1 week ago
3
September 8, 2025 — 5:00am
No one does road trips like America. Thanks to a sprawling network of freeways, cheap fuel and a car-friendly culture, there’s an allure to hitting the road in the US that no other country can match. But what if you don’t want the stress of renting a car and driving on the other side of the road?
It turns out there’s a surprisingly viable alternative – it’s just not well-promoted. Amtrak offers several long-distance train trips that criss-cross the country and one in particular receives special acclaim.
Starting in San Francisco, the California Zephyr is a daily sleeper service that takes 53 hours to reach Chicago, passing through seven states and some of the nation’s most spectacular landscapes.
Rather than do it in one go, I decide to tackle the journey over two weeks. And instead of stopping off in well-known cities such as Sacramento, Denver and Salt Lake City, I’m more intrigued by the smaller, less-familiar destinations – the ones you probably wouldn’t visit unless you were taking the train.
It’s a quest to answer three questions: how feasible is a long-distance train trip in the world’s most car-obsessed nation? What is there to see in the lesser-known stops and states? And is it more affordable than the equivalent road trip? Jump aboard to find out.
“I’ve always wanted to do this trip,” says Charles, a 50-year-old from St Louis I meet on the first leg from San Francisco to Truckee, a 5½-hour trip that snakes into the heart of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We’re sitting in the upper-deck Sightseer Lounge, which offers mesmerising views of the increasingly dramatic landscape through large, domed windows. I have an assigned seat in coach class, a 2-2 configuration reminiscent of an old-school airline business class, but the Sightseer Lounge is both more scenic and more social.
On the lower deck is a cafe serving drinks and snacks while a separate dining car offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Meals are included for passengers who have splashed out on a room (more on these later) but can also be purchased by coach-class plebs too.
Let me make one thing clear: the Zephyr is not the Orient Express. The two-storey, gun-metal grey carriages are functional rather than fancy, with vinyl seats, industrial metal fittings and minimal decoration. There are power sockets but no Wi-Fi and the onboard toilets and showers have a distinctly Alcatraz vibe.
Unfortunately, this also applies to the service, which during my trip ranges from delightful to indifferent. One conductor spends hours repeating all the things that aren’t allowed (vaping, feet on seats, backpacks in aisles); another holds an entertaining impromptu quiz.
This is not a trip you take for onboard opulence; it’s a journey to savour the majesty outside. After the plunging canyons and snow-capped summits of the Sierras, the track descends onto Nevada’s arid high desert before threading through Utah’s multicoloured mesas.
Following the Colorado River, we inch up into the piercing peaks of the Rockies, squirming through red-rock gorges dotted with startled mountain goats and cheeky mooning rafters. A quick glimpse of Winter Park ski resort’s empty green slopes and then it’s into the 10-kilometre Moffat Tunnel to cross the Continental Divide (which, at 2816 metres, is the highest point on the Amtrak network).
After crawling through Denver’s urban sprawl, we plummet into the much-maligned Midwest, with its featureless plains of corn, soy and hay. Nebraska passes in a flat, silo-studded blur, whereas Iowa is unexpectedly undulating, a hypnotic hillscape peppered with crops and cattle.
And then, of course, there are the five stops I make along the way. In the historic town of Truckee, California, the highlight is e-biking around Donner Lake, Lake Tahoe’s similarly scenic but less-crowded cousin. In Elko, Nevada, it’s discovering an intriguing mix of cowboy and Basque culture thanks to thousands of Basque shepherds that emigrated in the 1800s. And in Grand Junction, Colorado, it’s a hike into Rattlesnake Canyon to see the world’s second-highest concentration of natural rock arches.
While I expected to be impressed by the first three destinations, the last two are genuine surprises. You don’t hear many people rave about Nebraska, but Omaha is fabulous, with a charming cobblestone historic district, an attractive riverfront park and a sprawling zoo that’s been named the best in the nation. It’s also where I eat the finest steak I’ve ever tasted – a whiskey-marinated fillet at The Drover, allegedly a favourite of Omaha investment guru Warren Buffett.
Bill Bryson famously began one of his books with the line: “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” But I wonder if he’s been back recently because Iowa’s capital has upped its game. The city I explore has an impressive botanic garden, a vibrant art scene and a funky district called the East Village that’s full of edgy boutiques and innovative eateries. The one Midwest stereotype that is true? Heartfelt hospitality. Without exception, everyone I meet is warm, welcoming and gracious.
Of course, wherever you get off, you have to get by without a car, but the train often stops in the centre of town and in some places I can walk to my accommodation.
No matter how many stops you make, if you do the whole trip, you’ll have to spend two nights on the train. For the first night, I book a “roomette”, a self-contained cabin that has two opposing seats that convert into an upper and lower bunk. It’s a tight squeeze for one person, let alone two. The bedrooms are bigger, with a compact en suite, and the family and accessible suites are more spacious again.
Amtrak ambitiously calls the onboard accommodation first class, which just proves their people have never been on a European train. Nevertheless, I still manage to get a few hours’ sleep and watching the sun rise over Utah’s snaking Price Canyon while snuggled up in bed is magical.
I had planned to reserve a roomette for the second night but in three months the price skyrocketed from an already-expensive $US432 ($658) to a downright-exorbitant $US806. And herein lies the lesson. The earlier you book the better. If I’d finalised this trip six months before departure, it would have cost $US900. When I checked again three months out, it was $US1500. That’s still cheaper than the equivalent car hire, though, which for the same period would have cost more than $US2000.
A coach seat on the second overnight is “only” $US126 so that’s where I end up. And it’s fine – wide and comfortable with generous recline and ample leg room. If you can sleep in premium economy, you’ll be able to sleep here.
One significant room perk is that it includes meals in the dining car. Breakfast and lunch aren’t much to shout about but the three-course dinners are surprisingly good – salad, steak and chocolate cake with a decent glass of wine. Coach class passengers can pay onboard and it’s well worth the $US45.
As a solo traveller, I dine with an eclectic range of fellow guests, from a breathwork coach and a casino-loving couple from Michigan to an 80-year-old Californian who credits her good health to a nightly glass of chardonnay.
Socialising with other passengers turns out to be another unexpected highlight. While I meet a handful of foreigners, most are American and a surprising number are Amish. Forbidden from flying, they use the train to visit Mexico for cheap medical treatment.
On the last leg into Chicago, I listen in on a conversation between 23-year-old Amos, a dark-suited Amish man from Kentucky, and 22-year-old Barrett, a soul-searching Steinbeck fan from Boston. Over the course of an hour, they discuss everything from religion and politics to gaming and social media.
It’s a fascinating, eye-opening encounter and a cultural exchange that could only happen on a train.
THE DETAILS
FLY
Qantas flies direct to San Francisco from Sydney and from Melbourne indirectly. See qantas.com
TRAIN
Departing daily from San Francisco to Chicago (and vice versa), the California Zephyr takes about 53 hours. Baggage allowance is two carry-ons (up to 23 kilograms each) and one personal item (up to 12 kilograms). On some legs, bags can be checked in at the station in advance; otherwise they need to be carried onboard. See amtrak.com
The writer was a guest of Brand USA, San Francisco Tourism Association, Visit Truckee Tahoe, Travel Nevada, Colorado Tourism, Visit Nebraska and Iowa Tourism.
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