New England Rail Vacation

I am trying to plan a railway vacation for my parents' golden anniversary late summer/early fall 2014 (they would be departing from Huntington,WV) - my target area is in the New England states - I have looked over some info on package vacations via various rail vacation companies - anyone on here care to share some insight with me...whether it be regarding a vacation package or "designing" the vacation myself - thanks for your time

Well....what do you want to do in New England?

One can take Amtrak into places all over New England. Additionally, in several places in New England there are small "scenic" railroads that you can ride for a fun/short day trip. I am thinking of things like:
-Cape Cod Dinner train https://www.capetrain.com/

-Newport (RI) dinner train http://www.newportdinnertrain.com/

-Maine Eastern Railroad (brunswick to rockland) http://www.maineeasternrailroad.com/

-North Conway scenic railraod (new hampshire) http://conwayscenic.com/

The only way to get to New England via amtrak is to take the Cardinal, which runs three days a week. That train can be boarded in Huntington and then taken to New York City (Penn Station - NYP). From New York City, one would need to transfer to the overnight regional (train #66) to actually go up into coastal new England (CT, RI, MA & boston). You can actdually do the transfer in Washington, DC so that you can be sleeping on the train overnight.

From NYP you could stay overnight and take a train up to Vermont or something instead.

Congratulations to your parents and to you for wanting to do something for them.

How long a vacation?

You know the ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia is back after a 4 year hiatus. Begins May 15. That might add some ideas for you.

Consider a bed and breakfast along the route of the Amtrak Downeaster.

There is pretty good train coverage of New England (heck, even as far west as the Adirondacks). You have lots of choices once you get to New York City. What sort of sights and attractions are you thinking of?

We did a weekend in Vermont last fall via LSL, Vermonter, crossed the Lake Champlain by ferry and down along the lake on the Adirondack.

We also have done the little excursion railroads suggested by Amamba. Spent 10 days on a bus roaming around NY, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, MA, CT and back to Albany to catch the Lake Shore. We rode about a dozen short lines, dinner trains, train/riverboat combos, etc. all arranged by our local RR historical society.

There are endless possibilities for riding trains and seeing the countryside.

Although not operated by Amtrak an option to consider if you go before Labor Day is the Cape Flyer to Cape Cod. They haven't posted schedules for this season yet, but I believe last year they ran one round trip a day on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Their website is here.

The Cape Flyer last year had southbound trips on Friday and Saturday and northbound trips on Saturday and Sunday. The only day there was a same day round trip possible was on Saturday.

thank you for your responses thus far - I should have been more specific in my ideas...I am thinking of a 6-10 day trip and more sightseeing of the countryside (inland for dad...coast for mom)than of city tours - I will look in to the info that each of you have shared