We’re lucky to have so many awesome things to do in St. Louis, but there are some days when you just need to get out and explore! Road trips are awesome, but if you draw the short straw and end up as the driver, you miss out on the scenery. Luckily, there’s an easy fix for that: take a train ride!

There are tons of historic railroads that travel all across the state, but Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner offers an excellent opportunity to take a mini-adventure through some beautiful places along the way!

Flickr / Paul Saberman
The ride from St. Louis to Kansas City takes 5 hours 40 minutes each direction, so it’s an excellent option for a weekend away -- but the trains travel both directions each morning and afternoon, so you can do the full trip there-and-back if you want to experience it all in one day.
Flickr / Dave Herholz
The Missouri River Runner stops in several cities along the way, so if you don’t want to go all the way to Kansas City and back, you also have the option to buy shorter distance tickets and hop off at one of these smaller stations to spend a few hours exploring before catching the return train.
Flickr / Philip Leara
These other stops are in Kirkwood, Washington, Hermann, Jefferson City, Sedalia, Warrensburg, Lee’s Summit, and Independence.
Facebook / Missouri River Runner
Flickr / The West End
The morning train departs from Gateway Station at 9:15 a.m. (arriving in Kansas City at 2:55 p.m.) and the afternoon train departs from Gateway Station at 4:00 p.m. (arriving in Kansas City at 9:40 p.m.). For the return trip, there are trains departing from Kansas City and heading back to St. Louis at 8:15 a.m. (arriving home at 1:55 p.m.) and at 4:00 p.m. (arriving home at 9:40 p.m.).

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Check out the full schedule for information about the departure/arrival times at the cities in between.
Facebook / Missouri River Runner
You have two types of seating options on the Missouri River Runner; tickets for reserved coach seats start at $30 and business class seats cost $48.
Flickr / Luke X. Martin
Business class offers a bit more legroom and complimentary non-alcoholic beverages in a reserved business class car.
Flickr / Connie Ma
There’s even a Cafe Car on board where you can have a sit-down meal with a beautiful view. They offer sandwiches, pizza, snacks, and drinks, including beer, wine, and liquor.
Flickr / _eWalter_
The Missouri River Runner also offers free Wi-Fi; however, we don’t think you’ll be looking down at a screen when there are so many beautiful things to see out the windows!

For more information and online ticket ordering, check out the Missouri River Runner on the Amtrak website. Happy travels!

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