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No Car, No Problem: The Best Summer Train Trips From L.A.

The Pacific Surfliner train makes a proper summer escape surprisingly easy, with coastal views, walkable stops and no need to negotiate traffic on the way home.

Train travel is a quintessential way to easily—and swiftly—explore Europe and Asia, but in the United States, rail culture isn’t nearly as robust or convenient as it is in countries like Japan and Spain. The issue with domestic passenger trains isn’t new: aging infrastructure and the high cost of supplies have discouraged innovation and received plenty of political pushback for decades. 

While the U.S. was at the forefront of train travel in the 19th century, it largely declined in the following century. The vast topography and sprawling cities across the U.S. are generally seen as better suited to personal vehicles, and in the 20th century, automobiles and aviation were prioritized, while the promise of a high-speed nationwide rail system fell by the wayside. More recently, however, there’s been a bit of a shift, with Amtrak welcoming a record number of passengers over the past few years. 

With national average fuel prices at a four-year high, train travel has never looked more appealing—at this point, filling up your tank or buying a plane ticket feels like highway robbery, causing travelers to think outside the box. In Los Angeles, we’re lucky enough to have Amtrak operating with direct routes to various vacation-worthy destinations in the Golden State, and we’ll—allegedly—have even more options come 2030.

In 2008, voters approved a high-speed rail system designed to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. The project was originally supposed to be completed in 2020 and cost $33 billion, but as of the first half of 2026, no electrified track has been laid, and it is now about 400 percent over........

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