Day 1: Depart Chicago
West and Midwest New England Fall Foliage travelers will meet in Chicago Union Station 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 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 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 State will board the Lake Shore Limited, coach class, this morning. Your arrival into Albany is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. We’ll board our deluxe tour motor coach and travel north 100 miles to Rutland, a southern Vermont city of 16,000.
On our way to Rutland, we’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.
Our hotel for the next two nights is the Comfort Inn. The Tour Director will host a Welcome Dinner tonight at the South Station restaurant, one of the city’s finest restaurants.
Meal(s): B*, L* & D
Day 3: Vermont
Enjoy a Continental Breakfast in our hotel this morning before we strike 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, we’ll 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.
We’ll return to our hotel in Rutland for a second night. There are several fine restaurants within walking distance.
Meal(s): CB
Day 4: Vermont/New Hampshire
Following a Continental breakfast (included), we’ll board our comfortable motor coach and continue our New England discovery program. First on our schedule for the day is 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. A covered bridge leads into the small woolen-mill village of Quechee.
Our next Vermont attraction is the fascinating Billings Farm and Museum. Here you will 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” in nearby Woodstock, we’ll continue on to the Vermont Country Store in Weston. This nationally known “mercantile” features practical items and items you may not find anywhere else. We’ll then leave Weston and travel east into the state of New Hampshire.
At 5:00 p.m. our travelers will arrive in Meredith. At 6:00 p.m. we’ll depart from Meredith on a 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 trimmin’s during the trip.
Following our return to Meredith, we’ll continue on to North Conway where we’ll spend the night at the Hampton Inn.
Meal(s): CB & D
Day 5: North Conway
A Continental breakfast is included this morning in our hotel. Today we’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 past sheer bluffs, steep ravines, cascading brooks and streams, panoramic mountain vistas, and across the famed Frankenstein Trestle and Willey Brook Bridge. Our 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. Our motor coach will meet us at Crawford.
We’ll continue on to nearby Bretton Woods where we’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.
Meal(s): CB, L & D
Day 6: 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 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.
We’ll stop for an “on-your-own” lunch following our Mt. Washington excursion. We’ll then 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.
We’ll arrive late this afternoon at the Golden Eagle Resort, our attractive home for the next two nights. The resort is an easy walk to the village.
We’ll enjoy dinner in our hotel this evening.
Meal(s): B & D
Day 7: Vermont
A full day of northern Vermont discovery will begin with a full breakfast in our hotel.
At 8:30 a.m. we’ll board a deluxe motor coach 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, 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 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 our hotel or another fine Stowe restaurant.
Meal(s): B
Day 8: 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” luncheon stop will be made in Bristol. Following lunch, our motor coach 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.
Meal(s): B & D*
Day 9: En Route to Home Destinations
Eastern and Mid-Atlantic travelers will transfer to the Albany train station in time for the 8:10 a.m. train for New York’s Penn Station. They’ll transfer there for trains 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.
Meal(s): B*
*West and Midwest members only.