| TRAINS & TRAVEL P.O. BOX 10625 RENO, NEVADA 89510-0625 Chris@traintrips.biz Rail Tours Manager. For question regarding tour itineraries and details. Deborah@traintrips.biz Office Manager: Accounting |
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1-800 359-4870 USA 1-800 752-1836 CANADA 1-800 266-8751 FAX (530) 836-1944 |
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This tour will create memories that will last forever. Travel back to a time when luxury on rails was customary. See the United States as the Rail Barons once did. Sleep on board some nights and in Hotels, on layovers. Dine on board with linens and monogrammed china.
Your passage includes: full meal and bar service, a professional staff from the railroads' own executive business cars, also from fine restaurants and hotels. Gourmet Meals are prepared on board in the small but efficient kitchen, using fresh ingredients. Our chef will tailor the menus to your specific requirements. This tour originates in Washington DC on October 29th and arrives in Los Angeles on November 3, and Oakland on November 4. Stay aboard the train in New Orleans; Oakland-bound guests will overnight at the Queen Mary while in Los Angeles. Includes all meals prepared aboard by our chef, complimentary bar, and hotel and transfers in Los Angeles for guests continuing on to Oakland. If you are looking for a relaxed and pampered vacation along with the beautiful vistas from the domes and luxurious lounges, please come aboard…and…Travel, Cross-Country in the Grand Manner!
DAY 2 SATURDAY-OCTOBER 30: (B-L-D) Morning finds us in Georgia, approaching Atlanta. We'll have 25 minutes to get out and stretch our legs during our stop in Atlanta, and this is a marvelous way to get the cobwebs out before sitting down to a delightful breakfast. Through the day we'll travel through miles of southern forest ablaze with the colors of fall as we cross Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. As dusk envelops us we approach the Pearl River, then cross Lake Ponchartrain on the longest railroad bridge in the US as we prepare to enter New Orleans. After the train is emptied of passengers and baggage our private cars are moved to the parking track that will be our home for the next 2 nights. DAY 3 SUNDAY-OCTOBER 31: (B) After breakfast we stroll from New Orleans Union Station over to the French Quarter, about 15 minutes away. The St. Charles streetcar looks tempting, and it's a great way to see the Garden District. Then it's off to the steamboat Natchez for a jazz cruise. Back to the train to freshen up a bit, (and maybe change into a costume!) then it's off to Bourbon Street, epicenter of the Halloween activities tonight! DAY 4 MONDAY-NOVEMBER 1: (B-L-D) Our train, the Sunset Limited, departs New Orleans at 11:55 AM, so we have a couple of hours to do explore those things that caught our eye last night. Shortly after departure, we cross the second-longest railroad bridge in the US--the famed Huey P. Long Bridge that spans the Mississippi River. Including approaches this bridge is 4.4 miles in length. We then head west across the bayou country of Louisiana. One of the towns we'll pass through today is New Iberia, home of Tabasco. Shortly after darkness falls we enter Texas at Beaumont. From here to Houston oil and petrochemicals are king. We take the opportunity to stretch our legs one last time in Houston before retiring for the night. During the night we feel some gentle bumps as our cars are switched at San Antonio. Here cars from the Texas Eagle are added to our train and our cars are again placed on the rear. Soon enough, all's made up and it's time to continue our trek west. DAY 5 TUESDAY-NOVEMBER 2: (B-L-D) Daybreak finds us leaving the Texas Hill Country and approaching Del Rio, and west Texas. Shortly after leaving Del Rio we cross the Pecos River on the high bridge, over 300 feet above the river. We're truly in west Texas now! Keep your eyes peeled for Judge Roy Bean's saloon and courtroom in the little hamlet of Langtry, which he named for his heartthrob, Lily Langtry. We begin a long gentle climb to Alpine, and a crossing of the Continental Divide, at over 1 mile altitude, then we will spend several hours descending to the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, which we arrive at in late afternoon. along the Mexican border, sometimes only 30 feet away, as we finally leave Texas and enter New Mexico. As we leave New Mexico the railroad begins to resemble a giant roller-coaster as we alternately climb and descend several summits before finally making our way into Tucson near midnight. DAY 6 WEDNESDAY-NOVEMBER 3: (B) Morning finds our train beginning the climb over San Gorgonio pass, in the midst of the giant wind farm. After we reach the summit at Beaumont, it's downhill all the way into Los Angeles! We'll wind through San Timoteo Canyon, then we may wait a few minutes at Colton to let Metrolink commuter trains cross before we continue our journey past Ontario International Airport, and our last stop, Pomona, before our 9:40 AM arrival at Los Angeles Union Station. We'll say our farewells to those whose journey ends here. For those of us continuing on to Oakland, a treat awaits as we board our motorcoach that will take us to the Queen Mary, which will be our hotel tonight.
DAY 7 THURSDAY-NOVEMBER 4: (B-L-D) We gather in the exquisite mission-revival waiting room at Union Station. Shortly before departure our steward appears and escorts us to our private cars, which are now on the rear of the Coast Starlight. We enjoy a light breakfast as we depart Los Angeles. Today we'll travel over 100 miles along the beautiful coastline of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, some of which we can only see from the train. We'll turn inland and make our stop at San Luis Obispo. Leaving this idyllic college town we begin the ascent of Cuesta Pass and its world-famous horseshoe curve. Passing through five tunnels, we crest the summit and begin to follow the Salinas River through this valley known as the Salad Bowl of America. Darkness descends as we approach Salinas, then it's on the way to San Jose. Of course we'll enjoy a farewell dinner, then we watch the city lights as we approach Oakland and the end of our journey.
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TOUR PRICE: All tour prices are corrected to November 1, 2010 and are subject to change without notice, at any time. All prices based on double room
occupancy. We reserve the right to change tour prices if necessary.
PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE: Personal items, meals not listed in the itinerary, laundry, phone calls, excess baggage charges, rental cars, side tours, insurance, passport fees including visas, vaccinations, gratuities, medical costs, tips to train or motor coach staff, extra tour costs due to unanticipated changes in the itinerary for reasons beyond our control, including weather, travel conditions, or cancellations, government intervention, sickness, political disputes, and failure of transportation or other causes beyond our control.
TRAVEL AND HEALTH DOCUMENTS: A valid passport is required for our international tours. In some cases a visa is also needed. Consult your
health professional for the recommended immunizations and documents. Trains and Travel International , here on referred to as TTI, assumes no other responsibility if a client is refused entry into a country. Cost and cancellation fees will be paid by the client in the event they do not have valid documents.
CHANGE OF ITINERARY: We reserve the right to substitute, alter or modify the tour if any unexpected and unforeseen conditions beyond our control
preventing the completion of such. Conditions can include weather, train schedules, equipment, motive power, revision of train consist, train delays, labor strikes, political disputes, derailments, closure of a rail line, break down of railroad or motive power equipment, railroads not honoring contracts and bus equipment problems. We will always endeavor, in each case, to provide substitutes, if any changes take place. TTI is not responsible for canceled trains,
delays, hotel rooms, route changes or missed connections, for any reason whatsoever. We will not give refunds if such conditions or cancellations take place.
TRAVEL INSURANCE: Travel Insurance is mandatory for all tours. This insurance will cover and give the tour members many benefits and protection. Benefits include baggage, accident, life, trip cancellation, sickness, bankruptcy, strike, weather conditions, employer termination or layoff effecting you or
a person sharing the room with you, terrorist incident in your departure city or city of destination, jury duty, you are subpoenaed, hijacked, or quarantined,
your residence or traveling companion residence is rendered uninhabitable, emergency military duty, traffic accident, single supplement upgrade when your traveling companion cancels their trip, trip interruption, trip delay, missed connections, itinerary change, emergency medical benefits, medical evacuation, baggage delay and loss, pre-existing medical conditions if enrollment is within 21 days of your invoice date, burglary of you or your companion before departure, felonious assault of you or your traveling companion before departure, 24 hour hotline emergency assistance, emergency cash transfer and more.
We will supply you with a travel insurance brochure with rates and application when we mail you the invoice after trip deposit is received. Travel insurance protects your vacation investments and is a very good investment for your travel and vacation money. US law allows us to offer this insurance to all persons
Worldwide. We will accept a "refusal of travel insurance wavier" if you do not wish to purchase any travel insurance. FOR CUBA: Because of the nature of these tours travel insurance is MANDATORY for everyone. We have a special American travel insurance company that will insure all folks going to Cuba on legal US approved tours. This insurance information will be sent to you upon receiving your booking.
RESPONSIBILITY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: Accepting your payment represents an agreement that you understand all the conditions, to
be a member of our tours. TTI gives notice that they are acting agents for the owners, contractors and suppliers, providing the transportation and all related travel services and assume no responsibility for injury, sickness, damage, loss, additional expenses accidental delay or irregularities which may be caused through willful or negligent acts or omissions on the part of the companies providing or engage in transportation, accommodations or services related to the accomplishment of the tour. Nor do we assume responsibility for natural disasters, social or political upheaval, acts of terrorism or acts of nature. TTI reserves
the right to substitute hotels, tour leaders, equipment, motive power, trains, onboard accommodations, routes and to alter the itinerary when deemed necessary without notice. The right is also reserved to cancel any trip or train prior to departure for any reason . TTI is not responsible for expenses incurred by tour members in preparing for the tour, including non-refundable airline tickets, visa fees, planning, phone calls, or any other expenses. TTI reserves the right to decline to accept, or ask to leave a tour, any person whose actions impede the daily operations of a tour, welfare or enjoyment of other tour members. TTI cannot give any refunds for any unused services. The terms contained herein shall serve as a waiver of liability to TTI. Assumption of risk on behalf of the client, their heirs, executor, administrators, successors, and assigns for any and all known persons injuries
RESERVATIONS: A deposit is due in our office within 14 days after you make your bookings. Full payment is due 90 days before departure. You will
receive an invoice, reservation form and current tour bulletins with your confirmation and travel insurance forms. No notice for final payment will be sent
to you. It is your responsible to make the final payment on-time.
CANCELLATIONS: TTI does not accept cancellations on the phone. Cancellations must be received by postal mail, email or fax before any refunds will be considered. Allow enough time if sending your written notice by US mail postal system. When a written cancellation is received in the Trains and Travel
office this will be the effective date of the cancellation. Please take note that it can take up to 60 days to to process some refunds. Cancellation refund rules:
100 days prior to the start of any tour you will receive a full refund less a $100 per person administration fee. 99 to 61 days before the departure of any tour
there will be a 80% cancellation penalty based on the full cost of the tour. Cancellations received 60 or less days before the start of any tour will not receive
any refund. GW Travel Ltd has their own cancellation rules and these will apply. If booking on GW Travel Ltd ask for cancellation rules.
PRE-DEPARTURE TOUR BULLETINS: Tour bulletins will be sent to clients that have booked on tours operated by TTI. Bulletins include travel info related to the tour. Final documents will be sent out about two to three weeks before a tour begins. We offer tours operated by other companies and they may
or may not send out tour bulletins and updates and most send out final documents only one to two weeks prior to the start of their tours.
PAYMENTS: Payments can be made with personal check drawn on a U.S. Dollar account, money order for U.S. Dollars, bank wire transfer, or credit card.
We accept Visa, Master Card, Discover or American Express. Final payment for all tours is due 90 days prior to departure. If final payment has not been received 7 days after the due date, a late fee of $50 per week will apply.
SINGLE SUPPLEMENT: All prices are based on double room occupancy. We will try and match you with a roommate if one is available. If not, you may
be charged the single room supplement listed for the tour you are booked on. Single rooms may not be available in some remote locations and on some trains.
TOUR REFUNDS: If for any reason tour members amend or delete any arrangements during travel, and leave the tour on their own, we cannot give any refunds on unused portions of the tour. If buses and trains are cancelled by the carrier or there is a labor strike or they go out of business, we cannot be held
responsible and we cannot give refunds. Travel insurance will protect you for any of these reasons. If TTI needs to cancel any tour everyone will receive a
full refund. Please take note that in some cases refunds can take up to 60 days to process.
PARTIAL TOURS: We will allow passengers to join or leave a tour at certain points. It will all depend on the tour and the conditions. Give us a call and
we will try and work up a custom option for you.
MILEAGE COLLECTORS: Mileage collectors please take note that TTI does not cater just to mileage collectors. We cater to all folks that enjoy trains and
Rail journeys. We give strong warning that itinerary and route changes do happen and this is totally beyond our control when it does. If the only reason that
you would want to book a tour is to collect the rare mileage, you need to understand that possible route changes do happen.
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