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The 11 Best Tram Cities Where the Streetcar Is the Sightseeing

Forget the hop-on bus. In the best tram cities in the world, a regular streetcar ticket is the best sightseeing tour money can buy. Here are 11 lines worth riding end to end.

The best tram cities in the world have a secret the hop-on-hop-off bus people will never know: the cheapest, best sightseeing tour is usually just the regular tram, with the regular locals, for the price of a regular ticket. No commentary, no cheesy headphones, no inflated fare. Just a window, a route that happens to thread past everything worth seeing, and the city going about its day around you. I plan whole afternoons around riding a single line end to end.

Here are the eleven where the streetcar is the show.

1. Lisbon — Tram 28, Portugal

The famous one, and famous for a reason. The little yellow Remodelado tram grinds up through Alfama, past the cathedral, the castle, Graça, screeching round corners with about an inch to spare. It’s a tourist crush now, no point pretending otherwise. Ride it early or late.

2. San Francisco — the cable cars + F-line, USA

The cable cars are technically not trams, I know, don’t email me. But the historic F-line streetcars — restored vintage cars from cities all over the world — run along the Embarcadero and Market Street and they’re a rolling museum. The Powell-Hyde cable car for the hills, the F-line for the waterfront.

3. Milan, Italy

The orange 1928-vintage Ventotto trams still rattle through the centre, all wooden seats and brass fittings. The number 1 loops past the Duomo area and through gorgeous streets. It’s the everyday transit and a time machine at once. Pure Milan elegance, accidentally.

4. Prague, Czechia

Tram 22 is the local legend — it climbs up to the castle past beautiful neighbourhoods and saves your legs the brutal walk. The whole network is dense and gorgeous, and the night trams keep going when everything else stops. Ride 22 up, walk down.

5. Vienna, Austria

The Ring tram circles the grand Ringstrasse past the opera, the parliament, the museums, the whole imperial showcase. There’s a tourist Ring tram, but honestly just take the regular 1 or 71 for a fraction of the price and see the same buildings.

6. Melbourne, Australia

The largest tram network in the world, and there’s a free City Circle tram (route 35) on burgundy heritage cars that loops the CBD past the main sights for nothing. Zero dollars. The wider network sprawls everywhere. A tram city to its bones.

7. Hong Kong — the Ding Ding, Hong Kong

Double-decker trams that have rattled along Hong Kong Island since 1904, nicknamed for their bell. Sit up top at the front and ride through Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay — the whole dense, neon, chaotic island streams past below you. Costs almost nothing.

8. Istanbul — the nostalgic tram, Türkiye

The little red heritage tram trundles down İstiklal Avenue in Beyoğlu through the crowds, all old-world charm. Short, slow, and lovely. There’s the modern T1 for actually getting places, but the nostalgic one is the joyride.

9. New Orleans — the St. Charles streetcar, USA

The oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, the dark-green cars clacking down St. Charles Avenue under the live oaks, past the grand antebellum mansions of the Garden District. Ride the whole line. It’s the South at its most cinematic.

10. Porto, Portugal

Three heritage lines of beautifully restored wooden trams, especially line 1 that runs along the Douro river out to Foz where it meets the sea. Slower and far less crowded than Lisbon’s, and arguably prettier. The seaside terminus is the reward.

11. Zürich, Switzerland

Not heritage, not vintage — just the most punctual, civilised, frequent tram network you’ll ever ride, gliding past the lake and through the old town like clockwork. Sometimes the sightseeing is simply how perfectly a city runs. The Swiss make even efficiency feel like a view.

Do the whole line, end to end, at least once. That’s the actual tour. People hop on for two stops and miss the point — the route was laid out generations ago to connect everywhere that mattered, so it strings the city’s best bits together for you without trying. Sit back and let it.

Pick your side. Half the time the best views are all on one side of the car (the river side, the lake side, the downhill side), and locals know which. If in doubt, ask the driver or just watch which way the regulars crane their necks. And go mid-morning off-peak — you want a window seat and elbow room, not a commuter scrum where you can’t see a thing.

One more thing: these are real transit lines, not toys. People are getting to work on them. Don’t block the doors with your backpack, give up the seat if someone needs it, and you can be a tourist and a decent human at the same time.

Skip the overpriced sightseeing bus. The best tram cities hand you the whole place for the price of a single fare — you just have to know which line to ride and where to sit.

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