Trip Itinerary
PRE TOUR CONNECTION
Not included in the price of tour*.
America by Rail will arrange for New England Fall Foliage participants from Southern California to travel to Sacramento the day prior to DAY ONE. They’ll spend the night at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza in Sacramento*.
Day 1: En Route
Tour members originating in Bakersfield will board a northbound San Joaquin train departing at 4:55 a.m.
There is comfortable seating on this double-decker train. Move about at will. Snacks, sandwiches, beverages and meals are available in the dinette car. Tour members will board in Fresno at 6:50 a.m., Merced at 7:48 a.m., and Modesto at 8:28 a.m.
Arrive into Stockton at 9:01 a.m. and transfer to an Amtrak thruway motorcoach for the brief trip to Sacramento. The arrival into Sacramento is scheduled for 10:00 a.m.
Sacramento and Southern California participants will join the group. At 11:09 a.m. everyone will depart on the famous California Zephyr for the 2353-mile journey across five states to Chicago. This is the most scenic long distance rail journey in the U.S. Additional tour members can join the tour in Roseville at 11:35 a.m.
The Zephyr features the double-decker Superliner equipment. Relax in your private Roomette. A shower room and four lavatories are available to Roomette occupants. Bedrooms, with private lavatory and shower, are available at an additional cost.
After settling in, you may want to go to the glass-walled Sightseer Lounge car with its comfortable seats. It is a great place to view the passing scenery. Coffee, juices and bottled water are available in your sleeping car throughout the day. All meals on the trains are included beginning with a full-course lunch in the dining car.
As you travel eastward, you leave the lush green landscape and palm trees of California and enter the rugged terrain dotted with pine trees of the of the High Sierra Nevada mountains. Pass through the famous Donner Pass this afternoon.
Meal(s): L & D
Day 2: En Route
This morning you’ll pass through eastern Utah and western Colorado. Following your delicious dining car breakfast this morning, you’ll want to view the spectacular scenery from the Sightseer Lounge car. The train leaves Glenwood Springs at 12:10 p.m. and travels through the towering, narrow Glen Canyon. You’ll then begin to climb through the awesome Rockies toward the Continental Divide. You’ll encounter the famous 6.2-mile long Moffatt Tunnel and go under the Continental Divide. The mountain vistas continue throughout the afternoon. You’ll arrive in Denver at 6:38 p.m. where there may be time to get off the train to stretch your legs.
Meal(s): B, L & D
Day 3: En Route / Chicago
During the night you traveled across the Great Plains. Your arrival into Chicago is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. where you will meet your Tour Director.
During your time in Chicago the first-class Metropolitan Lounge will be our base. There is comfortable furniture as well as complementary beverages. There are several dinner opportunities.
At 8:00 p.m. we’ll board the eastbound Lake Shore Limited. A reception will be held in the dining car. Departure is scheduled for 9:30 p.m.
Relax in your comfortable Roomette or Bedroom. Viewliner Roomette sleeping accommodations are included in both directions 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 includes a sink and a commode. A shower room is nearby.
All dining car meals are included. You’re free to explore the train. Go to the lounge car for snacks, sandwiches, and beverages.
Meal(s): B & L
Day 4: En Route / Rutland
As the train rolls through the beautiful up state New York landscape this morning, experience valleys of woods, hills and dairy farms. Be on the lookout for sections of the historic Erie Canal.
Arrival into Albany is scheduled for 2:40 p.m. You’ll board a deluxe motorcoach and travel north 100 miles to Rutland, a southern Vermont city of 16,000.
On the way to Rutland, you’ll visit the Bennington Battle Monument. The Monument is the tallest structure in Vermont, soaring 300 feet above Old Bennington.
Your hotel for the next two nights is the Comfort Inn. There are several fine restaurants within walking distance.
Meal(s): B & L
Day 5: Vermont
Enjoy a Continental breakfast this morning before striking out on a day of visits to some of Vermont’s major attractions.
We’ll travel the short distance to Proctor where we’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, visit Hildene, one of the state’s major attractions. Hildene was the summer home 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.
The Tour Director will host a Welcome Dinner tonight at the South Station restaurant, one of the city’s finest.
Meal(s): CB & D
Day 6: Vermont/New Hampshire
Following a Continental breakfast (included), you’ll board a comfortable motorcoach and continue the New England discovery program. First on the schedule is the Vermont Country Store in Weston. This nationally known “mercantile” features practical items and items you may not find anywhere else.
Continue to the Billings Farm and Museum to see both a modern, working dairy farm and a museum 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, you’ll continue to the Quechee Gorge. Vermont’s “Little Grand Canyon” lies west of Quechee. The bridge that spans the gorge 162 feet above the Ottauquechee River provides a good view of this natural spectacle. We will have time for some photos before continuing to Meredith.
You’ll arrive in Meredith and depart on a 6:00 p.m. Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad excursion train for a two-hour round trip 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 trimmings during the trip.
Continue by motorcoach to North Conway where you’ll spend the next two nights at the Residence Inn by Marriott.
Meal(s): CB & D
Day 7: North Conway
A full breakfast is included this 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 travel through awesome Crawford Notch past sheer bluffs, steep ravines, cascading brooks, panoramic mountain vistas, and across the famed Frankenstein Trestle and Willey Brook Bridge. The destination is Crawford Depot. You’ll enjoy first-class seating. Live commentary includes history and folklore of the railroad era 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 us at Crawford to return to our hotel.
Meal(s): B & L
Day 8: Mt. Washington
Another high point of our 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 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.
We’ll stop for an “on-your-own” lunch following our Mt. Washington excursion and continue on through some spectacular scenery about 120 miles to picturesque Stowe, Vermont. The village of Stowe is featured on many postcards of New England.
The world-class Trapp Family Lodge is a high point of this tour. You’ll spend the next two nights basking in the beauty of this magnificent Austrian-inspired lodge. The complex is exquisitely managed by the descendants of the “Sound of Music” family. Located atop the highest point of land in the area, your view of the breathtaking change of color is endless. A very special three-course-dinner experience and two bounteous Vermont country breakfasts are included.
Meal(s): B & D
Day 9: Vermont
A full day of northern Vermont discovery will begin with a full breakfast in the hotel.
At 8:30 a.m. we’ll board a deluxe motorcoach and roll westward to the town of Shelburne where we’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 horseshoe barn, jail, country store, schoolhouse, smithy, meetinghouse, stagecoach inn, lighthouse, 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, 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 the grounds. Lunch is available.
At noon we’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 the hotel or another fine Stowe restaurant.
Meal(s): B
Day 10: En Route
Breakfast is included in our hotel. This morning we’ll check out of our hotel and travel a few miles to Waterbury Center where our travelers will visit the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. You’ll see cider made the old fashion way.
We’ll continue on to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, our final Vermont attraction. We’ll enjoy 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” lunch stop will be made in Bristol. Following lunch, the motorcoach continues south through Green Mountain scenery to Albany, New York.
Participants will continue on to the Albany Amtrak station where they will board the Lake Shore Limited for Chicago. They’ll enjoy the same Roomette or Bedroom they had between Chicago and Albany. Dinner is included on board.
Meal(s): B & D
Day 11: En Route
Arrive into Chicago at 9:45 a.m. on the Lake Shore Limited. The first-class Metropolitan Lounge will again be the base during your Chicago stopover. You will have time to explore Chicago.
The Southwest Chief departs at 3:15 p.m. You will again enjoy private-room sleeping accommodations, all the train meals and other amenities experienced on your east-bound train. Enjoy a full-course dinner in the dining car.
You will want to spend time in the Sightseer Lounge where the glass windows rise from floor level to the ceiling. It is a great place to view the passing scenery.
Meal(s): B & D
Day 12: En Route
During the night you traveled across the state of Kansas and will be near the Colorado border when you awake. Today you will begin to relive the excitement of the Santa Fe Trail as we cross New Mexico and Arizona. The huge train windows offer a panoramic view of the spectacular scenery. You will have time for a trainside walk in Albuquerque at 3:44 p.m. Spend time in the Sightseer Lounge car. All three delicious dining car meals are included today.
Meal(s): B, L & D
Day 13: En Route / Los Angeles
You’ll want to have an early breakfast (included) since you’re scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles at 8:15 a.m.
Passengers bound for the San Diego area will depart on a southbound Surfliner train scheduled to leave at 9:40 a.m. Relax in your comfortable reclining coach seat. Sandwiches, snacks and beverages are available in the cafe car.
Travelers depart in Anaheim, Santa Ana, Oceanside and San Diego. Arrival into San Diego is scheduled for 12:25 p.m.
Passengers for Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and other Central and Northern California points will depart on the Coast Starlight and will arrive home through the afternoon and evening.
Passengers bound for Bakersfield and north will board an Amtrak motorcoach at 10:45 a.m. for Bakersfield. Arrive in Bakersfield at 1:05 p.m. and bid farewell to our Bakersfield tour members. The connecting Northbound San Joaquin train departs at 1:20 p.m. Lunch is available in the dinette.
Continuing north, say goodbye to new friends in Fresno at 3:16 p.m., Modesto at 4:57 p.m., and Stockton at 5:29 p.m.
Some members will travel by Amtrak motorcoach for the short trip to Sacramento and arrive at 6:40 p.m. Those continuing on to Roseville will depart Sacramento by Amtrak motorcoach at 7:25 p.m. and arrive in Roseville at 8:00 p.m.
Final stops will be Emeryville at 7:13 p.m. and Oakland at 7:25 p.m. San Francisco members will disembark in Emeryville and transfer to the Ferry Building Amtrak Station.
Meal(s): B
*An additional $75 p.p./d.o.; $150 Single for those requiring a pre-tour night in Sacramento. Call for connecting rail pricing.