had to return a couch because, although it fit the dimensions of the apartment, it could not pass the bathroom-door-and-kitchen-countertop test.

The apartment’s location and amenities aren’t perfect, but the perks outweigh any drawbacks

As I open the curtains in the morning, I am greeted by a view of the walls of another apartment building and the trash. In the wintertime, sunlight is especially hard to come by in the space.

Speaking of winter — when it’s cold outside, the radiator makes more noise than a dramatic soprano warming up in her dressing room.

It hisses and clangs so aggressively that when someone new is over, they’ll ask if someone is breaking into the apartment. These sounds make it hard to fall asleep in the winter.

Also, the radiator is scorching hot to the touch. If I accidentally bump into it, I’m walking away with a minor welt on my leg. But hey, at least I have heat, right?

The lack of laundry in the building and the fact that the only sink is in the kitchen — there isn’t one in the bathroom — isn’t great, either.

For me, though, the true struggle is having two restaurants located under me on either side of the building. There’s constant chatter and the slamming of doors that lead from the back of the restaurants to the trash chutes.

On the bright side, it helps me never feel alone, which can be nice in a city that can feel isolating at times.

I also tend to put these qualms aside when I remember that I’m about a five-minute stroll from the Hudson River piers and a 10-minute walk to several subway lines. Plus, one of the apartments above me recently got rented for more than double my rent, over $4,000 a month.

I can’t imagine giving up the community and security of this place

In all honesty, though, I feel like I have Monica Geller’s “Friends” apartment, but much smaller. (I even live a few blocks away from the building that was used as the exterior shot for it on the show.)

It has quirks, but that makes it feel very New York. It’s also got history and character, as it hasn’t been renovated or touched by modern architects in a long time.

I may always complain about the noise from the restaurants below or about having to constantly get rid of things to declutter my tiny space, but I love my home and my neighbors.

I’m friends with the owner of the deli across the street, who used to hand me a breakfast sandwich and an orange juice every morning before school. (Later, I learned my dad had set up a weekly payment system with him.)

A family friend runs a liquor store nearby, and the restaurant under me used to be owned by my father. The new owner always invites me to have dinner for free.

I have security, I have community, and I have memories here.

My apartment is far from perfect, but that’s what makes it home. I wouldn’t trade my home for anything … even if I was offered a bigger place with a sink in the bathroom.

• My friend and I got a private room for two and brought a car on the Amtrak Auto Train for $1,586.
• The ride took just over 17 hours, the food was better than I expected, and I loved avoiding traffic.
• Although our bathroom was small and sleeping on a train was challenging, I’d totally do this again.

On a recent trip to Florida, I was excited to try out Amtrak’s Auto Train.

By choosing rail travel and paying a fee to bring my car on board, I’d be able to have my vehicle with me at my final destination — a benefit of driving without the stress of hitting the road.

My friend traveled with me, and we chose to bring one car and book a private bedroom for two. Our ride wasn’t cheap at $1,586 one-way.

However, when we looked at an alternative — flying down and renting a car for over a month once we landed — it turned out to be the cheaper option.

The only other option would be to drive the whole way. To me, the idea of spending a full 24 hours sitting in traffic on I-95 only made this train trip way more appealing.

Although I was skeptical about my Amtrak Auto Train ride — and it did have highs and lows — it ultimately felt like a good value.

Here’s how it went.

Luckily, the journey is nonstop.

Amtrak’s passenger-only trains typically make multiple stops, which can result in longer rides as people get on and off.

However, Amtrak currently has only one Auto Train route in the US, which operates nonstop between Lorton, Virginia (near Washington, DC) and Sanford, Florida (outside Orlando). The ride is just over 17 hours.

The limited stops meant this trip still required a few hours of driving for me, since I was traveling from farther north and heading farther south to the Keys.

Even so, I found it wonderful to spend most of my trip relaxing on the train and waking up close to our destination. Plus, I had the added comfort of knowing I wouldn’t miss my stop.

Each private room had its own attendant

We’d booked a private bedroom, which is a step up from a roomette and about double the size. According to the Amtrak website, these rooms are typically about 7.1 to 7.5 feet long and 6.6 to 6.8 feet wide.

It includes a single chair and a sofa (basically two wider chairs side by side) that transform into one of the two beds at night, plus a private bathroom.

Our room came with a personal attendant who helped us settle into our small space and brought us water upon arrival. We didn’t need much during the ride, but they were available to us if we did.

Since this was my first trip, I was a little confused about how we would pull down the beds, so I was relieved to learn that everything would be taken care of for us.

While we were in the dining car, our attendant transformed the seats into bunk beds. The next morning, while we were eating breakfast, he came in and rearranged the beds back into seating, giving us more room to move around and pack up.

It was nice not to worry about overpacking.

On the Auto Train, vehicles are restricted by size, not weight. This is great news for someone whose bag is always over the weight limit when I fly.

I was able to pack my car with everything I needed, basically using it like a suitcase.

Although I was also able to bring the essentials I’d need for the night on board with me, I learned that less is more. Since space in each room is limited, it’s best to bring only what you really need for the night.

This was especially important when the beds in the room were down, as it took away most of the floor space and made getting ready a bit of a challenge. It would’ve been even tougher if we’d been tripping over suitcases, too.

The food was better than I expected.

On this train, passengers in private rooms received complimentary meals.

I’ll admit I had quite low expectations for the food on a train, but I was pleasantly surprised. Our dinner menu consisted of four options: steak, chicken, salmon, or pasta. Each entrée came with a salad and a dessert.

Although the dining car was no Michelin-star restaurant, we found both the steak and the chicken to be pretty enjoyable. Also, to our surprise, we were each even served a complimentary glass of wine with dinner.

For breakfast, we were served coffee, tea, and juice alongside our meals. I had a spinach-artichoke quiche that was pretty good, though I wish the potatoes it was served with had been warmer.

The vibes of the dining car were pretty nice, too.

Although not as elegant as what I have seen depicted during the Golden Age of Rail Travel in the 1800s, the whole dining experience made me feel like I was in a black-and-white movie.

For dinner, tables in the dining car were covered in white tablecloths, set with rolled silverware, and adorned with vases of flowers.

At breakfast, the car was a bit simpler but still nice, with a banana placed at each seat and crumb cakes waiting on the table.

Everyone we encountered on the train was friendly.

Since space is limited, there are no private tables in the dining car. Passengers are seated with other parties to fill up the booths.

The age range of passengers varied from families with very young children playing peek-a-boo between courses to seniors toasting to another successful trip to young professionals in their 20s and 30s.

While waiting for their meals, everyone around us seemed to be discussing their travel plans with their tablemates. I found out that many passengers were regulars on the Auto Train who preferred it over other modes of transportation.

Laughter could be heard from nearly every table, and many groups of new friends were lingering so long after dessert that the waiters had to announce they could continue their conversation in another car, as they had to get ready for the next seating.

On the flip side, our bathroom was even tinier than I thought it’d be.

I wasn’t expecting a large bathroom in our tiny space, but it was even smaller than I thought it would be.

Its simple layout consisted of only a toilet with a showerhead above it. The toilet paper needed to be hidden behind a plastic flap to protect it from getting wet when the shower was turned on.

Toiletries, like body wash, were mounted on the wall, and two towels were stored at the top of the restroom area, way above the toilet.

We had a sink, too, but it was located outside the bathroom.

Showering was also a bit tricky.

I found there to be very little room to stand up and shower, as the toilet took up the majority of the space.

I saw a sign inside the bathroom recommending passengers sit to shower, to make the experience more comfortable. I can’t say whether that’s true, though, as I wasn’t ready to try for myself.

It was nice to have a bed, but sleeping on a train was pretty challenging.

The two beds in our room seemed designed to make the most of the space.

The upper bed was slightly smaller and had an attached safety net of sorts to keep people from rolling out of it. This made me uncomfortable as I wasn’t able to sit up.

The bottom bunk, however, was more spacious with room overhead, and it was much more pleasant to rest in.

Unfortunately, although I did get some sleep, I found myself tossing and turning all night long. My night wasn’t altogether unpleasant; I just couldn’t seem to get more than an hour’s worth of sleep at a time.

Some find that the gentle rocking of the train puts them right to sleep, but I am not one of those people.

Ultimately, the benefits of this ride outweigh any drawbacks for me.

Although I didn’t get much sleep on board, our overall experience in a private bedroom on the Auto Train was actually better than expected.

Our ride felt like solid value, especially since I was taking a longer trip and could avoid the cost of renting a car once we got to Florida, where I was staying for over a month.

The trip itself was just over 17 hours, but instead of sitting in traffic on the highway, we could spend time playing games, enjoying meals, watching downloaded movies on our laptops, and even getting some work done.

Unlike a road trip, we also didn’t have to stop to grab food, rest at a hotel, or use restrooms, which made this ride feel extra efficient.

As someone who tends to take longer trips and often needs a car at their destination, I would definitely take the Auto Train again. I’d also upgrade to a private room again, too, since I appreciated having a bed.

If you’re traveling for only a week, though, you’ll want to crunch the numbers. The cost of the Auto Train (and bringing your car on it) might not be worth it.

Business Insider reached out to Amtrak for comment.