The Most Adventurous Train Journeys in the World

There’s nothing quite like hopping on a train and watching the world go by. Train travel is more popular than ever with intrepid travelers in 2025, not only as a more sustainable alternative to flying, but as a way to gain a deeper experience with the destination. The journey itself becomes the focus — and the ultimate adventure.

“You don’t know who will sit beside you, what regional food you’ll find on board, which villages and towns will flit past the window,”says Monisha Rajesh, a train travel expert and author of Moonlight Express: Around the World By Night Train and Around the World in 80 Trains. “So much happens between the walls of a carriage, while at the same time the world continues to turn outside, giving you a unique understanding of the shape of the land, its bends and twists, the way mountains rise and recede, how deserts expand and close in. And all of this before you even reach your destination.”

We asked Rajesh and other travel writers for their most adventurous train journeys around the world. From the Arctic Circle train from Sweden to Norway, to ones closer to home, such as the Empire Builder that passes through Glacier National Park (where you could be lucky to spot a grizzly from your seat), these train journeys were chosen for their proximity to outdoor adventures, and incredible landscapes they pass through.

Hop aboard. Here are our picks for the most thrilling train adventures around the world in 2025.

Expreso del Sur, Bolivia

The Route: Oruro-Villazón
Duration: 373 miles, 19 hours
The Fare: USD$18.50
The Adventure: Salar de Uyuni; Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa; Cordillera de Chichas

After departing the tin mining city of Oruro in western Bolivia, the Expreso del Sur bore south through one of the world’s most dramatic, and least hospitable, landscapes. Gazing out of the carriage window, I watched the urban sprawl gradually dissolve into the altiplano, a vast plateau stretched taut between two branches of the Andes at an average altitude of more than 12,000ft.

Sparsely populated, bitterly cold, largely treeless and starved of rain, it was a stark yet beautiful landscape, particularly when we skirted the shoreline of the otherworldly Salar de Uyuni, the world’s biggest salt flat. Built in the late 19 th century to transport the altiplano’s abundant metals and minerals, the railway line once ran from Bolivia’s de facto capital La Paz to the Pacific port of Antofagasta in Chile. The boom has long passed and the route is now plied by the Ferrobús, which vaguely resembles a coach on rails and follows a truncated route between Oruro and the town of Villazón on the Argentine border. En route it calls in at the remote, windswept tourist hub of Uyuni and the quieter but similarly isolated town of Tupiza.

Most travellers disembark at the former and take guided jeep tours across the salar, a pancake-flat, blindingly white expanse the size of Jamaica ringed with chalk-smudge peaks and dotted with islands studded with giant cacti. These trips generally take in the neighbouring Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, a realm of smouldering volcanoes, high-pressure geysers and mineral-stained lakes sprinkled with flamingos, as as well as the Cementerio de Trenes (Train Cemetery). The latter, on the outskirts of Uyuni, is an evocative collection of abandoned steam locomotives, wagons and carriages from the railway’s heyday slowly disintegrating in the harsh climatic conditions of the altiplano.— Shafik Meghji

The Elephant Express, Zimbabwe

The Route: Dete to Ngamo, Zimbabwe
Duration: 75 miles, 3.5 hours
The Fare: $300 (for the train, not per person)
The Adventure: Spot elephants and lions from a train

The first time I drove a train I worried most about animals wandering onto the tracks. Zebras, kudu, lions—all such unpredictable beasts. Mostly it was the elephants, though. There are a lot of those in this corner of Zimbabwe. Think 50,000 of them.

Anyone can drive the Elephant Express; you just have to ask. The train itself is less of a train and more of a trolley—a one-car locomotive with open-air seats under a proud metal roof. The train was custom built using Land Cruiser parts by a former game ranger named Mark Butcher, a Zimbabwean who runs a safari company called Imvelo that operates in and around Hwange National Park, Africa’s fourth largest, southeast of Victoria Falls.

When you stay at Imvelo Safari’s camps in the area, the train will take you the final 50 miles from a small depot town called Dete to the camps. It’s a helluva way to start an African bush adventure. Imagine rolling through the coolest zoo ever if zoos had no fences.

Imvelo under Butch has been instrumental in reintroducing white rhinos into the area while giving local communities ownership of the conservation and tourism opportunities. Now you can go for runs with the Cobras, a squad of local rangers assigned to protect the rhinos, and  watch how a pair of Belgian malinois can track down would-be poachers. Coolest of all, the Cobras will take you walking with the rhinos as they graze on rich grasses.

On the Elephant Express we trundled through mopane and teakwood forests and across the grassy veldt. The tracks, gun-barrel straight, are some of the only working vestiges of the Cape-to-Cairo railway, the 19th century British imperial boondoggle that aimed to tie the continent together from Egypt to South Africa.

After sitting in the conductor’s chair, I retired to the rear, letting the sweet African air purl around me as curious pachyderms emerged from the brush. Gangly giraffes punctuated the grasslands like goofy exclamation points. I watched lilac breasted rollers flitter through the trees and spied impalas hiding under the acacias. Later, I’d watch a lioness carry her tiny, fuzzy cubs over the tracks one by one. — Tim Neville

The Rocky Mountaineer: First Passage to the West

The Route: Vancouver, British Columbia to Banff, Alberta
Duration: 600 miles, two days
The Fare:  From $1,980 USD per person for two days on board Rocky Mountaineer’s SilverLeaf or GoldLeaf Service, including two breakfasts and two lunches and one night hotel in Kamloops.
The Adventure: Travel along the iconic Spiral Tunnels, the Continental Divide, and Lake Louise.

Outside the train’s glass-domed coach, cornfields and cranberry bogs ran toward the horizon, punctuated by ramshackle red barns. Although I grew up not far from here, watching the bucolic landscape go by at the pace of the railroad allowed me to notice these details as if for the first time. The Rocky Mountaineer’s First Passage to the West journey began in my hometown of Vancouver on the coast of British Columbia, skirting the Fraser River through the interior Okanagan region before climbing into the Rocky Mountains and ending at the resort town of Banff, cradled by soaring, snow-encrusted peaks.

Over the two-day journey, which included a night in the riverside town of Kamloops, I scampered down to the observation deck at every opportunity, leaning over the guardrail to watch the train snake through the landscape with the wind in my hair. I took in tawny, arid hills dotted with aromatic ponderosa pine and sage, the sparkling Fraser River tumbling by, and the jagged Rockies emerging in Yoho National Park, marking the Continental Divide that follows the ridge of the Rockies between B.C. and Alberta. Along the route, Rocky Mountaineer guides imbued the landscape with an interpretive history of the region’s gold rush and 19th-century Canadian Pacific Railway landmarks, as well as an understanding of Indigenous culture in the two provinces.

The town of Kamloops is marked by sandstone canyons and forested hills, as well as sprawling mountain bike trails.  The crenelated silhouette of Castle Mountain marks the train’s arrival into Banff, where endless hiking and climbing adventures await. Above Lake Louise in Banff National Park, hike to a historic teahouse at Lake Agnes, continuing to Big Beehive or Devil’s Thumb, or head deeper into the backcountry along the three-day Skoki Loop Trail. On the nearby B.C. side of the Rockies in Kootenay National Park is the four-day Rockwall Trail, a stunning backcountry route that ends at Floe Lake, and straddling the two provinces is a trek in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park.

Before kicking off the journey in Vancouver, head into iconic Stanley Park with Talaysay Tours to understand the old-growth forest through the lens of the Coast Salish Indigenous peoples. Or grab a paddle board and glide over English Bay at sunset, or discover the coastal mountains on trails that end at glacial lakes in Garibaldi Park, and hour’s drive from Vancouver. — Chloe Berge 

Empire Builder, Chicago to Seattle

The Route: Chicago to Seattle or Portland (at the Spokane station, designated cars are attached to a different train heading to Oregon, while the remainder heads to Seattle)
Duration: 2,206 miles; 46 hours

The atmosphere is electric as the diesel engine rumbles out of Chicago’s Union Station. Sitting aboard Amtrak’s famous Empire Builder train – one of the country’s most scenic train rides – the other passengers and I would spend more than 46 hours traversing seven states (eight, if you count Oregon), watching the green rolling hills of the Midwest give way to the desolate beauty of the plains, before craning our necks to see the mammoth mountains of Montana rising from the ground.

Most riders were doing the route nonstop, but I was getting off at Glacier National Park, the undisputed crown jewel of the route, for a few days of fun and adventure before jumping back on the train to complete my journey.

In the dining car, staff paired up unlikely dinner companions every meal. They say there are no strangers on an Amtrak, only people you haven’t been forced to make awkward small talk with as you all squish together in an undersized booth. Luckily, we all had the same percolating excitement about our epic train adventure. Every passenger was either on their first big train journey or their one-hundredth.

Disembarking at the West Glacier station just outside the park boundaries, I watched the train continue west, the smell of diesel smoke permeating the air. By the time I found my rental car in the parking lot, that smell had been replaced by the scent of aspen forests and recent rain.

Over the next few days, I paddled Lake McDonald, where I watched the mirror reflection of the mountains grow closer with each paddle stroke. Venturing to the east side of the park, I sang out-of-tune country songs while hiking to Hidden Lake, hoping that any grizzly within earshot would run in the opposite direction. I floated the middle fork of the Flathead River with my fly rod and a guide from Glacier Anglers and Outfitters, catching (and releasing) a dozen or more cutthroat and rainbow trout. If it wasn’t a perfect four days, it was damn close. — Robert Annis

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado 

The Route: Durango, Colorado to Silverton, Colorado
Duration: 45 miles, 3.5 hours each way; 9 hours roundtrip with two-hour stop at terminus town
The Fare: $109 – $335 depending on class; season passes for $170-320

Listening to the shriek of the steam whistle as it echoes eerily through the Animas River Canyon, I have no trouble believing that the first passengers to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad when it was completed in 1882 gazed out at the jagged peaks and crashing rapids with the same awe I feel 137 years later.

It’s possible to do this round trip from either origin point; I’ve chosen to depart from Durango and overnight in Silverton, though many choose to take this ride as a nine -hour day trip with a two hour stop in the terminus town.

My reason for overnighting in Silverton was to challenge myself with one of this rugged silver mining hamlet’s many high-altitude hikes, among them the lung-challenging six-mile round-trip to Highland Mary Lakes, which gains more than 1500 feet in altitude before arriving at the granite-scooped lake, surrounded by tundra at 12,300 feet. Equally rugged adventure possibilities come via adventure packages offered by local outfitters that put you straight on the river or skimming over the canopy with no need for additional planning.

Try your mettle on the course of 27 ziplines — the most in the world — at Soaring Tree Top Adventures, an adventure center midway on the ride reachable only by train or plane. You can also include a wild and crazy jeep ride on the rugged Silverton Skyway or a two-hour guided rafting trip with Mountain Rafting with a round-trip ride.

There’s one more possible thrill to be had on your ride: a rare spotting of Bigfoot, more commonly known locally as Sasquatch, who’s been sighted – or allegedly sighted, depending on your belief status – in the Silverton and Durango areas. More importantly, the most recent of these sightings, just two years ago, was by a railroad passenger, so keep a lookout for a tall, hairy figure, or for massive footprints, which are also commonly reported, and listen for the mysterious creature’s spine-tingling howls. — Melanie Haiken

The Arctic Circle Night Train, Sweden to Norway

The Route: Stockholm, Sweden to Narvik, Norway
Duration: 1215 miles, 18.5 hours
The Fare: 136 USD in a six-person couchette compartment, one-way
The Adventure: Disembark at Kiruna for cross-country skiing, dog-sledding and aurora hunting in Abisko National Park or stay on until Narvik, a gateway hub to the Lofoten Islands and Tromsø

Departing Stockholm Central station just after 6pm, this comfortable sleeper night train service curls up the backbone of Sweden, crossing over the border into Norway and ending 137 miles inside the Arctic Circle, at the northernmost station in Europe. It was mid-March when I boarded, the sky a midnight blue, the air clean and crisp. As the train thundered out of the capital, turning north, I cupped my hands against the window and watched as bodies of ink-black water glittered under the glow of lampposts. Around me passengers were spreading out blankets, wedging in ear buds and opening takeaway boxes of pizza, the waft of kicked-off shoes adding to the mix.

Lured towards the dining car, the heart and soul of a night train, I tucked into a steaming bowl of reindeer stew and mash, surrounded by a group of teachers en route to the city of Kiruna to ski. They offered me wine and strips of sticky gravlax along with tips on how to spot the Northern Lights at Abisko National Park. This onboard community was filled with the warmth so typical to sleeper trains, but my midnight I was ready to take to bed. Crawling into my lower berth in a six-person couchette, I nudged back the curtain to watch the moon bobbing between tree silhouettes, and golden stars hanging in bedroom windows. By morning passengers had slipped out, leaving no more than a bundle of blankets and as we crossed the Norwegian border, less than a handful of passengers were privy to the route’s grand finale.

Embarking on the Ofoten line at Bjørnfjell, the train ran at the edge of a cliff as the fjords emerged below, magisterial in their quiet movement. Mountains rose, the sun throwing soft light upon the carriage as the train clattered through one tunnel after another, beside ice-blue waterfalls frozen in their midst. Nineteen hours after departure the train took its final breath, hissed and braked into the historic port of Narvik. — Monisha Rajesh

Denali Star

The Route: Anchorage to Fairbanks
Duration: 356 miles; 12 hours
The Fare: Around $285 for Adventure Class and $532 for the upgraded GoldStar
The Adventure: Denali National Park is the star attraction

The shining jewel of the Alaska Railroad, the Denali Star links the state’s two largest cities with one of our nation’s most awe-inspiring national parks. I’ve ridden the Denali Star twice over the last three years, and it’s by far the best way to reach Denali National Park.

From Anchorage, the Denali Star rolls through a couple of urban stops before entering the backcountry. The train chugs past the Chugach Mountains and across Hurricane Gulch atop a 296-foot-high trestle bridge. Chugging along past the spruce and birch forests, we see multiple homesteader cabins through the thick trees, and even stopped near one to drop off supplies.

Seeing moose, grizzlies, and other wildlife are a common occurrence; I may have caught a fleeting glimpse of a black bear cub standing near the edge of the Indian River, but we passed it so fast, it could’ve been just a rock. A conductor calls out animal sightings, as well as bits of history intermixed with dad jokes over the intercom.

Roughly only 30 percent of Denali visitors actually see the iconic peak; the mountain’s so large, it creates its own weather systems, and is usually enveloped in clouds. When Denali – forget Mt. McKinley b.s. – came into view in all its white-capped glory, the entire train car let out a collective “ahhhhhhh.” Every other mountain in the Alaska Range looked like the proverbial molehill compared to the 20,000-foot behemoth.

When we finally arrived in Denali National Park after eight hours, my bags were whisked away and brought to my hotel, while I took in the majesty of my surroundings while waiting for a shuttle bus. Nearly a week later, I’d be back on the train platform, waiting to complete the journey to Fairbanks. While the first leg was filled with an anxious energy, the final leg is all about reliving your Denali experience. —Robert Annis

Qinghai-Tibet Railway, Tibet

The Route: Xining, China to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region
Duration: 1215 miles, 21.5 hours
The Fare: 107 USD in a soft-sleeper compartment, one-way
The Adventure: The Tanggula railway station is the highest in the world

Few sights can take my breath away, but at almost 5,000 metres above sea level, I was struggling, a headache squeezing at my temples. Gold nozzles pumped purified oxygen into the compartment and I inhaled in awed silence, licking my chapped lips. Before me, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau resembled a live Rothko painting: a slab of blazing yellow terrain rising to meet electric-blue sky, not a wisp of cloud in sight. Dreadlocked yaks were dotted around the foreground and the odd cluster of nomad tents swept by colorful prayer flags fluttering in the wind. What looked like an ocean flashed up towards the glass, tiny green waves on an expanse of bleeding hues, and then it was gone. Lakes gleamed like molten metal in the dryness and on the horizon a faint squiggle of suede-soft mountains.

Opened in 2006 the train from Xining to Lhasa is the highest rail journey in the world. Passing through earthquake zones, the line peaks at 5,072m above sea level at the Tanggula pass and contains more than 300 miles of elevated track built on permafrost that could melt at the slightest increase in temperature. Considered an engineering feat of excellence, the line requires liquid nitrogen to be circulated below the rail bed to keep it frozen throughout the year.

Overnight we had passed the Qinghai Lake and I was disappointed to have missed it in the darkness, but we were now barrelling into the Kunlun Mountains, their jagged bodies closing in, throwing an icy blue glow into the carriage. I had never seen earth’s natural beauty in so many forms and in such close proximity. Having travelled on more than 200 trains around the world, it was the most scenic ride of my life. On the descent into Lhasa Chinese flags flapped in the wind, Buick garages glided past the window and we drew into a station as vast as an airport hangar, armed guards greeting us at the exit, a reminder of Tibet’s ongoing struggle. — Monisha Rajesh

___________________________________________________________________________________

You can find more of Monisha Rajesh’s and Shafik Meghji’s favorite train journeys in Lonely Planet Epic Train Trips of the World which is released on September 23 2025.