With the holidays quickly approaching, there’s no better time to take the slow way. The world’s moving way too fast, so put the phone down, grab a window seat in a vintage dome car, and let the scenery do the scrolling for once.

These 13 US train rides go all in on old-school luxury, from Champagne in Colorado’s Royal Gorge to a 1948 dome car that once belonged to Merle Haggard. A few go full holiday mode this time of year, too: the Grand Canyon Railway runs The Polar Express, and the Napa Valley Wine Train puts Santa on board.

Most Iceland trips never leave Reykjavík and the Golden Circle, but up in Akureyri, the “capital of the north,” you can soak in fjord-view infinity pools and snowmobile across a frozen lake. Iceland’s pool culture is now on UNESCO’s heritage list, so every hot spring, lagoon, and pool basically counts as sightseeing.

November Edition

Dubrovnik gets the Game of Thrones crowds, but it’s also an easy launch pad for the rest of the Balkans. Take a boat across Montenegro’s Bay of Kotor, watch jumpers leap off Mostar’s old bridge, or ferry over to the car-free medieval town of Korčula.

Every region in Spain has a dish tied to a season, from calçots grilled over vine cuttings (the season starts this month) to Basque cider houses that tap their first barrels in January.

Hacienda del Mar has anchored Los Cabos for 30 years, long enough to remember the glamorous, old-school Mexican resort era, and in July 2025 it became an all-inclusive without losing that character.

The result is an unusual mix: poolside DJs and organized games on one side, octopus carpaccio and Oaxacan black mole at a restaurant that predates the resort’s Sheraton days on the other.

The Matador Editorial Team

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