Chicago to Seattle by Rail: The Empire Builder

Start the trip the way Chicago wants to be started: with a morning downtown and a deep-dish lunch. Give Millennium Park an hour — the Bean, the Crown Fountain, the lakefront a block east — then claim a table at Lou Malnati's or Giordano's for the real thing. You'll want to be at Chicago Union Station a full hour before the early-afternoon departure of westbound train #7.

The 1925 station's Great Hall is worth ten unhurried minutes: a 115-foot barrel-vaulted skylight over Tennessee marble, and the grand staircase you've seen in a dozen films. There are no TSA lines and no baggage fees to dread — Amtrak lets each passenger bring two bags plus one personal item aboard, and boarding is a calm platform call, not a scrum. Find your seats early and settle in: the first act is Wisconsin.

Train #7 departs Chicago early afternoon daily · ~2,206 rail miles to Seattle · ~46 hours

Morning · downtown Chicago

Give the Loop three hours: Millennium Park, the Chicago Riverwalk (a mile of river-level promenade), and deep-dish lunch. Eat a real lunch — the dining car doesn't open until after departure, and you'll be happier with Malnati's in your memory than a café-car line at 4 PM.

Boarding · Union Station

Arrive an hour before departure. Check the departure board, then walk the platform to your car — coach is at the rear, sleepers toward the front. Your car attendant (sleeper) or conductor (coach) will point you to seats. Upper-level roomettes have the better views; you can call Amtrak to request one.

Evening · the river towns

The train crosses into Wisconsin and follows the Mississippi River past La Crosse and Winona as the light goes gold — bluffs on one side, wide water on the other. St. Paul's Union Depot gets a late-evening stop (~10–11 PM); stretch your legs on the platform, then turn in. Tomorrow you wake up in a different America.

Where to stay

Tonight you sleep on the train — that's the point. Book it right:

• Roomette (2 people) — the couples' sweet spot: facing seats by day, upper and lower bunks by night, all dining-car meals included
• Bedroom — the splurge: twice the roomette's space with a private bathroom and shower
• Coach — generous reclining seats with legroom, but 46 hours upright across two nights is a commitment; bring a neck pillow and eye mask

Flying in the night before? Stay near the station: Hotel Chicago (West Loop, easy walk), The Blackstone (the 1910 grand dame), or HI Chicago Hostel (the budget pick in the Loop).

Wake up in eastern Washington — the Columbia Basin rolling past in morning light, sagebrush and orchards where yesterday was prairie. Overnight, the train did its quietest piece of work: the Spokane split, where the Portland section (train #27) uncouples and the Seattle section continues west alone. You slept through the surgery; the train is shorter now and entirely yours.

Then the day's set piece: the climb to Stevens Pass and the Cascade Tunnel — 7.8 miles of darkness, the longest rail tunnel in the United States. You feel the grade in your seat, the air cools, and then the portal: a green wall of Cascades forest, the Skykomish River flashing below, mist hanging in the valleys. From Wenatchee (the self-declared Apple Capital) the line drops through Leavenworth's Bavarian storefronts toward the water — and the last hour runs the Puget Sound shoreline through Edmonds, the Olympics across the water.

Spokane ~middle of the night (the split) → Cascade Tunnel mid-morning → Seattle King Street ~mid-to-late morning

Morning · the tunnel

Breakfast in the dining car is included for sleeper passengers and worth buying for coach — the white-tablecloth ritual with the Cascades sliding past is the trip's most old-world hour. The tunnel itself takes about 20 minutes; the emergence into the Skykomish valley is the payoff. Keep the camera accessible.

Late morning · arrival

The train glides into Seattle's King Street Station (~mid-to-late morning) — the 1906 landmark with its clock tower, restored in 2013. Walk out, breathe the salt air, and ride-share or take the Link light rail to your hotel. Drop bags, even if the room isn't ready.

Afternoon · first taste of Seattle

Ease in at Pike Place Market (open since 1907): the flower stalls, the fish throwers, the original Starbucks queue if you're curious. Walk down to the waterfront for the piers and the Great Wheel, then dinner wherever the day leaves you — the International District (a short walk from King Street) does excellent noodles.

Where to stay

Two nights in Seattle — unpack properly. Near the station and the action:

• The Alexis Royal Sonesta — the splurge: art-filled downtown hotel with a top-tier restaurant
• Silver Cloud Hotel Seattle Stadium — great value a short walk from King Street Station
• Embassy Suites Pioneer Square — suites with room to spread out, in the historic district

The last day is deliberately light — a slow morning, one more water view, and home by evening. Start at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Ballard (everyone calls them the Ballard Locks): ships rise and fall 20+ feet between Puget Sound and Lake Union, and the fish ladder viewing windows put you eye-to-eye with migrating salmon in season. It's free, it's fascinating, and it's the most Seattle thing you haven't done yet.

From the locks, Discovery Park is minutes away — 534 acres of bluffs, meadows, and the West Point Lighthouse, with the Olympics across the water. Walk the Loop Trail (2.8 miles, easy) or just claim a bluff-top bench. Then back downtown: one last market wander, lunch on the waterfront, and the Link light rail to SEA-TAC (about 40 minutes from downtown — no traffic, no surge pricing).

Ballard Locks (free) → Discovery Park → Link light rail to SEA-TAC ~40 min → fly home

Morning · the locks

The locks open early and the fish ladder is best mid-morning. Watch a boat lock through from the viewing areas, then walk the Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Garden beside the locks — a hidden gem most visitors miss. Allow 90 minutes.

Midday · the bluffs

Discovery Park's Loop Trail is mostly flat and shaded; the south bluff viewpoint looks straight across to the Olympics. It's the city's largest park and feels a world from downtown — a fitting last landscape after 2,206 miles of them.

Afternoon · home

Back to the hotel for bags, then the Link light rail from Westlake or Pioneer Square straight to the airport. The trip ends the way it should: somewhere above the city, gliding past the stadiums, already talking about the next one.

Where to stay

Home tonight — but if your flight is early tomorrow, the Seattle Airport Marriott (on the light rail line) beats a 5 AM alarm across town. Otherwise, one more night downtown and a slow morning beats a red-eye every time.