It truly does not get any better than this! Picture a train, travelling through the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains, with a wild group of people that love to party, 21 and up, where you can bring all the booze you could possibly consume with you! Freaking AWESOME! Does this sound like your kind of party? Well, welcome aboard the Reno Fun Train! We flew to Sacramento the night before and stayed at the Vagabond Inn that is closest to the Amtrak station.It is one street away from Old Sacramento, so we were able to do the touristy stuff, take a carriage ride, etc. and had a lot of fun. We arrived at the train station with lots of time to spare with the free shuttle from the Vagabond Inn.Good thing, too, since we forgot our camera and had to return to the hotel ! (Parking is SUPER LIMITED at the train station, but there is a parking garage a block away). The party had already started on the platform, plenty of people were already imbibing freely before boarding the Fun Train, and the police were not hassling anyone as most were discreet about it.(See photos) Our Mardi Gras Fun Train was late to depart, as apparently freight trains are given preference ahead of passenger trains, but since we had plenty of drinks to sustain us, nobody seemed to mind the cold! A great cheer arose as our train made it's way down the tracks and we all boarded ( with quite a bit of confusion, since the car numbers were not super obvious and alcohol had been flowing freely). Yay ! We were on our way to Reno. They have live music to dance to in the Dance Car, you can sing along in the Piano Lounge ( that also has a bar with super reasonably priced drinks), they even have *gasp*, a Smoking Car,( don't worry non-smokers, it's way the hell at the end of the train), so pretty much, anything you could possibly want! They also have strolling musicians, a Dome Car where you can admire the passing scenery AND they feed you a decent chicken pot pie. You can bring any snacks and beverages you want, they provide cups, ice , water and cans of Lipton's tea. We met with a group of people we met on facebook and had a GREAT time, I highly recommend this trip to anyone. You can get "Train only " packages or one with the 2 nights hotel accomodations- they have many to choose from- we chose the El Dorado because it had the highest rating on Trip Advisor, and loved it. They have all kinds of fun themes for these trains: Wine tasting, St. Patrick's Day, Hawaiian, Country Western, Mystery, etc. One caveat : if the train doesn't have enough people, it can be cancelled, so get a bunch of friends together and PARTY!!! read more

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Buyers beware!! This company takes your money, doesn't book your trip and DOES NOT REFUND your money!! I have lost 800.00.. please don't make the mistake I did!! read more

We booked the Reno Fun Train for Valentines Day 2017. The trip was canceled due to bad weather. It is now May 2018 and we have not received our refund of over $1,000.00. We have called many times and are told it is coming but it never does. Has anyone else had this problem? read more

Rider Beware!!! 14 of us booked the February 10, 2017 Reno Fun Train from Key Holidays to celebrate my girlfriend's 40th birthday aboard the Mardi Gras train. A friend of mine had previously done the train and had had a really good time, so I suggested it for this birthday celebration. And, since it was going to be a big celebration, we opted for the "Gold Service" tickets. Sadly, the train got cancelled because of extremely bad mudslides in between Sacramento and Reno. Now, this was obviously beyond Key Holiday's control, and I certainly don't fault them for that act of nature. However, we had all arranged our schedules such that we'd be out at the Richmond Amtrak stop by 12:15pm in order to take the Reno Fun train. Shockingly, and frustratingly, we did not receive the cancellation call and related email until around 12:20pm...after the train should have already departed. This is where Key Holidays really dropped the ball and appeared to be grossly mismanaged and unprofessional. This Reno Fun train originates in San Jose, and it would have departed there at 9:05am, so Key Holidays knew earlier than 9:05am that morning that this train was cancelled. All of our group live in San Francisco, and, if we would have known at 9am that the train was cancelled, we would certainly would not have gone through the hassle of going all the way out to Richmond via the subway. Instead, if we had gotten the normal, timely notice that we should have gotten, we would have taken our personal cars and simply driven to Reno. I mean, realistically, how long does it take to send a blast email stating that the train was cancelled. With a laptop and a list of say, 200 people (I'd imagine that most passengers were in groups like us), it shouldn't take more than a half hour at most, as it's just the same, exact email going to 200 different email addresses. So, now we're stuck on the platform trying to figure out what to do since Key Holidays, without warning, just stranded us there in Richmond. Going back to San Francisco and getting our own cars wasn't an option as traffic would have been insane by the time we returned. Ultimately, we wound up taking the regular Amtrak to Sacramento. Then, while on the train, we sorted out three SUVs in Sacramento that we rented for the weekend. We even picked up a random, other, stranded would-be passenger and happily allowed him to ride up and back with our group. On a cancellation flier that we later got that afternoon, Key Holidays claimed that, even though the train was cancelled, you could still call the hotel and tell them to keep your reservation. This was absolutely not true. Our random, stranded, would-be passenger wanted to keep his hotel reservation; he called the casino while we were driving, and they told him that they did not have any sort of reservation for him. So, he had to sort out his own reservation (thankfully, the rest of us had booked our reservations separately from Key Holidays). Amateur hour at its finest! When all's said and done, we lost half a day just dealing with logistics, not to mention all of the stress and aggravation that Key Holidays put us through because of their sheer incompetence (as trying to get a consensus amongst 14 people is extremely tough!). That being said, for the record, we had an absolute blast in Reno for the girlfriend's 40th in spite of Key Holidays!! Oh, and did I mention that we paid for this trip in December 2016, and that it was scheduled to leave on February 10, 2017? Well, it is now June 6, 2017, and none of us have yet received our refunds from this cancelled trip. Suffice it to say, we will not be patronizing this company ever again. Absolutely horrible experience from Key Holidays... read more

If you are thinking about this trip - BUYER BEWARE. We took this trip the weekend of Feb 25 -27 and we called prior to the trip because of the huge storm that was coming in to make sure that the train would be able to get thru. We got the big run around and were put on hold for 30 minutes 3 times. This was Gilligans Island - "a 3 hour tour". A 5 hour tip turned into a 24 hour nightmare. Instead of arriving in Reno at 5:30 PM on Friday, we got into Reno at 6:00 Am on Saturday mroning. The weekend was a a disaster. On the return ride, they didn't even offer us a free cup of coffee for the inconvenience. read more

I have mixed reviews of this trip. This was my first time on the Fun Train so I really didn't know what to expect. I chose the 70's/80's Theme trip as a treat to my Mom because they advertised that the DJ in the Dance Car would be Tony Sandoval from 98.1 (my Mom's favorite radio station). Overall I would give the trip 3 stars but if my Mother were rating it she would give it a full 5 stars. Here's the thing: I'm introverted and my Mom is VERY extroverted so we had different experiences on the train. I know it's a PARTY train but I just didn't care for the LOUD, DRUNK Party people traipsing back and forth on their way to the Dance Car - one of those people being my Mother! I have no problem with folks drinking (I enjoyed a beer or two) I just wish they wouldn't drink to the point where they're pissy drunk and slurring their words. Speaking of pissy drunk, I also didn't care for the pissy toilet seats in the bathrooms because people were too drunk to hit the right spot. But aside from all that, the train ride up and back was nice (but cold because our seats were right by the door connecting the trains and it never stayed closed long enough to keep the car warm because of the LOUD, DRUNK Party people traipsing back and forth). I especially enjoyed the KFC Pot Pie they served going up to Reno. Getting back to the Party aspect of the trip: there were several people on our train who weren't there to booze it up and hoop 'n holler ... it would be nice if they added a 'quiet car' for folks who want to read, play cards etc. Would I take the Reno Fun Train again? Maybe. read more

All I can tell you about the company that runs this trip - Key Holidays is - BUYER BEWARE. We recently took this train, and prior to the trip tried to contact Key Holidays due to an impending storm in the Sierras. They put us on hold, told us to call Amtrak and really gave us the runaround. A 6 hour train ride turned out to be "the longest ride in history" as announced by the people running the trip. 20 hours later, we arrived in Reno, and we boarded in Martinez. They didn't even offer a free cup of coffee on the ride back. read more

This is such a fun and different thing to do. We catch the fun train in Emeryville on a Friday evening and take it up through Truckee and Donner to Reno. This is just a moving party. There's a dance car, a karaoke car, a few bars, a smoking car, they serve some pretty good, all be it simple food, there's tons of booze. There's a little souvenir car which I have purchased some neat little trinkets from. There is a banjo, fiddle, guitar trio that walks through the cars playing and singing popular songs and they take requests. They are really talented. They even did a Beatles songs I requested once. It's great for groups because I think you get discounts the more tickets you buy. People bring their own food and drink on the train too. Seriously everyone is having a great time. I'm surprised the cars don't bounce right off the tracks. We get there at about midnight and just gamble all night and sleep till late the next day, Saturday. I get up about 3 and walk around Reno a bit and watch a few shows and gamble some more. We leave on Sunday late morning and take the Snow Train back which is a whole different atmosphere. People are usually sleeping it off and exhausted and a lot of them are broke. There's a few winners and everyone is pretty content. They pump, like a historical recording through the train about the history of the places we pass. Of course they talk about Donner Pass and the cannibalism that took place there. It's pretty fascinating. All the other crazy cars I mentioned before are still open and running, but people aren't really using them at this point. All the people who work there are very nice and accommodating and efficient. I used to go all the time with my dad and a bunch of our friends, but it's been a few years since I have gone back. I would love to go again someday. read more

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Five of us booked the Soul Train trip to Reno for 2/2017, total cost $1,345. Due to extreme weather conditions, the trip was cancelled. Paid for the trip in December 2016, and here it is July 29, 2018, and we still have NOT been reimbursed!!! This is BS!! We call, email, etc... and are told that the parent company is trying to get a loan to refund the patrons. WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK!!! Next stop, Small Claims Court!!! See you there! read more

My husband and I had the unfortunate experience of traveling on the Reno "Fun Train" Friday, February 25, 2011. This was the absolute worst experience we've ever had. We left the Sacramento station at Noon on Friday and arrived in Reno Saturday morning at 5 am. The trip should have taken 5 or 6 hours at the most and instead we were trapped on the "hell train" for 17 hours. Key Holidays refused to take any responsibility for putting us in this uncomfortable situation even though they would have known prior to the train leaving Sacramento that we were in for an extreme delay. The snow conditions were very bad and there were freight trains and other passenger trains backed up that we needed to wait for. We left the train station, traveled less than 1 mile and they parked the train and THEN let us know that there would be a delay and they did not know for how long. At that point we could not get off the train. Rather than letting us know of the severe issues prior to boarding and allowing us to make the decision on whether or not we wanted to go they made that choice for us. We should have been told prior to boarding the train so we could decide for ourselves whether or not we wanted to still go. Passengers on the train were allowed to bring their own alcohol and were drinking so much that by midnight we were concerned for our safety. People were drunk and angry. There were some smoking pot and there was someone approaching people to purchase drugs from him. At one point I had to tell some guy to stop trying to urinate in the electrical cabinet on our car. People were out of control. The train and Key Holidays employees were not successful in putting the train in "sleep mode" so we could rest. When they tried to close the smoking car people just went back there anyway without considering that they had been asked to stay in their seats. It was an all night stream of drunk people to and from the smoking car repeated falling into our seat area and slamming doors. There was absolutely no way we could rest or relax. When we finally arrived in Reno the streets were icy. There was no coordination of who got to ride the buses etc. We had to walk to our Hotels because the busses were full. There was a woman in front of me on crutches that should have been allowed to ride a bus but because of the lack of coordination she had to hobble a couple of blocks on the icy street to her hotel. Key Holidays was "generous enough" to offer us a $25 off certificate for our next train ride with them. This offer is laughable! I wrote a letter and was told that the owner would get back to me within 1 week about my concerns. No response after several months. I would not recommend this trip to anyone. read more

For all you Yelpers & maybe non Yelpers. I decided to take the snow train to Reno on Feb. 5-7, 2012 for a relaxing midweek birthday celebration. Well this is exactly what I got. My cousin & a couple of friends took it & was pleased. I read reviews & they were not good. But everyone has their own experiences. You have to go remembering that this is a means of transportation & it may not always go as planned as things do happen. Be any type of travel you take, car, plane or boat. THINGS HAPPEN that you can't control. You get a choice of 2 types of travel. Regular first come first serve seating with lunch. Or you can upgrade to the Gold Service. Reserved seating with 3 course meal, 3 mixed drinks, wine or beer with lunch, up & back. You get to choose for 6-7 hotels in Reno. some walking distance from the train station others have a shuttle. Well let me tell you, I am so glad I did the Gold Service! The price was worth every penny and more. My trip started out by taking bart to the Richmond station as the Amtrak station was just 50 yards away. So convenient. Since the train was to arrive at 10;15 am It could of been I commuters nightmare if there was a accident. I arrived early so I waited for the train with excitement. 1st train came & was told the snow train was behind it. 2nd train came & they said the same. 3rd train came, same. I started to worry that the reviews were true. Finally this train came around the corner with a big white teddy bear tied to the front. There it was, my snow train. As the train came to a stop, the gentleman quickly jumped off to greet me with a smile & take my bag. I boarded the dome car & we were in a flash. it was only 1/2 hr behind. Not bad. They had your name where your assigned seat was. Before I even reached it there was a gentleman by the name of Jeremy, ready to assist me. Found it no problem. I was greeted with a complimentary mimosa. Woo hoo, my kind of greeting. They served a mixture of muffins & cakes for your arrival. Very good. We also had Tony who was quick to help if Jeremy was busy with someone else. Both were always so polite & big smile. Thanks guys for all you did to make our trip great. Seating was great. 4 to a table & big enough to play cards or games. As we traveled along the shore of the bay the ride was so smooth. We stopped a several stations picking up passengers for our journey through the Sierra's. They gave us a choice of seating times for lunch which I thought was great. I opted for the 11:30 time to give the later boarders time for their lunch. As it was time for lunch I headed downstairs to the dining part of our dome car. WOW!!! Was I surprised to see this. Real plates, no paper. Cloth napkins & tablecloths with silverware, no plastic. Except for the glasses. Well we are on a train. Elegantly decorated. Very nice. We got a menu with choices of 2 salads, 4 entrees & 3 desserts. Wow, I been to really nice restaurants that the foods wasn't even this good. I had chicken with brown rice, so good. Caesar salad, & apple turnover for my trip up. Hamburger, Strawberry Spinach salad & brownie. The food was to die for. I didn't get to personally talk with the chef so I have no one but put my hands together for the great job he did preparing the meals in what looked like the size of my closet of a kitchen.The gentleman Paul, & I'm sorry but I forgot the other ones name were awesome!! Making sure you were served promptly & always with a smile. With the Gold Service you get access to all cars, which have lots to explore. one special thing I like was that with this service, if you don't have it you are not allowed in the dome car which makes for a quiet trip so you don't have to worry about the riff raff. LOL Make sure you bring your cameras as the views you will see you don't get to see from your car if you have ever driven up. They definitely made up time climbing the mountain as we arrived in Reno on time. These guys are good as we exited the train they were quick to have our bags off & ready for us. The station in Reno is fairly small so getting through it was a little tough but we managed. I picked Harrah's as on the brochure it showed close to the station. Wow was I lucky as it was 100 yards to the door. Check-in was simple & easy. They had all the train travels in a separate box & ready with keys in it. I want to say that I will be definitely be doing this trip again & I won't travel any other way but Gold Service. Thanks to all the Chicago boys for all their wonderful hard work in making this a awesome mini vacation. Thanks to Key Holidays for this trip possible with the great employees that were on the train. Couldn't have happened without them. May I suggest that if you want a relaxing train ride you do the midweek. If you want to party hardy, go for the weekend one cause from what I heard from previous travelers that it can get pretty wild. I would recommend this trip to everyone. read more

Paid for a Mardi Gras fun trip for February 10th. No fault of there own, trip cancelled because of mud slide. It is now April 24th and still no refund. These people may throw a good party looking at the previous reviews but if you ever need any customer service and a refund make sure you can afford to throw away 800 dollars. Maybe the Better business bureau can help with these thieves. read more

What a great time boarded in Emeryville to Reno was greeted in Train station by a hostess and he made it real easy to board the train answer all questions that alone put my wife and I at ease . We bought the gold package with includes a delightful 3 coarse lunch and all alcohol was free . The views were fantastic couldn't wait to brag about the trip to all my friends and family. Jack and Sean were our porters what a great job they did they went out of there way to accommodate our every need . Magic show and the Elvis impersonator wre spectacular hats off to the whole crew . read more

We took the St. Patty's day Reno Fun Train (3/15-3/17/13) and had a great time. We caught the train in Emeryville. There was a Zydeco band at the station to entertain us and lots of fellow riders in costume. There were a few groups on board, many in costume, some decorating their area, all partying - all in fun though - no one was rude or annoying. The Zydeco band traveled with us in the dance car. There was a pianist in the bar car. A fellow who did amazing card tricks and one of the best Elvis impersonators I have ever seen roamed the cars to entertain us. Our car attendant, Mary, was awesome. She kept us supplied with water, ice, pillows, coffee, etc. It was about a 7 hour trip each way and she never failed to smile and attend to folks. The restrooms were clean. The attendant in the dome car was very knowledgeable about the train and the terrain as we rode through. On the way home, the Zydeco band again entertained us on the platform at Reno and on the train. The other entertainers were also aboard as well as our wonderful attendant, Mary. The ride home was just as fund as the ride up. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and look forward to traveling again next year. read more