USA Rail Holidays

The country itself might cover almost 3,800,000 square miles but It's only when you visit the USA that you can get a true sense of its huge scale. It's so large, in fact, that there are four separate time zones so when Californians are enjoying their evening meal many New Yorkers are getting ready to go to bed.

It's this sheer size that means there is no one element that you could say is quintessentially American. Rather, it is a huge melting pot of races, cultures, landscapes and customs. For a relatively young country it is also extraordinarily rich in history ranging from the day that the Mayflower brought some of the earliest British settlers to the brave new world to the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama as its first ever Black president.

Then there are the enormous cultural influences that America has had on the world. Jazz and the Blues, the movies, artists like Andy Warhol and writers like Mark Twain have all gone to form parts of the kaleidoscopic mental picture all of us have of the country.

Then there are the cities that have come to stand for so much as well as carving out identities all of their own. The fast-moving, hard-working wealth-creating New York, the mid-west splendour of Chicago, the New England refinement of Boston are just three examples.

Impressive undoubtedly, but maybe overshadowed by the stunning scenery and landscapes that surround them. For example, at least once in every lifetime everyone should experience New England in the Fall. And until you have enjoyed a tour like our Yellowstone and Rocky Mountains in Winter you won't have a proper appreciation of what breath-taking scenery really looks like.

The USA is also somewhere that is still home to some of the world's most incredible wildernesses and the perfect way to visit one of these is on our Fjords and National Parks of Alaska. This ten-day tour will show you exactly why Alaska so richly deserves its title as "The Last Frontier".

But the very last thing we want you to feel is alone. This is why you can be sure that your travelling companions on any of our tours will share many of your interests and will be equally keen to explore this amazing country.

At Great Rail Journeys, we also want to ensure that you enjoy a truly relaxing travel experience, that is also very good value for money. We achieve this by taking care of all the arrangements necessary while also giving you the time to go off and explore by yourself, with your travelling partner and even with new-found friends.

For times when we feel we can add insight and context to your trip, a number of expertly  escorted visits and sightseeing tours are included in the trip. You will also have the freedom to book your own excursions, whether it's a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon or a visit to that magnificent feat of civil engineering, Nevada's Hoover Dam.

Eating well is another element of a good holiday so we make sure that fine food is always on the menu. On some days this will include fine dining prepared by chefs on board the train. On others it will be enjoying restaurant meals in places like San Francisco's Zephyr Hotel whose Bistro Boudin looks out over Fisherman's Wharf to the legendary Alcatraz.

At other times you will be left at leisure to choose your own restaurant, café or bar and to sample some genuine US hospitality and service.

To make sure that everything is just perfect, every holiday is overseen by and experienced Tour Manager. They will be as helpful or as unobtrusive as you like - their role is to meet travellers' need precisely, not to stick to some rigid formula of service.  

You can also rest assured that we have taken great care to select the ideal accommodation for tours using three main criteria: location, value and facilities. While we do use certain big names such as Holiday Inn and Marriott, we also favour independent hotels which in many cases are also family-run. That's because we believe that they are more likely to share our ethos of providing a more caring and personal service.

The US Dollar is the official currency and, as arguably the world's biggest and most widely accepted, you should have no difficulty in getting cash before you travel.

The US Dollar it is divided into 100 cents and notes, or bills, come in $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 denominations. 

However, it's far more likely that you'll be using credit and debit cards in the US and both Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted, as is American Express. Getting cash from ATMs is also easy with your four digit pin-code, but do remember to let your bank know that you will be visiting the country to avoid cards being blocked as an anti-fraud measure.

Dollar traveller's cheques can be cashed at all major banks, exchange bureaus and airports. You may also be able to use them at some shops providing that you also present your passport.

When making purchases in stores a Sales Tax, the US version of VAT, is added to the price. The amount can vary from state to state. For example, in New York it is 4% and in Nevada it is 6.75%. While restaurant food is exempt from this, you will often find that a discretionary 12.5% service charge is added to your bill on the occasions when you have arranged your own meal.