2023 Wild Mountain Rails Tour

      Washington, DC, USA

      SI
      Special Interest Tours
      • Email address verified
      46 reviews
      Jun 5 - 13, 2023
      Group size: 25 - 40
      2023 Wild Mountain Rails Tour
      Washington, DC, USA

      Special Interest Tours
      • Email address verified
      46 reviews

      Jun 5 - 13, 2023
      Group size: 25 - 40

      About this trip

      This all-inclusive tour highlights the best scenic railroads and museums of West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.




      What’s included

      • All Inclusive Meals
        3 meals daily on full tour days, dinner on Day 1 and breakfast on Day 9
      • 8 Nights Hotel
        2 Nights Hyatt Washington Dulles, 1 Night Hotel Roanoke, 2 Nights Holiday Inn Express & Suites Elkins, 2 Nights Fairfield Inn Marriott Cumberland
      • Museum visits to:
        Virginia Museum of Transportation, Winston Link Museum, C&O Historical Center, Museum at Cass, West Virginia Railroad Museum, Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona
      • Rail Excursions:
      • East Broad Top
        Private Charter & Shop Tour
      • Everett Railroad
        Private Steam Charter
      • Cass Bald Knob
      • Cass Durbin Greenbrier
        Rail Excursion
      • Tygart Flyer
        Rail Excursion
      • Western Maryland Scenic
        Rail Excursion

      What’s not included

      • Meals Not Mentioned
      • Drinks Unless Specified
      • Travel to/from DC
      • Travel Insurance
        Available for Purchase Separately

      Available Packages

      All Inclusive- Double Occupancy

      Per Person

      $5,980
      Deposit: $500
      All Inclusive - Single Occupancy
      $6,990
      Deposit: $500

      Available options



      Itinerary

      Day 1 - June 5th
      Meet in DC

      Arrive in Washington DC and gather at the hotel for a welcome dinner, where you will meet fellow guests and your Trains Magazine special guest.

      Your Organizer


      SI
      Special Interest Tours
      46 reviews
      Joined in June 2021
      See profile

      Reviews

      We had a great time.
      By James M for Group 1 -2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, with Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 20, 2024
      Well done! We had a great trip. Thank you!
      By James P for Group 2 - 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, w/ Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 19, 2024
      Thank you Anjali, Sam, Julia and Andres for all your hard work. The private tours of the space center, River walk boat, and the Alamo were great venues, and even though we all would have enjoyed a longer totality, the entire package with a nice group of people made for a very enjoyable trip. See you on the next one!
      By Paul Z for Group 1 -2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, with Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 19, 2024
      The overall structure of the trip was excellent. We enjoyed the venues, special tours and various stops. Having said that, the actual organization of the trip was poor and chaotic and times. We recognize weather and other unforeseen events always happen, but that is not an excuse for keeping the folks in Group 2 informed which was not the case. The guide on our bus is a nice person but he had little useful information - he was more of a "babysitter" than anything else. He had to wait for somebody from the first bus to come on board and inform us of the up to date schedule and then that was not always clear. Cell phone communication usually works even in Texas. Having to deal with our own luggage to and from buses was a pain. I don't usually go on tours, but the ones I do always have folks from the hotel load and unload luggage from the buses. I know there was complexity related to having two buses that is easy to deal with. Give everybody tags attached to their bags where they write Group 1 or Group 2 to make sure that the right bags get into the right bus. And, then folks can take a look and confirm their bags are loaded if they want to double check. This is just one example on how to improve the. operational/detail aspects of the tour. The venue at the eclipse site (we did not stay there) was poorly run, disorganized and did not seem to know how to handle a medium size group such as ours. Again, the various guides on the trip were slow to step in and make sure things worked as promised. You know there is a problem when you can't even get a cup of coffee. You need additional professional help to better run your tours. Sometimes the small details can make the difference between a good trip and a bad trip. Having said all that, I will again note we enjoyed the trip and thought that having Bob Berman and the Hubbell's as part of the tour was a real positive., and we are considering the 2025 Chile trip. My last word is that if you want sophisticated clients you need to be operationally more sophisticated and professional which seemed not to be the case for this trip.
      By Michael D for Group 2 - 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, w/ Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 19, 2024
      Amazing trip! Hotel rooms, transportation, activities were top notch ... great organizers and traveling companions. Mother Nature was pretty fickle, but the organizers were prepared for all with well-executed back up plans. Bravo!
      By Cecilia M for Group 2 - 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, w/ Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 19, 2024
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