There's a moment on the Amtrak ride between New York and Washington, DC, when the tracks cross the Susquehanna River near Havre de Grace, Maryland, and the water opens up wide enough to make even jaded commuters press their faces to the glass. If one of the busiest rail corridors in the country can pull that off, imagine what the properly scenic routes can do.
A new round-up from Condé Nast Traveler makes the case that America's trains deserve to be destinations in their own right, not just a way to get somewhere. The starting point: Amtrak operates more than 30 routes covering every region of the United States, from the deserts of the Southwest to the Pacific coastline of California, with serious mountain scenery in between.
The long-haul routes are the obvious stars. Amtrak's western trains are famous for hours-long stretches through national forests, river canyons, and mountain passes that you simply cannot see from an interstate. The Southwest routes trade greenery for red rock and open desert, while the California coastal services deliver ocean views for mile after mile. These are slow journeys by design — the whole point is watching the country change shape outside your window.
But the piece also pushes readers beyond Amtrak. Private rail operators in Alaska and Hawaii run their own scenic trains, and they're easy to overlook when planning a trip. In Alaska, rail travel is genuinely part of how you experience the state — wilderness, glaciers and peaks rolling past on routes that have no road equivalent. In Hawaii, a scenic train adds an unexpected, nostalgic dimension to a trip most people plan entirely around beaches.
The writer's own habit frames the whole idea: every year they take the train from New York back home to southeastern Virginia instead of flying, and even on that familiar route the views keep surprising them. That's the quiet argument running through the piece — slow travel rewards attention, and trains are the easiest way to give a trip that pace without any extra effort on your part.
Why it matters for travellers: a scenic train leg can be the cheapest way to upgrade a trip. You don't need a special holiday built around rail travel — you can swap one domestic flight for a train ride on a route through scenery you'd otherwise never see, and the journey becomes a highlight rather than dead time. The practical challenges are picking the right route for the season (mountain routes can be weather-dependent) and booking early, since the most photogenic trains and seat classes sell out well in advance, especially in summer and autumn foliage season.
Whether you want desert, coastline or mountains — or a rail line in Alaska or Hawaii that most visitors never think to book — there's almost certainly an American train ride that justifies the trip all by itself.
Story via Condé Nast Traveler.