Midwest by Rail
Witness America’s grand He♥rtland by train.
Exploring the Midwest car free is more feasible than you think. We’re collecting information to help you make it a reality.
Plan it yourself
Build a trip on the whole network
Every Amtrak line and station across the Midwest, on one map. Pick any stations and our planner routes the real trains between them — with published times, connections, and overnight warnings. Tap the map to start.
Four trips, ready to copy
Pick the one that sounds like yours
Each itinerary is a complete trip — the cities, the train legs, the hotel we’d actually book, the one experience we’d do first. Screenshot it, book the flights, we’ll handle the rest.
Every trip is open-jaw: land at one airport, fly home from another. Fares cost about the same.
Six trips, every difficulty. 4 of 4 trips.
6–8 nights
Chicago to Minneapolis–St. Paul
Chicago → Minneapolis–St. Paul
Six to eight nights from Minneapolis–St. Paul to a Chicago finish.
Six to eight nights down the Borealis and Empire Builder corridor. Minneapolis–St. Paul, a pause at Milwaukee's lakefront, and a three-night Chicago finish.
See the itinerary →
5–6 nights
Chicago to St. Louis
Chicago → St. Louis
Five to six nights down the Lincoln Service. Chicago, Illinois farmland, and the Arch.
Three nights in Chicago, two to three in St. Louis, and one Amtrak fare between them. Five hours of Illinois farmland on the Lincoln Service. Fly ORD, fly home from STL.
See the itinerary →
5 nights
Chicago to Detroit
Chicago → Detroit
Five nights, two American classics, and a reborn 1913 Beaux-Arts train station to walk into.
Three nights in Chicago, two in Detroit. The Wolverine runs three times daily to Detroit's New Center station, a short hop to Corktown — where the restored Michigan Central, reopened in 2024, is the first thing you go see.
See the itinerary →
5–6 nights
Chicago to Grand Rapids
Chicago → Grand Rapids via Holland
Three nights in Chicago, then the train curves east and Lake Michigan appears through the window.
Three nights in Chicago, then the Pere Marquette through Michigan fruit country to the Lake Michigan shore. An optional night in Holland for Dutch windmills and Saugatuck, then two nights in Grand Rapids — Beer City, Art City, genuinely underrated.
See the itinerary →
Already know your dates? Check fares on Amtrak →
Or go off-menu
The cities
Each city has its own guide — airport transit, a curated hotel list, the things worth doing. Mix and match to build your own.
St. Louis
MO
The Gateway to the Midwest, where the rails converge and the arch rises.
Chicago
IL
The transit city: L trains overhead, Amtrak beneath, architecture everywhere.
Kansas City
MO
Barbecue smoke, jazz echoes, and the romance of the rails.
Detroit
MI
Rust and renaissance: the city where American industry met music, and is meeting art.
Milwaukee
WI
Brewery-town charm, brewing heritage, and a lakefront that invites lingering.
Grand Rapids
MI
Beer City, Art City — and a Pere Marquette ride from Chicago to Lake Michigan's eastern shore.
Minneapolis–St. Paul
MN
Minneapolis–St. Paul, two personalities — a Beaux-Arts capital and a creative river town, stitched together by one light-rail line.
How you get here
Air Connections
Every Midwest city we cover, with the airport that serves it and the continents that fly there nonstop. Tap a continent below to filter the grid down to airports with direct service from that part of the world — or leave it on All to see the full picture.
Chicago
The Midwest's primary global hub. Direct nonstops to Europe, East Asia, and South America — most travelers connect here.
Minneapolis–St. Paul
Delta's northern hub for Minneapolis–St. Paul. Strong European service plus a Tokyo nonstop — the train pulls into St. Paul Union Depot from MSP in 50 minutes.
Detroit
Delta's eastern hub. Year-round Europe service plus nonstops to Tokyo and Seoul.
St. Louis
British Airways to London plus seasonal Lufthansa to Frankfurt — both alliances one stop away.
Indianapolis
Aer Lingus to Dublin with US pre-clearance — the rest is domestic.
Cleveland
Domestic-only as of 2026. Connect through ORD, EWR, or JFK for transatlantic.
Cincinnati
Domestic-only post-Delta-hub. Connect through ORD or ATL for international.
Milwaukee
Domestic-only. Most travelers fly into ORD and ride the Hiawatha north — 90 minutes downtown to downtown.
Kansas City
Domestic-only. Connect via ORD or DFW for transatlantic; Iceland service has run seasonally in past years.
Pittsburgh
Mostly domestic since the US Airways hub closed. Connect via ORD, JFK, or PHL.
Why car-free?
Because you shouldn’t fly eight hours to rent a Ford and queue for petrol. Every city on these itineraries has a working downtown, a working train station, and a working transit system. You sleep walking distance from the next morning’s plans.
Amtrak drops you in city centres — not on a ring road. Chicago’s Union Station is a block from the Loop. St. Louis’s Gateway Transportation Center is a short walk from the Arch grounds. Minneapolis–St. Paul’s Union Depot is a restored Beaux-Arts hall worth arriving in just to see the building. Stations here are architecture, not logistics.
No security theatre, no liquid restrictions, no stripping at the gate. Arrive thirty minutes before. Board. Watch the Mississippi bluffs go past from a café car with actual beer for sale. Two carry-ons plus two checked bags are included in the fare.
Where Amtrak doesn’t run direct, we use Flixbus — the long-haul coach operator that’s been quietly expanding across the US, with power outlets and Wi-Fi onboard. Inside each city, the local bus, tram, or light rail does the rest. Every itinerary on this site links the actual local transit agencies so you know where to look.
Pick a trip. We’ve done the planning.
Four corridors, real Amtrak lines, hotels and experiences vetted for first-timers arriving from Europe.