2 RIDE THE CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR BETWEEN CHICAGO & SAN FRANCISCO, USA

This 2,400-mile east-west link proves that despite the US’s limited choice of rail routes, it doesn’t stint on quality. Over the course of 50 hours, the Zephyr travels through three time zones and seven states, traversing Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska before ramping up to the blockbuster landscapes of Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California. You’ll cross the Mississippi, climb the Rockies and snake along the Colorado River, starting and ending in two of the country’s finest cities. A state-funded Amtrak service, the Zephyr isn’t Uncle Sam’s Orient Express, and overseas travellers are in the minority, but that’s the joy of it. There are sleeper compartments, a dining car and an observation lounge-cum-bar where you and fellow riders can share the joys of Utah’s rose-tinted, mesastudded plains on day two, and VIP views of the Sierra Nevada on the approach to San Francisco. But just spending three days watching the great American outdoors spool past the window is a luxury in itself. amtrakvacations.co.uk BL