Cities You Can Visit Without a Car: 14 US and Canada Picks

It's ten to seven on a Saturday and you're standing on a platform with a coffee going lukewarm in your hand and a bag at your feet. There's no parking ticket in your pocket and no garage to find. The train rolls in, you step on, and you watch the backyards slide past with nothing to circle the block for.

Some places are built for exactly this. You arrive at a station, drop the bag at a hotel, and spend three days on sidewalks, subways and ferries. These are 14 cities you can visit without a car, in the US and Canada. Each one is reachable by intercity train and bus, each has local transit that carries you around, and none of them gets better when you add a rental.

Filter by region or trip length, sort the table, or read straight down. The scores are our guides' own, and the scale has a quirk.

757city guides scored for car-free travel
15reach the top mark of 9.5
237list an intercity train
353list neither an intercity train nor a bus

Filter by region or trip length, sort the table, or read straight down. The scores are our guides' own, and the scale has a quirk.

757city guides scored for car-free travel
15reach the top mark of 9.5
237list an intercity train
353list neither an intercity train nor a bus

How did we pick the cities you can visit without a car? #

Four tests. A car-free score of 8.5 or higher. An intercity train, an intercity bus and an airport in the guide. A core walkable enough to spend a day without a taxi. And a photo, so you can see where you're going.

Fifteen cities in our library hit the 9.5 ceiling. Thirteen are here, plus Quebec City at 8.5. We skipped one New Jersey city with no guide photo, and Minneapolis appears as a side trip from Chicago. Our guides don't carry timetables, fares or train frequency, and the train and bus scores lean partly on estimates of nearby cities you can reach, worked out from map coordinates. No city, railroad or transit agency paid to be here.

Fourteen cities side by side (scores are 0 to 10)


New York	9.5	8.3	7.9	9.5	Apr to Jun, Sep to Dec
Boston	9.5	8.3	7.9	9.7	May, Jun, Sep, Oct
Philadelphia	9.5	8.7	7.7	9.4	Apr to Jun, Sep, Oct
New Haven	9.5	9.5	8.3	9.2	Apr to Oct
Washington	9.5	8.7	8.2	9.2	Mar to May, Sep to Nov
Chicago	9.5	8.3	7.4	9.5	May to Oct
Seattle	9.5	7.9	7.4	8.7	Jun to Sep
Portland	9.5	7.5	7.3	8.7	Jun to Oct
Eugene	9.5	7.9	7.1	8.7	May to Oct
Vancouver	9.5	7.9	7.9	8.7	May to Sep
Toronto	9.5	8.3	8.2	8.9	May to Oct
Ottawa	9.5	7.9	7.6	9.2	Feb, May to Oct
Montreal	9.5	7.9	7.6	9.3	Jun to Oct
Quebec City	8.5	6.8	6.5	8.3	Feb, Jun to Oct, Dec

Questions people ask #

What are the best US cities to visit without a car?

New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Haven, Washington, Chicago, Seattle, Portland and Eugene all reach 9.5 on our car-free scale, so there's no single winner. For an easy first trip, pick a Northeast Corridor city, where Amtrak links the cities directly. Two-day cities such as New Haven, Philadelphia and Eugene suit car-free weekend trips.

Can you visit Canada without a car?

Yes. Four Canadian cities in our library reach 9.5: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver. Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City sit on one corridor that our Windsor to Quebec City route covers by train or coach, so Canadian cities without a car are easy to string together.

Which cities have good public transit for visitors?

Every city on this list has local transit our guides describe, from the New York subway to Vancouver's SkyTrain and Toronto's TTC. Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Boston and Washington put the airport on a rail line.

Is it safe to rely on public transit as a visitor?

It's ordinary city travel, but we don't rate transit safety. Our safety score is a city-wide crime figure (violent crime per 100,000 residents for US cities and a Crime Severity Index for Canadian metro areas), and it runs from 2.9 in Washington to 8.3 in Ottawa across these 14. It says nothing about a specific station, so check each agency's own advice and keep bags close.

How do I get from the airport without a car?

In Seattle take Link light rail, in Portland take MAX, in Vancouver take the Canada Line, and in Boston and Washington use the T or Metrorail. For New Haven, many visitors use LaGuardia, JFK or Bradley, or take the train from New York. For other cities, check the airport's own ground-transport page.

Can I plan a car-free trip around one of these cities?

Yes. Build a route from your own start, or start from a rail-first route such as Northeast Corridor by rail and reshape it to your dates.

Cities You Can Visit Without a Car: 14 Places Where the Train and the Sidewalk Are Enough

Cities You Can Visit Without a Car: 14 Places Where the Train and the Sidewalk Are Enough

How did we pick the cities you can visit without a car? #

Arrive by train, by bus or by air #

Arriving by train

Arriving by bus

Flying in

New York #

Boston #

Philadelphia #

New Haven #

Washington #

Chicago #

Seattle #

Portland #

Eugene #

Vancouver #

Toronto #

Ottawa #

Montreal #

Quebec City #

Questions people ask #