According to a survey by EF Go Ahead Tours — methodology not independently verified — 93% of North American travelers are reportedly increasingly considering train tourism, with 78% interested in weaving rail into guided vacations. Scenic views topped the motivation list. That tracks. There is a genuine difference between traveling through a landscape and actually seeing it, and rail places you squarely inside the view rather than above the clouds at 35,000 feet.
Switzerland is where that distinction hits hardest. Five routes worth building an itinerary around:
- Glacier Express — roughly eight hours between Zermatt and St. Moritz, crossing 291 bridges through 91 tunnels, per the official operator at glacierexpress.ch. Reserve early.
- Gotthard Panorama Express — starts on a paddle steamer crossing Lake Lucerne, then continues by panoramic rail into the Alps. Multimodal and memorable.
- Jungfraujoch rack railway — Europe’s highest train station sits at 11,332 feet, accessible without mountaineering gear.
- Chocolate Train — the Cailler factory visit is built into the ticket. Scenery plus chocolate is not a complicated pitch.
- Rhaetian Railway — UNESCO World Heritage-listed engineering through the Albula and Bernina landscapes, terrain that resisted every shortcut.
Two Itineraries That Turn Transit Into the Story
Italy and Central Europe prove that arriving at a city-center station — rather than a distant airport terminal — changes the entire rhythm of a trip.
Italy’s high-speed rail connects Venice, Florence, and Rome in roughly 3.5 hours — verify current times directly with the operator, but the principle holds. You arrive at a central-city station, not a terminal forty minutes from anything. The route passes through Tuscany and the Apennines, so the movement between cultural capitals becomes a continuous overland journey rather than a gap in the itinerary.
Central Europe runs on a similar logic. EuroCity and Railjet services connect Berlin, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest — each leg a separate national chapter, all without a single short-haul flight. Imperial architecture, Cold War history, and four distinct food cultures link into one coherent story rather than four isolated city breaks. Travelers venturing through rural Germany on these routes will find on-ground costs pleasantly manageable.
The London–Paris–Lausanne–Milan–Venice corridor carries the atmosphere of the Orient Express era without claiming to be it. Modern scheduled services, historically rich cities, grand stations. For many travelers, that combination is reason enough.
The Pacific Northwest Answers European Rail Envy Without the Transatlantic Flight
Amtrak Cascades connects three major cities through volcanic landscapes and evergreen coastline — a North American rail journey that needs no comparison to hold its own.
Amtrak Cascades connects Vancouver, BC, Seattle, Portland, and Eugene across roughly ten hours and twenty-five minutes end-to-end, per Amtrak’s official route page. The corridor passes near Mount St. Helens and the Columbia River Gorge, with Puget Sound adding a coastal dimension to the Pacific Northwest scenery. Note: travelers crossing the US–Canada border should verify current entry-document requirements with official government sources before booking.
Mount Rainier is spectacular and worth a dedicated trip — but it is not served by Amtrak Cascades. Separate ground transportation is required to reach it.
What all seven of these destinations share is a straightforward argument: some trains make a wide itinerary feel coherent, while others make the journey itself the main event. The best rail vacations tend to include both.
