Seeing the United States without a car
Which American cities genuinely work on foot and rail, which long-distance trains are worth the days, and where you will have to give in and rent something.
onesim team
The United States is a country built around the car, and pretending otherwise ruins trips. But a surprising amount of it works without one, as long as you choose the trip to match rather than the other way round.
The cities that genuinely work
These are the ones where renting a car is actively worse than not:
- New York. The subway runs all night, a flat $3 a ride with a weekly cap, and parking is a punishment. Nobody sensible drives here.
- Chicago. The "L" reaches both airports and most of what you want, and the city is walkable along the lake.
- Boston. Small, old, and the T covers it. The best American city for walking.
- Washington DC. The Metro is clean and comprehensive, and the museums are free and clustered.
- San Francisco. Hilly, compact, with BART to the airport and Muni everywhere else.
- Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland. All perfectly navigable without a car for a few days.
Notably not on that list: Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Miami, Dallas, Nashville. LA's Metro has improved a great deal and still does not make a car-free week pleasant.
The rail that works
American passenger rail is two different things wearing the same name.
The Northeast Corridor is a real railway. Boston–New York–Philadelphia–Baltimore–Washington runs all day; Acela is the fast one, the Northeast Regional is cheaper and barely slower. New York to Washington is about three hours, city centre to city centre, and it beats flying once you count the airports.
Brightline in Florida is the other genuinely useful one: Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach–Orlando, purpose-built, modern, and about three and a half hours end to end. It is the only privately run intercity railway in the country and the only place outside the northeast where the train is the obvious choice.
Everything else is a cruise. The long-distance Amtrak routes are wonderful and they are not transport:
| Route | Between | Scheduled time |
|---|---|---|
California Zephyr | Chicago – Emeryville (San Francisco) | About 51 hours |
Coast Starlight | Seattle – Los Angeles | About 35 hours |
Empire Builder | Chicago – Seattle or Portland | About 46 hours |
Southwest Chief | Chicago – Los Angeles | About 43 hours |
Take one because you want two days of the Rockies or the Cascades through a window, with a sleeper and the dining car. Do not take one because you need to be in Denver on Thursday: they are single-tracked behind freight for much of the way, and delays of several hours are ordinary.
Buses, and the bit nobody mentions
Greyhound, FlixBus, Megabus and the regional operators cover far more of the country than the trains, cost little, and are perfectly fine between cities a few hours apart. Station neighbourhoods are often the least appealing part of a city, and late-night arrivals are worth avoiding.
Between the coasts, flying is cheap — frequently cheaper than the train and always faster. Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska and the majors run dense domestic networks, and a one-way internal flight booked a few weeks out is often under $100.
Where you will have to rent
National parks. Almost all of them. There is no way around this: the Utah and Arizona loop, Yellowstone, the Smokies and Glacier need a vehicle, and so does most of New England outside Boston, the Pacific Coast Highway, and anywhere described as "wine country".
The sensible pattern for a first trip is a hybrid: fly or take the train between cities, and rent a car for the specific days you need one. Renting for four days in Las Vegas costs a fraction of renting for a fortnight and parking it in Manhattan.
Practical notes
Ride-hailing is everywhere and is the default for short hops in cities without good transit. In New York, Chicago, Boston, DC and San Francisco, tap a contactless card at the gate — none of these cities needs a visitor pass any more.
Intercity tickets are cheapest booked ahead: Amtrak prices move like airline fares, and Brightline discounts the off-peak.
