Ranked, with the working shown
The best train tours in United States
85 hotel-based trips in United States had enough verified data to score; hostel and self-guided rail-pass trips are not ranked here. The ranking below is fully mechanical; here is exactly how it works:
- Eligibility: only hotel-based tours are ranked. Trips built around hostels or self-arranged accommodation are left out, since these guides recommend hotel-inclusive tours for the general traveller.
- Rail share (35%): the percent of the trip actually on trains, from the itinerary.
- Value (20%): price per day against the other hotel-based trips on this page (cheaper per day scores higher).
- Data completeness (25%): full day-by-day itinerary, imagery, inclusions, and verified price.
- Departure breadth (20%): how many months the operator publishes departures for.
Two-day winter rail getaway from Anchorage to Talkeetna and back
- Rail share
- 100
- Value
- 61
- Completeness
- 85
- Departures
- 0
2 days · from $379 ($190/day)
Round-trip Amtrak rail trip from Los Angeles to Grand Canyon's South Rim
- Rail share
- 80
- Value
- 76
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
5 days · from $739 ($148/day)
Round trip Amtrak rail loop from Chicago to Seattle, LA, New Orleans
- Rail share
- 75
- Value
- 81
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
12 days · from $1,699 ($142/day)
Round-trip rail journey from Chicago to San Antonio and New Orleans
- Rail share
- 56
- Value
- 95
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
9 days · from $969 ($108/day)
Independent 11-day Amtrak roundtrip from Pittsburgh via Seattle and San Francisco
- Rail share
- 64
- Value
- 74
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
11 days · from $1,659 ($151/day)
Amtrak roundtrip from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon via Los Angeles
- Rail share
- 67
- Value
- 60
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
6 days · from $1,149 ($192/day)
Amtrak roundtrip from Sacramento to the Grand Canyon via Los Angeles
- Rail share
- 67
- Value
- 56
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
6 days · from $1,179 ($197/day)
Independent roundtrip rail vacation from Chicago through Texas via Texas Eagle
- Rail share
- 44
- Value
- 93
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
9 days · from $1,019 ($113/day)
Independent rail loop from Chicago to Seattle, Vancouver and Toronto
- Rail share
- 70
- Value
- 41
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
11 days · from $2,959 ($269/day)
Independent 11-day rail loop from Milwaukee to Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria
- Rail share
- 45
- Value
- 84
- Completeness
- 100
- Departures
- 0
11 days · from $1,489 ($135/day)