This 9 Day rail adventure features the historic trains and sites of New England in autumn. Travelers will experience the Trapp Lodge, Billings Farm, Stowe (Vermont), the Shelburne Museum and the Winnipesauke, Conway and Mt. Washington Scenic Railroads.

• View Prices and Dates
• Route Map
• Tour Highlights and Inclusions
• View Itinerary
• Print Itinerary and Brochure Page

Trapp Lodge • Billings Farm • Stowe, Vermont • Shelburne Museum • Winnipesauke, Conway and Mt. Washington Scenic Railroads
Call 877-929-7245 for rail fares and schedules
from your city to and from Chicago.

• Visit Wilson Castle, a mid 19th century English brick and marble home with 32 rooms, 84 stained-glass windows and 13 fireplaces.
• Tour Hildene, summer house of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln.
• The Billings Farm, a modern, working dairy farm and a museum of Vermont farm life in the 1890s.
• The Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad hugs its namesake lake's shoreline for many miles. We'll enjoy a turkey dinner en route.
• Experience New England's brilliant color at its peak from the all-glass Vistadome car of the Conway Scenic Railroad.
• Climb to the summit of the Northeast's highest mountain on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway.
• The charming village of Stowe is featured on many postcards of New England.
• There are 37 historic-structures from throughout New England dismantled and moved to the Shelburne Museum.
• The tour and dinner at the famed Trapp Family Lodge will be a highlight.

• Round-trip transportation by Amtrak rail and deluxe motor coach.
• First-class hotel accommodations for six nights; seven for Eastern participants. West and Midwest will have two nights on the train. ($495 additional per person for an upgraded Bedroom).
• Midwest: 16 meals. East: 12 meals
• Extensive sightseeing. Admissions to all included attractions
• Baggage handling, taxes & tips.
• Services of a professional Tour Director.

Day 1: En Route
West and Midwest New England Fall Foliage travelers will meet in Chicago Union Station's Metropolitan Lounge this afternoon. At 8:00 p.m. we'll board the eastbound Lake Shore Limited. A reception will be held in the dining car. Departure is schduled for 10:00 p.m. Eastern tour members will depart tomorrow for Albany.

Viewliner Roomette bedroom sleeping accommodations are included between Albany and Chicago. There are two comfortable reclining seats on either side of an eye-level picture window. At night, your attendant converts the two seats into a lower berth. An upper berth pulls down from the ceiling. There is a 6' x 18" high window next to the upper berth. The Roomette bedroom includes a sink and a commode as well. A shower room is nearby. Upgraded Bedrooms, providing superior comfort for two adults, are available for an additional cost.

You're free to explore the train. Go to thelounge car for snacks, sandwiches, and beverages.

Day 2: En Route/Rutland
Tour members from upper New York Statewill board the Lake Shore Limited, coach class, this morning. Your arrival into Albany is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. You’ll board your deluxe tour motorcoach and travel north 100 miles to Rutland, a southern Vermont city of 16,000.

On your way to Rutland, you’ll visit the Bennington Battle Monument. The Monument is the tallest structure in Vermont, soaring 300 feet above Old Bennington. Today, East Coast and Mid-Atlantic tour members will travel to New York City’s Penn Station where they will transfer to the Rutland-bound Ethan Allen Express train. They’ll depart New York at 2:45 p.m. and arrive in Rutland at 8:10 p.m. Your hotel for the next two nights is the attractive Comfort Inn. The Tour Director will host a Welcome Dinner tonight at the South Station restaurant, one of the city’s finest restaurants. B*, L* & D

*West and Midwest members only.

Day 3: Vermont
Enjoy a Continental Breakfast in your hotel this morning before you strike out on a day of visits to some of Vermont’s major attractions. You’ll travel the short distance to Proctor where you’ll tour Wilson Castle. This mid 19th Century estate home was built in 1867 on a 115-acre property. With an elaborate facade of English brick and marble, the Castle has 32 rooms, complete with a towering turret, parapet and balcony. The Castle also features 84 stained glass windows and 13 fireplaces.

Marble is one of Vermont’s major natural resources. It is shipped all over the world. Proctor is also the home of the Vermont Marble Exhibit. One of the largest displays of its kind in the country, it illustrates the origin, quarrying and finishing of marble. You can watch a sculptor at work and visit a sculpture gallery. Displays include marble from Vermont and around the world.

Following an “on-your-own” lunch in Rutland, we’ll visit Hildene, one of the state’s major attractions. Hildene was the summerhome of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln. This was home to his descendants until 1975. The 24-room Georgian Revival Mansion is filled with original furnishings and personal family memorabilia, surrounded by formal gardens. You’ll return to your hotel in Rutland for a second night. There are several fine restaurantswithin walking distance of your hotel. CB

Day 4: Vermont/New Hampshire
Following a Continental breakfast (included), you’ll board the comfortable motor coach and continue your New England discovery program. First on your schedule for the day is Quechee Gorge. Vermont’s “Little GrandCanyon” lies west of Quechee. The bridge that spans the gorge 162 feet above the Ottauquechee River provides a good view of this natural spectacle. A covered bridge leads into the small woolen-mill village of Quechee.

Your next Vermont attraction is the fascinating Billings Farm and Museum. Here you will see both a modern, working dairy farm and amuseum of Vermont farm life in the 1890s. The museum is housed in four reconstructed barns. You can see butter making, cheese making, ice cutting and sugaring. You can also observe the daily activities of the dairy operation. Following an “on-your-own lunch” in nearby Woodstock, you’ll continue on to the Vermont Country Store in Weston. This nationally known “mercantile” features practical itemsand items you may not find anywhere else. You’ll then leave Weston and travel east into the state of New Hampshire.

At 5:00 p.m. travelers will arrive in Meredith. At 6:00 p.m. you’ll depart from Meredith on a Winnipesaukee Scenic Rail-road excursion train for a two-hour roundtrip to Lakeport. The train hugs the picturesque shoreline of Lake Winnipesaukee, the state’s loveliest and largest lake. Enjoy a full-course turkey dinner with all the trimmins during the trip. Following your return to Meredith, we’ll continue on to North Conway where you’ll spend two nights at the Hampton Inn. CB & D

Day 5: North Conway
A Continental breakfast is included each morning in your hotel. Today you’re traveling on the Conway Scenic Railroad through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Eastern U.S. On the Notch train, you’ll experience some of the finest natural scenery in the East as you travel through awesome Crawford Notch pastsheer bluffs, steep ravines, cascading brooksand streams, panoramic mountain vistas, and across the famed Frankenstein Trestle and Willey Brook Bridge. Your destination is Crawford Depot. You’ll enjoy reclining coach or all glass bubble-top Vistadome seating. Live commentary includes history and folklore of the railroad area as well as points of interest. A boxed lunch will be served (included). An on-board snack bar offers sandwiches, snacks and beverages. The motorcoach will meet you at Crawford and return you to your hotel. Youl’ll enjoy dinner tonight at the attractive Christmas Farm Inn and Spa in nearby Jackson. You’ll want to spend some time in their gift shop. CB, L & D

Day 6: Mt. Washington/Stowe
A high point of your fabulous Fall Colors of New England vacation will be the trip on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway to the summit of the highest mountain in the Northeast U.S.A ride up Mt. Washington on the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway remains, as it has for well over a century, an exciting and unforgettable experience. The ever-changing surroundings, the magnificent views, the sights and sounds of nine unique steam locomotives in action, and some of the steepest railway tracks in existence, combine to place it among the best of the world’s great railway journeys. Some days the view from the summit of Mt. Washington spans four states, Quebec, and the Atlantic Ocean, limited only by the curvature of the earth.

Stop for an “on-your-own” lunch follow-ing the Mt. Washington excursion. You’ll then continue on through some spectacularscenery about 120 miles to picturesque Stowe, Vermont. Actually, the village of Stowe is featured on many postcards of New England. You’ll arrive late this afternoon at the Mountaineer Inn, your attractive home for the next two nights. You’ll enjoy the Inn’s 30-acre lakeside setting at the entrance to the village of Stowe. Look forward to a New England Country Buffet dinner this evening (included). CB & D

Day 7: Vermont
A full day of northern Vermont discovery will begin with a full breakfast in your hotel. At 8:30 a.m. you’ll board a deluxe motor coach and roll westward to the town of Shelburne where you’ll visit one of Vermont’s major attractions, the Shelburne Museum. There are 37 historic structures, many of them dismantled and moved there from various parts of New England, reconstructed and restored. Among the structures are a horse shoe barn, jail, country store, school house, smithy, meeting house, stagecoach inn, lighthouse, hunting lodge, apothecary and furnished 18th and 19th century houses.

Other attractions include a railroad depot, private car and locomotive, a two-lane covered bridge with a footpath, a round barn and a hand-crafted model circus parade more than 500 feet long. The side-wheeler steamboat Ticonderoga was hauled two miles over land from Lake Champlain to its landlocked berth at the museum. The collections of Americana displayed include folk art, dolls, toys, quilts, rugs, pewter, tools, china, glass, clocks, paintings, decoys, coaches, carriages and wagons as well as fire-fighting, hunting and agricultural equipment. The Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial houses European furnishings, sculpture and paintings by Edgar Degas, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Rembrandt, as well as works by American Artist Mary Cassatt. Formal gardens, ornamental trees and shrubs, roses, and lilacs adorn thegrounds. Lunch is available.

At noon you’ll travel the short distance to another popular attraction, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, for a glimpse of the step-by-step creative process required to make these jointed teddy bears. At mid afternoon we’ll embark on a highpoint of the tour and an event that will be in the “once in a lifetime” category. Your motorcoach will climb up a mountain until, at the top, the view is reminiscent of the Austrian Alps you saw in The Sound of Music. You’ve arrived at the picturesque, world-famous Trapp Family Lodge. Over the next few hours you’ll experience a magnificent view of the colorful fall foliage; explore the Lodge’s beautiful gardens and enjoy a fabulous five-course, off the menu, dinner in the lodge’s main dining room. B & D

Day 8: En Route
Breakfast is included in your hotel. This morning we’ll check out of your hotel and travel a few miles to Waterbury Center whereour travelers will visit the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. You’ll see cider made the old fashion way. We’ll then continue on to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, your final Vermont attraction. You’ll participate in a 30-minute guided tour, watch a seven-minute film in the Cow Over the Moon Theater and pay a visit to FlavoRoom to sample the newest offerings.

An “on-your-own” luncheon stop will bemade in Bristol. Following lunch, your motorcoach will continue south through some awesome Green Mountain scenery to Albany, New York. Eastern and Mid-Atlantic tour members will leave the tour group at the Crowne Plaza Hotel where they’ll spend the last night of the tour. Midwest participants will continue on to the Albany Amtrak station where they will board the Lake Shore Limited for Chicago. They’ll enjoy the same Viewliner sleeping accommodations they experienced on their eastbound trip. Dinner is included on the Lake Shore Limited. B & D*

Day 9: En Route
Eastern and Mid-Atlantic travelers will transfer to the Albany train station in time for the 8:10 a.m. departure of the train for New York's Penn Station. They'll transfer there fortrains to home destinations. Midwesterners will arrive into Chicago at 9:45 a.m. on the Lake Shore Limited. They'll continue on to home destinations throughout the morning and afternoon. B*

*West and Midwest members only.

   

   

 Departure Dates:

• October 01 - 09

 Per Person Rates (based on double-occupancy):

• $2395 - Midwest (Midwest Tour begins and ends in Chicago)
• $1995 - East (East Tour begins Rutland and ends in Albany)
• Single Supplement for the Midwest $780; $555 for the East.

 Per Person Sleeping Accommodation Upgrade:

• Roomette Bedroom Included in Price
• Upgraded Bedroom $495