All Aboard! Stay at One of These 7 Unique Train-Themed Lodgings

If you love trains, you’ll love how these parts of America’s railroad history have been transformed into memorable overnight stay accommodations

the exterior of Union Station in Denver at night

Cabooses, stations and other evidence of America’s golden age of train travel also serve as overnight lodging for all styles and budgets. One fine example: Union Station in Denver, which is also home to the swanky Crawford Hotel.

Alamy Stock Photo

Berit Thorkelson,

AARP

Published April 22, 2026

Key takeaways

Train-themed places to stay include cabooses and landmark station hotels.
Options span budgets and styles, from campsites to luxury railcar suites.
Restored train stations have new life as museums, hotels and restaurants.

Though the golden age of American train travel is long gone, the country is full of reminders. Restored train stations and railcars have gained second lives as museums, restaurants and places to lay your head for the night.

Train-focused overnights are an immersive form of time travel that comes in a variety of styles and budgets, ranging from caboose campsites to station-connected luxury hotels. It’s a fun option for older travelers — 75 percent of whom plan to stay in a domestic hotel, motel or vacation rental this year, according to AARP’s most recent Travel Trends survey.

Immersive reminiscing is good for us as we age, according to 2023 research in Current Opinion in Psychology, fostering social connection and optimism, and therefore, happiness. That’s reason enough to hop on the nostalgia train at one of these seven railroad-based overnight stays around the country.

Guests who stay in Jim Dotzenrod’s restored caboose can watch the sun set over an Iowa pasture and feed treats to the horses that graze there.

Courtesy Danielle Dotzenrod

CR Station Train Caboose, Decorah, Iowa

Jim Dotzenrod, 69, scored a 1973 caboose from a nearby recycling yard, then had it placed next to the horse pasture on his 3½ rural acres. After a thorough renovation, the two-bedroom caboose opened as an Airbnb in 2016, complete with a kitchenette, Wi-Fi and the original conductor’s chairs, which face the pasture’s nightly sunset. “[Visitors enjoy] the novelty of staying in the caboose. It’s something different,” Dotzenrod says. It’s especially popular on weekends, spring through fall. After regular requests for horseback rides, he began offering them this year as an add-on experience (starting at $95 per person).

Rates: From $168 per night, with a two-night minimum.

Thirteen vintage Pullman cars inside Indianapolis’ Crowne Plaza Downtown Union Station, shown here, have been converted into two-room hotel suites.

Cephas Picture Library Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo

Crowne Plaza Indianapolis Downtown Union Station, Indiana

America’s first train station to combine railroad terminals from separate companies was built here in 1853. The convenient, if basic, union station was replaced with a Romanesque revival-style granite and redbrick headhouse in 1888. Next came the art deco shed built to better manage the busy hub. Today, Indianapolis’ Union Station welcomes visitors to the city, but now, it’s to linger. The shed is a three-story, 273-room hotel, and the headhouse’s Grand Hall is its magnificent ballroom. For the most train-centric experience, stay in one of the 13 1920s Pullman cars, which have been converted into two-room suites.

Rates: From $132 per night.

Guests on this moving bed and breakfast in Wisconsin grab pre- or post-dinner drinks in the restored Montana ranch-style bar car.

Courtesy Greg Vreelans

The Bed & Breakfast Train, Trego, Wisconsin

If you want to experience actual train travel, ride back to the 1950s on this bed-and-breakfast train. Check in early for drinks in the train’s restored Great Northern Ranch Car lounge, a Montana ranch-style bar car, built in 1951 for the Great Northern Railroad’s Chicago-to-Seattle Empire Builder. Then, it’s on to a two-and-a-half-hour trip through the Wisconsin countryside. Head to the dining car for a leisurely dinner, as fields, woods and the Namekagon River pass by outside. Back at the station, travelers mingle around a firepit before retiring to their staterooms for the night.

Rates: $399 per single and $499 per couple per night, dinner and breakfast included.

The Crawford Hotel occupies the upper floors of Denver’s busy Union Station, where a mezzanine-level bar offers a view of the action below.

Alamy Stock Photo

The Crawford Hotel, Denver Union Station, Colorado

Denver’s bustling beaux-arts Union Station debuted its massive overhaul in 2014 and, with it, the fancy new Crawford Hotel, built into the station’s existing upper floors.

Gen Xer Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer, who has written about Colorado travel for nearly 20 years, is a repeat guest. “They were able to make it feel like it’s been there forever,” she says, recalling wide hallways, high ceilings and Victorian-meets-modern design. “I’ve been able to stay at some pretty amazing hotels around Colorado, and this is my favorite.” She recommends cocktail hour at the “Mad Men-esque” Cooper Lounge during your stay. It’s tucked into a mezzanine balcony connected to the hotel, with views of the Denver skyline and the action in the station below. “It’s not going to be the cheapest cocktail that you’ve ever had, but it’s completely worth the experience,” she says.

Rates: From $350 per night.

Caboose campsites at Two Rivers State Recreation Area, Waterloo, Nebraska

Among the draws at popular Two Rivers State Recreation Area, about 30 minutes west of Omaha: seven lakes with great fishing, an easy couple-mile hike with Platte River views and 10 bright yellow Union Pacific Railroad cabooses, parked end-to-end. They’re unique campsite upgrades, outfitted with the basics, including a small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower and a tidy deck. One is accessible in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The cabooses sleep six people, while the ADA-compliant one fits four. The cabooses are rentable from April 15 through the end of September.

Rates: $100 a night, plus a park permit fee ($7 for Nebraska-licensed vehicles; $14 for others).

St. Louis’ massive Union Station has been transformed into an entertainment hub with a hotel, aquarium, amusement park and free nightly light shows in the Grand Hall.

Richard Weber/Alamy Stock Photo

The St. Louis Union Station Hotel, Missouri

St. Louis’ nearly 20-acre Romanesque-style stone train station was the largest single-level train station in the world when it opened in 1894. Nearly 100 years later, it became the country’s largest reuse project at the time when it was turned into a “festival marketplace.” Today, the majestic Grand Hall, with stained-glass windows and gold-leaf details, acts as a dining hall and lobby for the Union Station Hotel. It is also the entrance to two major city attractions: the St. Louis Aquarium and St. Louis Wheel Park, named for its iconic 200-foot-tall observation wheel, which provides views of downtown in climate-controlled gondolas. The lobby hall hosts free nightly light shows, where 3D projections of animals, flowers and other animations dance across the 65-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling.

Rates: From $170 a night.

Jubilee Railroad Wilderness Lodge, Dunsmuir, California

A collection of cabooses, plus vintage railroad cabins, make up this train-themed lodging compound in a forested valley in Northern California’s Klamath Mountains.

Courtesy Meg Miranda

Think of it as a resort made of train cars, tucked into a forested Northern California mountain valley. Among the lodging options: an eclectic collection of 23 cabooses, four vintage train cabins and a 1920s boxcar dubbed the honeymoon suite (the latter offers a fireplace, claw-foot tub and bathroom chandelier). Eight separate railcars form the dining car, with locally sourced sit-down dinners a brunch counter serving light food, grab-and-go picnic packs, coffee drinks and smoothies. Perks are bountiful and include a seasonal hot tub and swimming pool, a general store and live music on weekends.

Rates: From $150 per night.

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Berit Thorkelson is a travel writer and editor for aarp.org. She has also written for publications such as National Geographic Traveler, Better Homes & Gardens and The Minnesota Star Tribune’s travel section.