Train Trips to Branson, Missouri

Branson, Missouri combines honkey-tonk bars, music venues and theme parks with horseback trails, tranquil lakes and wineries. With all the offerings, Branson can be overwhelming for visitors. To make the most of the city, leave the driving to a tour that links Branson by shuttle with a long-haul train across the wilderness.

While some trains have themes and different offerings, like dinner trains, the Polar Express experience, and others, most offer similar experiences including dining car meals, unique scenic views from the scenic train route during your train travel. The Branson Scenic Railway is a popular destination train travel choice for those wanting to experience what train travel to Downtown Branson feels like. Train rides through the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Zephyr, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., the White River and other southern route or northern route travels are fairly common among most travel families interested in train rides to Branson.

While a 40-mile roundtrip train ride isn’t too long, it does allow for great experiences to get to the Branson Landing and Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO 65616. Unlike cruises in your car for travel, dome cars and first class train cars allow for the experience to hold new importance. Most experiences offer food and beverages, like hot cocoa. Branson itself has many vistas, regular excursions, and getaway options using passenger train and passenger cars travel.

To celebrate the Christmas season, America By Rail operates a 6-day train escape from Chicago to Branson and San Antonio that includes meal and accommodation. The journey starts on Amtrak's Texas Eagle route and disembarks in Springfield where there's a shuttle to Branson. The tour spends three days perusing the town's many attractions and then another quick shuttle ride delivers passengers to the Amtrak train station in Texarkana where the tour reunites with the Texas Eagle bound for San Antonio. After a full day aboard the train, travelers unload for another three days in historic San Antonio. The final two days – including one overnight – are spent back on the train back to Chicago.

Wake up to the whistle of an early morning America By Rail tour departing from Sacramento, California on Amtrak's California Zephyr. The train whisks passengers off for three full days spent gaping at the views from the glass-wrapped top deck. After a disembarkation in Chicago, the tour switches to a coach that tours Nashville and Memphis before landing in Branson for three packed days of sightseeing, dining and musical entertainment. The shuttle moves passengers back to the train station in Kansas City to complete the round-trip journey back to Sacramento on Amtrak's Southwest Chief. The 11-day journey includes accommodation, meals and several shows and sightseeing excursions in Branson.

Arguably, the best view of the Ozarks that surround the city are soaked in from the windows of Branson's very own Scenic Railway. Departing right from the downtown depot, trains winding through the verdant valleys of the Ozark foothills. The venerable old engine clicks its cars across sweeping bridges and trestles, through historic tunnels and past the skeletal ghost towns that used to depend on "the Mainline of the Ozarks" for their every amenity. All excursions are narrated by docents and complete circular 40-mile journeys from Branson to the James River Valley and the Arkansas wilderness. Tours are year-round, though you'll need to visit in the summertime to enjoy the candlelight dining departures.

If you want to design your own rail adventure to Branson, start by booking a ticket on one of Amtrak's nearby routes: the Southwest Chief or the Texas Eagle. Both routes have overnight berths available on board, and both chug up to stations within three hours of Branson: Little Rock and Kansas City, respectively. From either of those stations, tourists can book a round-trip ticket to Branson on a luxury bus operated by Jefferson Lines or Heartland Trailways.