Hard cheese should definitely last that long, as would something like salami, at least for the first few days and definitely in a cooler. There's always PBJ and what about thermoses full of cooler soup or veggies you can eat raw?

You will probably be able to beg off cups of hot water - how about things that can be re-hydrated, like instant oatmeal (with some dried fruit), or thin rice noodles in your container with some kind of freeze-dried veggies and seasoning that you bring. Dried miso soup. You can also get some fresh fruit, dairy, or some simple things from the dining car. You will not be able to source local produce, though! The point of processed foods is that they last a long time without refrigeration, that was kind of the point of them.

Hi Brande --

I'm a travel agent and a veteren of Amtrak trips so I think your idea to bring your own meals is great!

1) Are you in a sleeping car or in coach? If you're in *any* of the sleeping cars then your meals are included, which greatly reduces the need to bring so much food. (if you're not using an agent that detail sometimes gets lost)

2) When I was a teen my Mom took me and my two brothers on a 3 day train trip -- in coach. She brought a cooler with bagels, sandwiches, string cheese, granola, yogurt, crackers, nuts, precooked bacon, pickles, fruit, etc.

It's better if you get some dry ice, and there are easy-to-tote coolers now, that roll on wheels like a suitcase for about 20$ at Walmart.

Maybe just some good bread with some peanut butter or other spread that doesn't require refrigeration? I also think lots of veggies don't need to be refrigerated until after they're cut open, so I'd bring maybe a couple red peppers, some sugar snap peas, cherry tomatos, baby carrots... As long as they're kept in a fairly cool place, they should be fine for awhile.

Another thought is cup-o-noodle things (I'm sure Trader Joe's or Whole Foods has a better variety, although no doubt not the healthiest still!), and you probably could get hot water for free on the train.

Then again, I'd probably use it as a chance to eat lots of pastries and cookies and baked goods, along with those delicious Lundberg rice chips and other snacky things!

Air-popped popcorn is healthy and I think it's considered a whole-grain. It's also light for your bag and makes a great snack!

Freeze-dried fruits and veggies would also last and be fairly light.

That is pretty hard. I would suggest homemade oatmeal-fruit breakfast bars (I would fill them with berries); Freeze dried snacks (ranging from berries to fruit medleys), I'd add homemade wheat thins to the cheese suggested above. A couple of the starkist tuna lunch packs (which are ultra light, and convenient). If you pack fresh fruit, you could try a "green" fruit/veggie bag that keeps fruit fresher longer. Your fruit won't be cold, but it would probably last the trip. Good luck!

Not sure you're going to get much variety in there, though you could certainly make due and not starve! Obviously if you have a decent stop over you could get out and replenish, but the one long train trip I went on had no such stops! Cheese, crackers, hard salami, whole fruit, a loaf of bread, jar of PB would all last. Make a batch of muffins or cookies--those should make it for a few days. Homemade granola bars (or good quality store bought) would be great breakfasts or snacks. The first day you could do something like hard boiled eggs, a simple sandwich, a grain or pasta salad. Beyond about 24 hours though that stuff will start getting funky. You could probably get a cup of hot water in the dining car and do some kind of backpacker's pouch food, though if you're sticking to whole foods you may not like that idea. I wonder if you could get access to milk or yogurt in the dining car? If so you could bring some muesli or granola. I imagine taking 4 days of food (assuming you want to eat 3 meals a day and a couple snacks) is going to require a decent amount of space. If you want a little variety or if you don't want to lug that much food, I might suggest compromising and buying some food and bringing some. For instance, you could eat a peanut butter sandwich but buy some yogurt to go on the side, or buy the least-objectionable entree for dinner but supplement with an apple and cookie from home. Have fun on your trip!

If you have a cooler, I'd freeze juice instead of/in addition to ice, that way you can drink it when it is defrosted. hard boiled eggs would be okay for a day or two. hummus. sardines and crackers. tuna pouches? pretty much any fruit would be okay for 4 days if you bought it right before you left. nuts. dried fruit. crispy vegetables. i hope you can get off the train at some people and "re-fuel". I could see doing this for 2 days but I think things would get kind of grim by day 4.

Things I have packed successfully on trips:
-trail mix
-homemade granola
-beef jerky (very lean and keeps well)
-dried fruit (mango, apple, apricots, etc)
-dehydrated fruit (strawberry and lychee are favs)
-instant miso soup (just need hot water & maybe a cup)
-wasabi peas
-dry roasted almonds, unsalted
-cut up fruit (cantalope, watermelon, berries, mango) & veggies (jicama, radishes, tomatoes)
-instant oatmeal packets
-tortilla turkey rollups
-aloo gobi (potato & cauliflower curry, great eaten cold)
-naan or lavash

Any sort of bread, peanut butter, nuts ... And if you like this sort of thing, my mom would pack chapatis and indian pickle for trips. The chapatis are good for about two days out of the fridge. Which makes me think tortillas would be ok too. For me, I use a sniff test for most things out of the fridge, but find that many things are OK for a day or two. Which is not to say you should do it unless you're confident in your sniffing abilities ... Hummus would be OK for about 2 days as well.

I highly recommend onigiri. Maybe not so much tuna-mayo in the middle, but they're good as just plain rice, or with furikake or gomashio (sesame-salt) mixed in with the rice. If you like Asiany pickles, you can put takuan or kimchi in the middle without worrying about them going bad for the first day or so, longer if you can swing a cooler or even an insulated shopping bag.

I'd also recommend a frittata, heavy on the veggies/cheese/etc. and a little lighter on the egg. They're great finger food, especially if you bake them in muffin cups, and very wholesome and filling. They also taste good at room temperature!

Keep in mind that you're going to be in close quarters, so while tuna, sardines and eggs can be tasty, everyone else is going to be smelling them, too. I know that there have been times in my life when my stomach is more sensitive, and having someone next to me eating those things would not have been a pleasant experience for me OR them.

I don't have any new ideas to add for day two and beyond, but I always like to make the first dinner and breakfast on trips like this a big deal. Hot soup in a thermos (can later be rinsed and used for reconstituting things with hot water), sandwiches with spoil-able things, fruits that won't last too long outside refrigeration. Having a good couple of meals makes you more positive about the days to come.

Good luck and have fun!

I would highly recommend you check out the blog hipsterfood.tumblr.com or any vegan recipes. Hipsterfood has a lot of good ideas for healthy, vegan food that you could make for a long trip because the prepared food does not have dairy, meat, or anything else that would spoil. All other things you would include, like raw veggies & fruit, are pretty much up to you.

A few ideas that look good are the cashew quinoa muffins and garlicky squash pasta. They also made a week's worth of food for a road trip which included chickpea salad sandwiches, wild barley, rice and red beans, homemade trail mix, and vegan mac n cheese.

Link to hipsterfood.tumblr.com

Seconding the onigiri. That's our standard Amtrak lunch, as a matter of fact. Frittatas and hummus are also good suggestions. I think if you pack a cooler and freeze your juice boxes, you can keep everything fresh enough. The hardest thing is dealing with the unpacking, the trash, assembling, serving on a speeding train. If there's a dining car, and if they'll let you bring your own food in there (they do on short hauls), you can buy a coffee or a beer and eat your food AWAY from your seat and dump all your trash there. That will be more comfortable.

You could make a batch of homemade granola, trail mix, or granola bars. I'd also bring a bag of my favorite cereal that I could snack on; I think Cheerios work particularly well for this. Apples, crackers, cheese, peanut or other nut butters, bread for sandwiches. Also, check to see where you have to stop to change trains. I don't know where you're going to or coming from, but I do know that a lot of train changes happen in Chicago, for example. You could go online to see what restaurants/food opportunities exist at the stations where you'll be stopping. There are a lot of fast food places there, but some are better than others, and you might want to know about a place where you could get something other than a peanut butter sandwich.

That's a lot of food to bring with you. I agree with a lot of the suggestions.

Justin's Nut Butters come in individual packages--those would be yummy on some apples and a nice change from peanut butter. A batch of homemade breakfast cookies would be great. Fantasic Brands has a just add water hummus that could work. Hard veggies that don't need refrigeration would be good. With hot water, couscous becomes an option, too. Tasty Bites (& Trader Joes) have foil packets of rice and Indian foods (dal, channa masala, etc.) that are really pretty good.

My one word of warning would be to be considerate of your other passengers. Sardines and good salamis are awesome to eat and STINKY. I would be really grossed out to be stuck on a train for days with the funk of sardines hanging in the air.

Banana bread, granola, nut butters, and fruit would be my staples. String cheese or those mini babybels, some good crackers or slices of baguette, and grapes. Make some instant oatmeal cups in lightweight tupperware and beg some hot water from the attendants (make sure you pack a spoon or two). Peanut butter sandwiches can be dressed up with fancy jams (skip the grape, try cherry or pear or pure raw honey), and apple slices with caramel dip travel well. Apple butter, too, will last a few days in an airtight container and goes well with those crackers you brought for the cheese. If you can buy cold milk on the train, bring some baggies of dry cereal and a bowl. Dried fruit and popcorn for snacking. And make sure to bring some good-quality chocolate and maybe one or two individual-serving bottles of wine - you don't want to get price gouged just because you had a craving.

Burritos? A package of tortillas will last unrefrigerated. A can or two of beans, mini bottle of hot sauce, avocado (can get unripe to last a few days), cheese, peppers. I've never had this, but isn't there rice that you can make with just hot water in a few minutes? That, combined with nori, seasoned tofu, avocado would work. Cans of tuna can be eaten without seasoning (though could bring s+p, oil, lemon).

I recently bought some soup mix from the bulk bins at my local co-op grocery. It was corn chowder and DELICIOUS when rehydrated with boiling water for 5 minutes. They've got hummus mix and other little things that would be lightweight. I bet Whole Foods has these, too.

I recently took a 12-hour train trip to Montreal and put together a terrific lunch for my friend and me. If you can take ice packs, you'll have a lot of flexibility for the first two days. After that, your options are more limited. My suggestion is that you maximize flavor and make it a real adventure. (For me, that means that any granola would have to be off the charts in order to be considered.) For days three and four, you might want to think like an olden days European peasant: bread, hard cheese, salami (cured salami doesn't generally require refrigeration -- check the package) and fruit.

On my trip we had my favorite sandwiches on whole-grain bread: tuna made with oil and vinegar, capers and lemon confit (from a 'wichcraft recipe -- Google it), hard cheese, nectarines and chocolate for dessert. Later we had some really good sardines on crackers for a snack. And we took a Thermos full of good strong coffee and that lasted us pretty much until Montreal.

I'd suggest getting a Thermos food jar or something similar. That way, you can "cook" things like coucous or regular oatmeal by just adding hot water. I eat steel cut oats at my desk like that regularly with a fruit cup added in (Dole has peach fruit cups sweetened with fruit juice). If you're not too worried about germs, you could probably just give it a good rinse with hot water and a swipe of a paper towel and hand soap (or bring along a tiny bottle of dish soap if you're so inclined).

As far as other meals go, I'd suggest dehydrated stuff from Fantastic Foods, dried or fresh fruit (apples or the aforementioned fruit cups), homemade crackers or bread (crackers are more compact while bread weighs less), nut butter and/or nuts/trail mix, and a veggie you don't mind eating raw or at room temp, like carrots or zucchini.

Good luck!

On the soup idea, you could also have cold soups, like soba noodle soups or gazpacho, which would keep cold in your small cooler or ice pack. You could also pack lots of fresh fruits that don't tend to brown after awhile, like mango slices or papaya again in a cooler (from someone whose done the long travel thing, it seems you might need a small cooler in addition to travel bag. Maybe one of those flexible packs.) Enjoy your trip!

There are a lot of good ideas, but keep in mind that you won't be moving around a whole lot so you won't need as much food. Make sure you bring a variety of activities, (something 'active' to do with your hands in addition to reading), to make sure you're not eating out of boredom.

I did this trip a few years ago...some thoughts: snack foods from the bulk section for sure. Partly you'll be hungry, and partly you'll just be bored because the train periodically stops for long stretches to let freight traffic cross. Tea/cocoa/etc. would probably work too---I didn't think of that but I'm sure they'd give you hot water for those or anything else brothy.

Look at the schedule for when the train is stopping for longer stretches---you can get out and walk around, and often the stations have food areas. Assuming you're going coast-to-coast, you'll also have at least one big transfer (Chicago if you come from the Northeast metro to the West Coast states) where you'll have several hours if not longer to go exploring---use that time to collect other snacks/meals for sure!

And last but not least, don't underestimate the Amtrak food. It's not going to be super gourmet, but they are good at the basics---breakfast in the dining car is still one of my favorite memories of the trip. Don't expect high-end (and expect to pay for the privilege) but they do a mean eggs/grits/biscuits meal. If you can, save meals in the dining car for breakfast and lunch, when the prices aren't as extreme. (Even dinner is worth doing once, though---way overpriced, but a really fun meal because you meet all the people in sleepers who have their meals included and come to dinner nightly, and that was a wonderful experience that you won't get eating in your seat.)

I hate to be the crabby person, but PLEASE don't bring foods with strong odors like tuna, salami, parmesan cheese or peanut butter (or Doritos)!!!! As a teacher I have driven my share of college vans with students eating stinky foods. The smell doesn't leave!! Be considerate of your fellow travelers and bring fruits/veggies, crackers, etc., else someone like me might give you the evil eye!!

I think the key is to think picnic foods - foods that keep well and are still good cold or room temp. If you can bring a small cooler, I would recommend a good grain salad like lentil salad with lots of veggies, fried chicken (is cold fried chicken smelly?), empanadas, fresh fruit and crudites. Another picnic fav I grew up with is kimbap, which is a Korean version of sushi meets onigiri. It looks like a sushi roll, but no raw fish. Instead, it is rice with sauteed veggies, takuan, fried egg, and sometimes meat, all rolled up in nori. Will keep well for a couple of days, and should not be refrigerated too heavily or the rice will get hard.

Dry ice can be tricky on a train. It is great camping, but you want a decent amount of ventilation for the sublimation, so you might want to stick with ice packs. Have fun!

Many years ago while riding Amtrak, I sat next to a frugal but ingenious young minister who was traveling all the way across the US. I remember he'd made a loaf's worth of peanut butter sandwiches and carried them in the bread's original bag- all stacked up like a loaf again. With that, he had brought a bunch of bananas : )

i have a 12-hour Amtrak trip I've taken a lot & I always pack my meals. if you do forget something, or need a substitute, they do have a snack bar (as well as a dining car) ... and you'll find muffins, fruit, coffee etc... there. they'll even pour you some hot water!

There is a great product that is super lite and doesn't require any refrigeration. I store a few of these at my work desk just incase I wake up late and don't get a chance to pack my lunch. It's called Gopicnic.

Maybe make some unique nut butter recipes like on this blog (scroll down to nut butters):

http://edibleperspective.com/recipes/

There's a huge variety there -- if you brought a few different types of bread/muffins it would provide a different meal each time...plus there are sweet and savory nut butters (for when you're tired of sweet). Maybe make a few kinds and then pack a couple servings to take with you?

I definitely need to read through all of these comments! We are going to be driving from Louisiana to Washington and then taking a ferry for 3 days to Alaska in December! I have been panicking on what I am going to bring on the ferry!

I think you can pack some items and plan to supplement with items purchased on the train.

So take your own granola, but plan to buy cups of yogurt to go with it (their menu online shows them at $1.50, not so bad).

Their salmon and other things I ate on the train weren't so bad honestly, just not much fresh fruit and veg of course. So maybe take along items like apples, pears, oranges baby carrots, raisins, nuts, peanut butter and jelly. Crackers and pretzels keep, but I'm not sure if they're worth carting around versus buying on the train since they'll sell that.

If you use an ice pack and eat them toward the beginning of your journey, hard boiled eggs or deviled eggs should do fine. Cheeses and hummus as well.

You can bring whole wheat pita bread (it can't get smashed) with canned tuna or peanut butter or whole wheat tortilla/wrap and use laughing cow cheese and add a small jar of roasted bell peppers--the cheese doesn't need to be refridgerated. You will need some kind of a knife to slice the cheese, perhaps a sturdy plastic one since the cheese is relatively soft. Del monte has cups of fruit with no sugar added. Good luck.

I'm a flight attendant.... and packing food is the only way to go. Paying a premium for lousy food is not fun. Some of my "gourmet" lifesavers are small jars of pesto, and tapenade. They go along way in upping the flavour of a cracker and cheese lunch. They stay fresh obviously until you open them and then if they are the smallest size you should be able to go through them quick enough. Un-ripe avocados are a great thing to have.. just pack it a old yogurt container with some paper so it doesn't get squished. Also jars of Avjar (red peper spread) would be great to have along. I have found tins of high quality smoked salmon.. Not messy at all because it is dry.. and not as fishy as say tuna. A tin of chickpeas, mixed with pesto makes an easy "salad"... Good luck!

Many commenters have noted that the tuna and sardines are stinky and can be offensive to other passengers. But, I think it's totally fine to eat them in the dining car (which will be overwhelmed by the smell of hot dogs anyway).
I think I would add cereal (and buy milk to pour on).

If you're thinking about taking the tuna you may like to take canned sausages too for breakfast, with crackers for example. That's some of my options at work.

This will be really helpful: eat some eggs the morning of your trip. Eggs have been reported to reduce general hunger for up to 12 hours after eating them. I find gluten-free products like Glutino prezels and such are smaller and very portable. Keep in mind that Amtrak are known to be jerks about certain things. One worker refused to fill my reuseable coffee mug because he deemed the practice "unsanitary".

ps Don't deprive yourself of protein just because it smells bad. Simply keep it in a sealed container until you find a nearly empty car then move to where there are no people and eat it in a private place.

Stagger the food menu as per their life. Cooked meal for the first day. May be like pasta. Tartila with canned side dishes for the second day. Pick bread and whatever stays upto third and fourth day like cans/ready to eat packs. I would avoid anything frozen. Its a mess on the go. Also be open to few add-ons to buy on the go. Else, you will have too bulky baggage to start with.

celery keeps about 3 days without any refrigeration (so long as it doesn't get hot) and provides a really satisfying crunchy snack right up to the end. plus, it doesn't get bruised.

I recently went on a seven-day hike and was surprised by how long certain foods last without refrigeration: unsliced veggies like carrots, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers; hard cured meats like salami; hard cheese like Parmesan. We also had those flavoured tuna packets that are great on crackers (like this: http://www.starkist.com/products/starkist-flavor-fresh-pouch). Everyone carried nuts and dried fruit, a bit of chocolate for a treat. We also had hot foods that just needed hot water (noodles, rice pilaf, oatmeal).

I did a three day trip on Amtrak a few years ago. I made a baguette into a cheese, salami, mustard, etc sandwich and cut it into serving pieces, brought nuts and trail mix, a few apples, a water bottle full of wine (probably technically not allowed, but whatever)... I wasn't really hungry after all on the train, the sandwich and nuts more than satisfied my reduced travel appetite.

the onigiri idea is awesome, i do that on long flights and roadtrips without a cooler. usually put a pickled plum in the center. leftover chicken curry is a good nontraditional filling too.

string cheese is awesome if you can keep it against something cold, too.

you might look into filling a cheap mini cooler with dry ice. research it a bit, but i got sent a bunch of soup that i couldnt pick up from fedex in time, so it probably was not refridgerated for 3 days. still frozen (barely).

I've done a few two-day train trips, and swear by cheese sandwiches (hard cheese like cheddar, good baguette) made in advance. They hold up pretty nicely until lunchtime the second day, taste fine warm, and are a nice, satisfying meal.

The other thing I found helpful was bringing my own teabags. Often the food attendants (at least on VIA trains in Canada) are quite friendly, and will give you hot water for little to no charge, so you can make your own tea in the mornings and evenings.

Trader Joe's sell boil in the bag Indian food packets that were called Tasty Bites, but are now just called Indian Fare or something like that. Although they're meant to be boiled in the bag, they taste great cold. They're flat and easy to pack, and you can get rid of the cardboard box beforehand as the packet is labeled. I've dipped all sorts of crackers, naan, pitas, etc in them and they are delicious. You can even get some pre-cooked brown rice if you have space and have that on top of the rice at room temperature.