An unsung sleeper train is the most romantic way to explore the US

‘I haven’t taken a train since the Nixon presidency,” our friend and host in Beverly Hills announces as he drops me and my friend Matt off at LA’s Union Station for our two-night journey across the country to San Antonio in Texas. “Or maybe it was LBJ. I was in college, anyway.” Like many Americans, Dan tends to fly when he travels out of state, while a cab driver we meet at the other end says he prefers to drive. He has hit the road for 22 hours straight to visit family in California, he tells us proudly, fuelled by five energy drinks and a couple of drive-thru meals. “Yo, I didn’t even know there was a train!”
Suffice to say, outside Amtrak’s busy northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, most Americans don’t travel by rail — even the station lounge attendant, with 35 years’ service under his belt, only took his first long-distance trip last year. “I thought I was going to go mad on there for three days, or would need to drink to get through it,” he laughs as he shows us where to leave our bags. “But it turned out I enjoyed myself. There’s a lot to see.”
Given my weakness for the romance of long-distance train travel, the two-day trip on the Sunset Limited route between glamorous LA and down-home Texas — Rodeo Drive to rodeo central if you will — attracts me almost as much as the destination: San Antonio, home of the Alamo and Spanish missions, cradle of Tex-Mex and one of only two Unesco creative cities of gastronomy in the entire country. A full 1,350 miles east of LA (and 90 minutes’ drive from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport for those who’d prefer to fly), it’s a historic and cultural gem often overlooked by international visitors, served by America’s oldest continuously operating named train service. The Sunset terminates beyond San Antonio in New Orleans, and first puffed into town in 1894, conjuring thoughts of the Old West to my British mind.
But our lounge-attendant friend is right — the sightseeing starts well before we board. Having already been in LA long enough to experience its notorious traffic, I persuade Matt to arrive ridiculously early for the Sunset Limited’s 10pm departure on the basis it will give us time to explore the area. We start with the LA terminus itself: a 1930s art deco and Spanish colonial revival palace often described as the “last grand railway station built in America”, its soaring ceilings and gleaming marble tiles are pure Hollywood glamour — so much so that it even hosted the 2021 Academy Awards.
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Union Station sits on land that was once Chinatown — and before that probably an indigenous Tongva village — in one of the oldest parts of a city where history can sometimes feel like an endangered commodity. The shaded central square of the original Spanish colonial Pueblo de Los Angeles is just across the road, where stately seniors dance to mariachi music and school trips gather in noisy huddles before visiting the cluster of museums.
We duck into LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a space dedicated to Hispanic and Native American history and culture that feels like it ought to be better known, given California was part of Mexico until 1848 and that Latin Americans remain the state’s largest single ethnic group today (free; lapca.org).
Behind the main building sits a beautifully designed cookery school, demonstration space and culinary library called LA Cocina de Gloria Molina, which I’m keen to visit as I’m partly here to research a book on the modern face of American cuisine. This place is an important community resource because, as the curator Ximena Martin explains, many immigrants don’t get the chance to learn from their mothers and grandmothers as they would have done traditionally. Sadly there’s no café on site, but we are minutes from the taquerias of Olvera Street and the famed gravy-drenched beef sandwiches at Philippe’s, which also sells travel-friendly slabs of cherry pie and, more surprisingly, vivid pink pickled eggs, though I can’t advise taking one on a two-day train ride (mains from £10; philippes.com).
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Clutching boxes of pastry, we make our way back to the lounge. Sleeper passengers are chauffeured to their carriage well ahead of departure to settle in, and having been shown our compact “roomette”, which the attendant Harold will convert from two comfortable seats to two comfortable-but-narrow bunks each evening, we buy miniatures of bourbon from the on-board shop and sit watching the activity on the platform until, just before 11pm, still waiting for the train to depart, we admit defeat and retire to bed.
As Matt is well over 6ft, I decline his kind offer to take the top bunk for himself, and once I haul myself up there I sleep surprisingly well in a soft bed, rocked by the motion of the train once we finally get going at 11.15pm, though I’m glad of my earplugs given the driver’s liberal use of the horn. Amtrak’s reputation for tardiness seems to stem from both its policy of waiting for delayed connections, as in our case, and freight taking priority on some lines. But if I was in a hurry I wouldn’t be on the train in the first place.
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Desperate not to miss a thing, we both wake at 5am and after a better shower than I would have imagined possible on a moving vehicle, race to the “sightseer” observation car, where the seats face floor-to-ceiling windows. We burst in with the breathless enthusiasm of people eager to claim prime sunloungers, only to find the carriage empty save for a coach passenger asleep on one of the banquettes. The carriage has the same roomy but spartan feel of the rest of the train, all angular steel and wipe-clean blue leatherette. Feeling faintly silly, we take our pick of the seats and settle in for the show. Having passed Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park overnight, the train is already in the Arizona desert, pink in the dawn light and increasingly thrilling as the sun rises higher, along with the cacti.
The first mesas — the distinctive flat-topped rock formations that are as much a symbol of the southwest as Navajo textiles and adobe churches — appear on the horizon as we sit down for breakfast in the dining car. Buttery grits, berries, yoghurt and a croissant for me; bacon, eggs, sausage and hash browns for Matt, all served on china with proper cutlery and cloth napkins (a rarity in American restaurants) by cheerful staff — though we don’t talk much, distracted by the view. Stations come and go every few hours, a couple of which are longer “stretch stops” where there’s just enough time to get out on to hot platforms to be grateful for the Sunset’s air conditioning.
For lunch and dinner, where the sittings are shorter, we find ourselves eating with fellow passengers, which gives me a chance to find out who actually does travel by train in the States. Jean, a retiree from Orange County, is on her way to visit friends in Georgia. She’s the only one of the group left in California, she explains sadly: no one else could afford to stay in the area once they gave up work. She’ll also be moving soon, once she has sold the family home. It’s her first time on a long-distance train — she usually drives — but her friend suggested it and “I thought, why not? It’s really nice to see places, and fun to sleep on a train. I’ll fly back — but I’d do it again.” It is generally cheaper to fly than to take the train in the States, but it seems that the latter is competitive as an experience: 15 hours of these views doesn’t feel like bad value to me.
During dinner, of Amtrak’s signature flat-iron steak (which, like the shower, is better than you’d expect), we talked to Ann, a grants specialist from Texas A&M University returning from a conference in Seattle. She prefers to spread the trip over three days, getting some work done on board and enjoying the time to herself.
After rolling through countless one-horse towns that look all but dead, past RV parks sprouting from the desert like oases, we cross the Pecos River Canyon on what, we’re told, was once the world’s third highest bridge, and come into El Paso, Texas. And we see it: the border wall, which looks more like a fence and appears, from a distance at least, to terminate abruptly at the base of a scrubby hill. It’s strange, seeing such a contentious political football in real life. It feels even more surreal as we gaze at the colourful houses of Ciudad Juarez perched on the other side of the Rio Grande, and join the eager queue for “the burrito lady” Juanita’s $3 green chilli beef wraps on the platform during a rest stop.
We don’t talk politics with our fellow travellers, but I’m struck by how easily people fall to chatting about almost anything else in this temporary shared living room of the sightseer car. As the landscape turns greener and ranch cattle start to appear by the side of the track, I meet Barb, who lives outside Dallas and delivers truck cabs for a living. “I drive these roads all the time, but I like the train. Taking things a little slower, seeing things out the window. When you fly you just see airports.”
The onboard chat ranges from rail enthusiasts bragging about how many times they’ve taken the Empire Builder train line from Seattle to Chicago to wannabe off-gridders discussing the digging and maintenance of wells. While waiting to disembark at a late night “stretch stop”, a woman with a cigarette already jammed into her mouth hears my accent and urgently warns me that our royal family are shapeshifting lizards.
Thankfully this information doesn’t disturb my last sleep on board, and the next morning, stepping into the warm Texas dawn in the riverside city of San Antonio after a day and two nights on the train, there’s none of the sense of dislocation that so often comes with air travel. The culture, the landscape, even the cooking here halfway across the continent may be different, but for once that makes perfect sense, because we’ve been watching the landscape shift as we moved away from the ocean, through the desert and into cowboy country.
For me, it has felt a far more satisfying experience than flying; part of the holiday, rather than something to be endured to get to it, and a window seat for a sightseeing tour of the US I would never have otherwise glimpsed. It’s a perfect bridge between two very different, fascinating cities, and a great jumping-off point for a couple of days exploring San Antonio’s rich history at the centre of the Old West — a history that makes a lot more sense having visited LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes and seen the border with our own eyes.
A celebratory breakfast of Tex-Mex chilaquiles — fried tortillas scrambled with eggs and plenty of cheese, drenched in a rich red salsa and topped with slow-cooked pork — simply confirms what we already know. We’re a long way from the protein bowls and green juices of LA. Thirty hours, to be precise.
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Felicity Cloake was a guest of Amtrak, which has two nights’ all-inclusive on the Sunset Limited from Los Angeles to San Antonio from £100pp in a seat and from £550 in a sleeper cabin for two (amtrak.com); Visit San Antonio (visitsanantonio.com); and Hotel Valencia Riverwalk, which has room-only doubles from £154 (hotelvalencia-riverwalk.com). Fly to Los Angeles and return from San Antonio or Austin. Fourteen nights’ room only, with seven nights in sleeper cabins on Amtrak trains and seven in hotels, starting and ending in Washington DC via Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and New Orleans, from £2,499pp (amtrakvacations.co.uk). Fly to Washington DC
By Katie Bowman
This is surely the most famous American rail journey, spawning countless documentaries about its story. It follows the path of the pioneers from Chicago to San Francisco, via Nebraska, the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Omaha, Denver and Salt Lake City. The train itself — the Zephyr — is the big star among Amtrak’s fleet, dubbed a “superliner”, with a panoramic lounge car whose enormous windows showcase every one of the 2,438 miles through an unforgettable frame. It’s a year-round option, with snowy landscapes being particularly captivating. Details Seven nights’ room-only from £2,895pp, including two nights’ all-inclusive on board and five in hotels, city tours in San Francisco and Chicago, and flights (bon-voyage.co.uk)
From Los Angeles, this rail trip heads north, following the Pacific coast all the way to Seattle. It’s an excellent way for non-drivers to experience a coastal journey or for those wanting to dodge the traffic and tourists of the famous Pacific Coast Highway. After a couple of days in the City of Angels (the price includes hotels here), you’ll board the train as it curves along the California shoreline, then enters the forests and mountains of Oregon and Washington state. It’s just one night and two days on board, before you pull into Seattle.Details Five nights’ room only from £799pp, with one on board and four in hotels (amtrakvacations.co.uk). Fly to LA and return from Seattle
Big skies and grand vistas are what this rail journey is all about, as it whistles through majestic wilderness in North Dakota, on through Montana panoramas, and passing Glacier National Park. There are some mighty city moments in there too — hence the name Empire Builder — as it begins in Chicago and ends in Seattle, ticking off Minneapolis and St Paul. Trailfinders offers the option to add the Coast Starlight to this trip (see above), so that your inland epic ends with some ocean views.Details Nine nights’ room-only from £2,189pp, including three on board and six in cities, with many meals and entry to Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks (trailfinders.com). Fly to Chicago and out of Seattle
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