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Independent Amtrak Tours
Escorted Amtrak Tours
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This 9 day rail adventure features the historic trains and sites of New England in autumn. Travelers will experience the the Mt. Washington Resort, Billings Farm, Stowe (Vermont), the Shelburne Museum and the Winnipesauke, Conway and Mt. Washington Scenic Railroads.
On this tour reclining coach seats with leg rests are included. West and Midwest members will spend the first night on the train, then six nights in first-class hotels. On the return, you’ll spend another night on the train with reclining coach seats with leg rest. A Coach Comfort Kit is included.**
A limited number of sleeping accommodations are available at a very modest additional cost; only $240 for roomette bedrooms and $680 for upgraded bedrooms (per person, double occupancy). Enjoy daytime privacy and two nights of normal sleeping conditions.
Mt. Washington Resort • 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.
- Overnight, breakfast and dinner at the famed Mt. Washington Resort.
- 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.
- Round-trip transportation by Amtrak rail and deluxe motor coach.
- First-class hotel accommodations for six nights; seven for Eastern participants.
- Midwest: 15 meals. East: 11 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 this afternoon. At 8:00 p.m. you'll board the eastbound Lake Shore Limited. A reception will be held in the dining car. Departure is scheduled for 10:00 p.m. Eastern tour members will depart tomorrow for Albany.
Relax in your comfortable reclining coach seat with leg rest. Roomettes or upgraded Bedrooms are available at an additional cost. All dining car meals are included. You're free to explore the train. Go to the lounge 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 Railroad 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, you’ll continue on to North Conway where you’ll spend the night 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.
You’ll continue on to nearby Bretton Woods where you’ll encounter one of our tour highlights, the classic, historical Mt. Washington Resort. The view of the surrounding New Hampshire mountains from the hotel’s mammoth front porch is magnificent. You’ll find the hotel gracious in amenities and ambiance. Since its opening in 1902, this National Historic Landmark has been a favorite retreat of presidents and other celebrities. The elegant dining room serves four-course dinners with orchestral accompaniment nightly. Both dinner and breakfast are included. (CB, L & D)
Day 6: Mt. Washington
Another high point of your fabulous New England Fall Foliage 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.
You’ll stop for an “on-your-own” lunch following our Mt. Washington excursion, and then continue on through some spectacular scenery 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 Golden Eagle Resort, your attractive home for the next two nights. The resort is an easy walk in to the village. You’ll enjoy dinner in the hotel this evening. (B & 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 firefighting, 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 the grounds. 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. You’re free this evening to enjoy dinner in our hotel or another fine Stowe restaurant. (B)
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. You’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 reclining coach seat with leg rest they enjoyed on the east bound train. Sleeping accommodations are available at an additional cost. 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.
Notify me when 2010 rates and departure dates become available.
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