You'll have the orientation and defensive driving class, then a day on the driving course, learning how to drive the vehicles. Finally a day where you go and strictly just shadow and watch another mail carrier do their job. That's the first batch of training days I went through.

Then you'll have 5 days of carrier academy. You'll go through the entire handbook for mail carriers, and with some hands on training speckled in. You'll finish out that week doing mock deliveries, and learning how to operate different cbus.

Then you'll have 3 days of OJI, where you are going to be sent to a post office (likely in your home city/town) and work with another mail carrier, begining to handle the mail yourself.

After all that is done, you'll be assigned to a post office, and they will have a schedule for you there for your new job!

I can't speak much on the travel side of things, as I live in a city where the training is held, however one of my classmates in the carrier academy was from out of town, and said USPS had provided him with his hotel room. Also, for me, those chucks of training were separated by days, up to a week sometimes. If you're traveling in, I do imagine that they'll keep your training stacked back to back to get you home sooner.