With clogged roads and flight cancellations and delays, this is a good time to take the train.
These are the top scenic train trips in the USA, ranging from a few hours to a few days, including on vintage steam trains.
Bonus – many offer discounts for seniors, and some offer a true getaway from modern technology, with no Wi-Fi and limited cell phone service in isolated areas and rugged mountain. But that’s when you should be enjoying the scenery outside the window.
Some operate year-round, others only May to September. All are memorable excursions.
In alphabetical order, since that’s the only fair way:
Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic
Route: Anchorage – Girdwood – Seward
Travel time: 1.30 hours
From mid-May to mid-September, Alaska’s days are long, plants are blooming, wildlife is on the move, and the Coastal Classic offers daily departures so you can experience it all.
The route, from Anchorage to Seward, follows the shoreline of the Turnagain Arm, where the dramatic 3,000-foot mountains of the Chugach Range plunge straight into the ocean.
Watch for beluga whales in the inlet and, farther along on the journey, Dall sheep on cliffsides and bear and moose in the backcountry wilderness.
Head back same day – it will be a long day, 6am to 10pm – or extend your trip with a day or more in Seward.
Cruise Resurrection Bay or Kenai Fjords National Park, or visit to Exit Glacier and a dog sled ride at the famed Seavey kennel.
Amtrak Adirondack
Route: New York – Saratoga Springs – Montreal
Travel time: 10 hours (one way)
This train journey takes you through charming towns and along the beautiful Hudson River Valley, delivering you to Montreal by dinnertime.
Very scenic, it’s a popular train ride for viewing fall foliage, traveling to wineries and visiting Lake Champlain.
Or stop off along the way in Saratoga, for the mineral water baths, horse racing and more.
See also
Why you need travel insurance
Car rental insurance do’s and don’ts
Travel discounts for seniors
Amtrak California Zephyr
Route: Chicago – Denver – Reno – Sacramento – Emeryville (San Francisco)
Travel time: 52 hours
California Zephyr is one of the most beautiful train trips offered by Amtrak.
It travels through the heart of the Rockies, Utah’s red deserts, and further west through the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas, and Gold Rush country, through lush green plains and 19th century architecture, including the Gold Rush country of the 1800s past mining and ghost towns and old stagecoach stations which grew into stops on the original railroad.
The Zephyr runs between Chicago and San Francisco, coursing through the plains of Nebraska to Denver, across the Rockies to Salt Lake City, through tunnels and canyons, and then through Reno and Sacramento into Emeryville/San Francisco.
The Zephyr also to the Rocky Mountain tunnels carry you across the Continental Divide, while aspens and evergreens dot the steep cliffs of Glenwood Canyon on the Colorado River.
There are a couple of dozen stops along the route, where you can explore further.
Connections in to San Francisco and Oakland stations via Thruway Bus Service at Emeryville, California.
Amtrak Coast Starlight
Route: Seattle – Portland – Los Angeles
Travel time: 36 hours
This gorgeous West Coast train journey is aboard a two-level Amtrak superliner, attracting more than 450,000 passengers a year.
It’s one of the most popular Amtrak routes, with stops along the route at beaches and wineries, and the lush waterfalls, lush forests and hiking trails of Puget Sound, with views you won’t get from any highway.
You can get off and get back on the train, but you’ll need to book each leg of the trip separately. Use the one-way or multi-city option when booking tickets.
If you upgrade from coach to a small private room with beds you’ll have upgraded dining and access to the Pacific Parlor Car with its dome windows and evening wine and cheese parties.
There are various overnight accommodations including roomettes and family bedrooms.
Family bedrooms are unique in that there are windows on both sides of the train, while traditional and accessible bedrooms have bathrooms. Learn more about sleeping accommodations
Amtrak Empire Builder
Route: Chicago – St. Paul/Minneapolis – Spokane – Portland/Seattle
Travel time: 46 hours
Empire Builder follows portions of the Lewis & Clark Trail from America’s heartland to the Pacific Northwest.
You’ll cross the Mississippi River and venture into Montana’s Big Sky country and into Glacier National Park, where there are four stops which offer overnight lodging, in Whitefish, West Glacier, Essex and East Glacier Park.
From Spokane, you can head south along the Columbia River Gorge to Portland, or cut through the Cascade Mountains north to Seattle’s Puget Sound. Along the way, mountain passes are marked with lofty trestles and long tunnels, while rivers feature hydroelectric dams and salmon fish ladders.
Amtrak says there’s no WiFi along the route, so this is a true getaway.
If you don’t want to travel the entire route, major airports are in cities including Spokane, Whitefish, Minot, Minnesota, and Milwaukee.
For a virtual tour, check out Amtrak’s Empire Builder Overview podcast episode.
Amtrak Southwest Chief
Route: Chicago – Albuquerque – Los Angeles
Travel time: 40+ hours
The Southwest Chief follows that same route between Los Angeles and Chicago. Book a sleeping car and enjoy the thrilling curves and switchbacks that lead to some of America’s most iconic sights: the Santa Fe Trail, Sedona’s red cliffs, pueblos and missions, the Grand Canyon, and the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains.
Tucked among the grandeur of the American West you’ll find beauty in modest, everyday living, too.
Watch farmers harvesting expansive wheat fields and dogs playing in back yards. From the window of a train it’s fascinating to see how different people live in different parts of the country.
Exit at the Flagstaff station for connections to the Grand Canyon.
The Amtrak Guide website has these tips about the Southwest Chief:
- No WiFi and limited cell phone coverage
- Delays are possible
- New Mexico and Colorado are the states with daytime views and the best scenery
- National park rangers typically provide on board narratives between May and September on parts of the route
- Overnight, trains are in Arizona and Kansas
- Motion sickness can happen on the longer Amtrak trips as the trains sway, so bring medicine just in case as well as a sweatshirt and/or a small blanket because trains can be cold.
Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway
Route: Manitou- Pikes Peak, Colorado
Travel Time: 3 hours round-trip
Ride to the top of the 14,100-foot-tall Pikes Peak, which inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the patriotic poem, “America the Beautiful.”
Built in 1891 and owned and operated by the iconic Broadmoor Resort since 1925, it is the highest railroad in America and the highest and longest cog railway (the cogwheel provides extra traction on steep hills) in the world, and it summits the most-visited mountain in North America famous for its vistas, mountain biking and automobile races.
You’ll travel through the Pike National Forest and its thick stands of Colorado blue spruce, ponderosa pine and 2,000-year-old bristlecone pine, through the steep rocky walls of Engelman Canyon and , multiple switchback to the top of Pikes Peak. The vintage train re-opened in 2021 after extensive renovations, including to the tracks, and a new visitor center at the summit, where you can learn about the pioneers who shaped the region, including building the railroad.
Tickets start at $58.50 for adults online for a three-hour round-trip train ride. Extend the experience by staying at the Broadmoor, a member of the Historic Hotels of America group.
More information at Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway
Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
Route: Chama, N.M. – Osier, Colo. – Antonito, Colo.
Travel time: 6.5 hours
It is the longest (64 miles) and highest (10,015 feet) steam railroad in America, Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, often abbreviated as the C&TSRR, originally served southwest Colorado’s silver mining district. It is a National Historic Landmark that travels.
The narrow-gauge heritage railroad operates on 64 miles of track between Antonito, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico.
Owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico, the train crosses state borders 11 times, zigzagging along canyon walls with views 800 feet straight down, burrowing through two tunnels, and steaming over the 137-foot Cascade Trestle.
All trains steam along through deep forests of aspens and evergreens, across high plains filled with wildflowers, and through a rocky gorge of remarkable geologic formations.
Deer, antelope, elk, fox, eagles and even bear are frequently spotted on this family friendly, off-the grid adventure.
Passengers can experience history from a parlor car, coach car or the open-air gondolas, which are especially popular in the fall when the aspens shimmer their golden glow. The train runs Memorial Day through October.
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
Route: Durango, Colo. – Silverton, Colo.
Travel time: 3.5 hours
It’s called narrow gauge because the rails are set two feet closer together than standard rail lines, to fit the tighter spaces on mountainsides.
The line was built in the 1880s, during the silver mining boom, but now transports only sightseers 45.2 miles between the two towns. And every inch is picture-postcard beautiful.
There are picture postcard views of the Animas River and the soaring green mountains of the San Juan National Forest.
My favorite part of this trip is a memorable switchback that allows the train to reverse its route.
There’s also a FREE railroad museum in Durango included in your ticket.
Choose one-way or round-trip. More information here.
Grand Canyon Railway
Route: Williams, Ariz. – South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park – Williams, Ariz.
Travel time: 8.25 hours
The historic Grand Canyon Railway – which has been in service since 1901 – departs daily from Williams, Arizona to the bucket list Grand Canyon National Park.
The entire trip is awe-inspiring, including the actors in old-fashioned Western gear acting out an old-fashioned train robbery, like the ones you’ve seen in dozens of Hollywood movies.
It’s great fun for kids and grownups who are still kids at heart. I loved it!
Take your choice of vintage steam locomotives pulling open-air cars, on what’s called “Steam Saturdays”, or a modern engine and closed cars with panoramic and luxury seating.
You can do the round-trip in a single day, although that doesn’t leave much time for wandering around the incredible Grand Canyon.
There also are packages to stay overnight at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel and inside Grand Canyon National Park.
The Grand Canyon Railway is included in this AARP article on equally scenic vintage trains in the USA worth riding.
Mount Washington Cog Railway
Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Travel Time – 3 hour round-trip
Mount Washington is the tallest peak in the Northeast, in the White Mountains, and was once described by P. T. Barnum as “the second greatest show on Earth. In winter, it is famous for below-zero temperatures, often setting records, and for the hardy, who ski down.
The rest of the year , it’s popular for its scenic cog railway, especially for fall foliage vistas.
Known locally simply as “The Cog”, it is the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway, built in 1869, in the glory days of the iron horse, more famous for opening the American west than the northeast.
It is also one of the world’s steepest cog railways, with a grade of nearly 38 percent. That means there’s as much as a 14 foot elevation difference between passengers in the front and back ends.
Ride its biodiesel or vintage coal-fired steam locomotives through three climate zones to the 6,288-foot summit, for 360-views from the hilltop observation deck. The summit’s Tip Top House, now a museum, dates back to 1853, making it the oldest existing mountaintop building in North America.
Tickets start at $63 for one to three-hour round-trip ride, depending on the route. More information here.
Thanks to the travel trade publication Travel and Tour World, which reported on National Train Day in May, and inspired me to write this round-up of best train rides in the USA.
ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 20+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.
ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter currently serves as president of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA), the premier organization of automotive journalists in North America, and is a member of both the North American Travel Journalists Assn. (NATJA) and the North American Snowsports Journalists Assn. (NASJA).
Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.
Copyright (C) Evelyn Kanter
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