There isn’t a place like New England within the fall. Along with its sheer variety of timber, lots of them deciduous, the cities that make up New England really embrace the autumn season with cider donuts, U-Decide apple orchards, and maple syrup all the things.
And whereas most individuals catch the autumn colours from the consolation of their automobile, there’s a higher means. A means that lets you discover past the closely traveled highways so that you may be totally immersed within the tree-laden panorama. Enter the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad and its particular “Fall Foliage Trains,” which run from mid-September to mid-October.
The four-hour foliage-focused practice journey departs from the tiny city of Meredith, New Hampshire, and continues up and over Ashland Summit to the north. It crosses the scenic Ashland Excessive Trestle, which affords vacationers with views of the water and forest under, earlier than passing via each a pink deer farm and a Christmas tree farm.
The practice continues to Plymouth, New Hampshire, the place it stops at a neighborhood inn, The Widespread Man Inn & Spa, for lunch. This institution welcomes practice vacationers with a sizzling buffet lunch served in its eating room. The autumn-themed lunch sometimes features a sizzling soup, roasted turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a aspect of cranberry sauce and butternut squash. There’s additionally a vegetarian possibility. (Simply notice that the menu can fluctuate.)
Following a sizzling, stress-free meal, practice vacationers can peruse the inn’s present store for New Hampshire-made merchandise earlier than hopping again on the practice for the journey house.
En path to Meredith, the place the journey ends, the practice makes yet one more cease in Ashland, New Hampshire, which is house to the restored Boston, Harmony & Montreal Railroad Station. Right here, vacationers might be handled to a full tour of the historic station by members of the Ashland Historic Society, who’re wearing full 1860s apparel
From Ashland, the practice continues again over Ashland Summit and makes one last move by Lake Waukewan earlier than dropping vacationers again on the Meredith Station.
The particular fall foliage journey on the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad leaves Meredith Station at 11 a.m. and returns simply after 3 p.m. The four-hour tour solely runs on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from Sept. 19 to Oct. 20, 2024. Tickets for the autumn foliage particular are $99.99 an individual and embrace the recent buffet lunch in Plymouth, the guided tour in Ashland, and a memento tour booklet.
Reservations ought to be made upfront at gsscenic.com.