When you hear someone talk about a train ride, they’re most likely talking about it as a means of getting from Point A to Point B. But for many people, a train ride is a vacation in itself.
Today’s railroads can take you to pretty much every corner of the country—from lakes in Louisiana to the mountains in Montana, forgotten towns in the midwest, the Pacific Ocean, and everything else in between—and loyal train travelers tend to love them for the same reasons: the people you meet, the scenery you see, and the ease and convenience with which you can pop out and explore new places. We spoke to four people who plan their vacations around the rail system. They opened up about their love for the rails, what ignited it and what keeps them coming back for more. Here’s what they said.
“There is no better way to see the vastness of the United States.”
Jim Loomis lives in Hawaii, so the first 3,000 miles of any trip has to be by air. But once he makes it to the mainland, it’s all trains from there on out. Throughout the course of his rail travels, which have encompassed over 300,000 miles, Jim has written books on what it’s really like to travel by train and continues to post tips and stories to his blog Trains & Travel.
My love for trains really began when I was a kid growing up in Connecticut. At the time, my grandparents lived in Ft. Myers, Florida, so every couple of years my family would book a train trip and travel all the way down the East Coast from New York to Florida.
I loved it, and as a kid, I found it to be the greatest adventure. At 22, I moved to Hawaii and didn’t have the money to get back to the mainland for several years. In the late ‘90s, when I could finally afford to fly to the West Coast and take some train trips, I convinced my wife and daughter to accompany me on a cross-country train ride to Florida. But when I went to find literature on North American train travel, there was nothing—and I realized this was a big space I could tap into. I’ve been traveling by train ever since.
All in all, I’ve train-traveled over 300,000 miles. To me, there is no better way to see the vastness of the United States. There’s such variety in the country’s landscape; in the midwest, you’ll see fields of corn and soybeans before the train climbs mountains and shoots across the desert.
My favorite trip, by far, has been Amtrak’s very popular California Zephyr, which goes from Chicago to Denver to Salt Lake City to the Bay Area. The ride climbs up 9,000 feet in Denver and passes through the Moffat Tunnel before following the Colorado River for a couple hundred miles. From there, it goes through several gorges as it makes its way to Salt Lake City. Then it climbs over the Sierras—where you can look down and see the Donner Pass—and chugs on through to Sacramento. It’s spectacular.
If you’re traveling a long distance, my number one tip is to get a sleeper car if you can afford to do so. Get to know some other people on the train—learn about their lives, and what brought them to the rails. That, to me, is the most interesting part of long distance train traveling. I’ve had many wonderful conversations with fascinating people, some of whom have become lifelong friends.
“You really get to see so many different people and ways of life.”
Madison Butler lives in Minneapolis and is a communications manager with the non-profit Rail Passenger Association. Growing up in central Kentucky, there weren’t many trains around, but Butler quickly fell in love with the rails, and the convenience they offered, when they took a 50-day, 25-city trip in 2019.
My biggest train trip has definitely been my favorite. In 2019, right before the pandemic, I traveled to 25 cities in 50 days through an internship with the Rail Passenger Association. I grew up in a rural town in Kentucky where we didn’t have much public transportation. As a teenager, I took a train ride from Chicago to New York and to Canada and saw the potential of what rail infrastructure could look like in smaller communities such as the town I grew up in.
As I got older, the high cost of flying and hassle of moving through TSA at the airport definitely pushed me to explore train travel a bit more. Not to mention, driving—and going on road trips—was a big part of my childhood, and I found rail travel to be much more invigorating and convenient. When you travel by train, you get to travel from city center to city center. The train literally drops you off right where you need to be. To me, the reduction in stress the train offers is revolutionary.
What has caught my attention the most is the differences in train travel across the country. When you travel on the ground, you really get to see so many different people and ways of life.
I definitely recommend the Empire Builder, which runs from Chicago to either Seattle or Portland. You get to go through Glacier National Park and Montana, and see all the wilds of the greater north and Northwest. It’s stunning. I love to go to the sight-seer lounge and look out the big glass windows. Gather up your friends, take some snacks, a board game, or a bottle of wine, and have happy hour as you take in the sights.
For anyone looking to get into train travel, start with a day ride. Take a trip from your hometown to another downtown station a few hours away. I think you get the best of both worlds—you can watch things go by on the train, then go explore a new place. If you want to take a longer ride, look for trips out of Chicago, which is a major rail hub. If you can afford it, splurge on a sleeper car. You can also buy Amtrak’s Rail Pass, which gives you the opportunity to hop on and off at various locations throughout the trip so you can get some exploring in.
“The people you meet in the dining car or the scenic car make for lasting memories.”
Dale Buss has been traveling the rails for 23 years, mostly doing solo adventures all over the U.S. Now that he’s retired, Dale goes on a train trip each year with his buddy. Together they’ve seen it all, from Arizona and Utah all the way to Canada, New England, and West Virginia.
I took my first train trip back in 1998—I booked the Southwest Sheep down to Flagstaff, Arizona, and was fascinated with steam locomotives and the whole experience of traveling by train. Since 2013, I’ve been taking an annual train trip with my friend. That first year, we traveled to Arizona, Utah, and Wisconsin. The next year we traveled to the Calgary Stampede, an annual rodeo and festival up in Canada. We also did a trip around New England, one all throughout the West Coast, and another down south through West Virginia.
Of all the trips, my vacation to New Orleans really stood out to me. The sights and scenery around New Orleans—specifically Lake Pontchartrain—are breathtaking. The train goes right across the lake through the swamp area along the shore.
There’s a lot to love about train travel. First, the vehicle itself—I’ve always been fascinated by steam locomotives. There’s also the scenery that you don’t get to appreciate when you’re flying or driving. The people you meet in the dining car or the scenic car make for lasting memories. Traveling by train is inherently a leisurely trip, you take your time to get to your destination and take in a ton along the way.
If you’re going long distance, I recommend booking a sleeper car (and grab the bottom bunk if you can, it’s larger!). Don’t skip out on the dining car as it’s a great way to meet people and make new friends. Try to stop at different cities and towns along the way. And if you really want to splurge on an experience or get some inspiration, look at the trips planned out by Vacations By Rail—they have a lot of unique journeys all dependent on where the train goes next.
“I fell in love with this old-fashioned idea of the rails.”
Joe Aiello grew up in Chicago, and though he occasionally took the train up to Milwaukee, it wasn’t until graduate school that he became fascinated by train travel and all the small towns he would stumble upon between stations. He now works as a field coordinator with the Rail Passengers Association.
I was born and raised in Chicago, which was considered the epicenter of trail travel. Growing up, though, I only sporadically traveled by train—mostly up to Milwaukee to catch a ballgame or concert. In graduate school, where I studied transportation development, I fell in love with this old-fashioned idea of the rails.
I adore the idea of the train being the vehicle to your destination. So many towns and cities across the country have built up their downtowns and local ecosystems around the train station. Some of my favorite places to travel to by train include Meridian, Mississippi; Havre, Montana; and La Junta, Colorado. If not for the train service, some of these downtowns might not even exist.
For example, I really enjoy visiting Essex, Montana—a place that has a year-round population of about 140 people. There, you can find the Izaak Walton Inn, where you can sit on the porch and grab a great meal. You can also easily get to Glacier National Park. As a city kid, I never would have stumbled upon a place like that if not for the rails.
My big tip: don’t be afraid to try out other people’s stuff. Go to a place like Meridian. Go to Yuma, New Mexico, or La Junta, Colorado. Look at the map, get off at these stations, and go explore and enjoy them.
These conversations were edited and condensed for clarity.