As summer gets closer, I continue to look for the best options for us to meet and ride trains somewhere. While mask mandates and the limited number of trains available have eased, we run into a new problem.... Inflation. Specifically, hotel rates have soared. Since any excursion would include at least one night in a hotel, this presents an issue for many. It is not an exaggeration to say that hotels on a weekend in Boston may go for over $300 or even $400 per night, which means that for anyone who might wish to spend an entire weekend in town, they would easily exceed $1,000 in hotel bills. And that is just an example; the same issue persists in other places, notably St. Albans where the one Hampton Inn adjacent to the station is in the mid $300's range on a selected date in July.
This is all very discouraging. While for the sake of having a nice weekend of train travel with friends I could probably eat the costs for one weekend, I know some people won't be able to or can't justify that expense.
An idea I had would be long distance Amtrak trains, which would fulfill our requirement to ride trains together, but to stay away from major cities or other points where hotel rates are higher due to tourism. It is not lost that long distance train travel in the summer is itself expensive and it is often hard to get sleepers available.
I believe the desire continues to also stay away from southern cities in the summer where temperatures will be uncomfortable.
I continue to be open to ideas as to how we can accomplish our desire to have Fests and Excursions as we have done before.