JUNE 14 - 21, 2013
Join us as we travel back in time in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Gettysburg. We’ll visit the National Battlefield ‘s of Manassas (Bull Run), Fredericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg, Antietam, and Gettysburg, the Confederate’s mighty Tredegar Iron Works, Colonial Williamsburg, the Mariner’s Museum (home of the USS Monitor exhibition), Appomattox Courthouse, Lexington’s Lee Chapel, scenic Skyline Drive, Luray Caverns, Harper’s Ferry, the Eisenhower Farm, Old Soldier’s Home, Ford’s Theater, and much more!
A Presidential Tour of New York, New England & the Hudson Valley
Eleven Presidents in Nine Days
OCTOBER 5 – 13, 2013
Our signature autumnal tour that includes visits to T.R.’s Birthplace, the 9/11 Memorial, New York’s Tenement Museum, Grant’s Tomb, Kykuit, the spectacular Rockefeller Estate, the FDR Library, Museum and Home, the Calvin Coolidge Homestead, the Flume Gorge, a breathtaking ride on the Mount Washington Cog Railway, the home of Presidents John and John Quincy Adams, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston’s famed Freedom Trail, as well as the final resting places of Presidents Martin Van Buren, Chester Arthur, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Pierce, John and John Quincy Adams, overnights at the Waldorf-Astoria, Mohonk Mountain House, the Woodstock Inn, Mount Washington Resort, Boston’s Omni-Parker House … and much more!
Welcome to Presidents and Patriots History Tours!
Discover the advantages of traveling on one of our guided, personally hosted, small group tours. Each of our two annual tours are hosted and led by renowned author and presidential historian Richard Norton Smith. A frequent guest on PBS' NewsHour, Mr. Smith also serves as C-SPAN's in-house historian, where he is responsible for such long form series as Presidential Libraries: History Uncovered, The Contenders, and the current Influence and Image: America's First Ladies. Mr. Smith has been director of the Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museums, as well as founding director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. He has a rare gift for making history real, relevant, and entertaining. "There's no excuse for a dull book, a dull museum, or a dull tour," he says, "especially when dealing with history, the most fascinating subject I know."
Our deluxe motor coach tours are designed with your comfort and enjoyment in mind, and our small group setting creates a much more intimate, personal setting when compared with other tours who attempt to fill their motor coaches to capacity. In fact, many of our guests are repeat participants. This, combined with a shared interest in the history being experienced, makes for an unusually relaxed, fun and friendly atmosphere.
If you are a C-SPAN viewer, you may have seen one or more of our itineraries featured over the past several years. C-SPAN has been along with us on several past trips, and has broadcast segments on their history channel, C-SPAN 3.
What our guided tours include:
• Each tour hosted in its entirety by author and presidential historian Richard Norton Smith.
• Outstanding overnight accommodations, many in historic settings, and including all taxes and gratuities.
• Nearly all meals, including all breakfasts and lunches and most dinners (we do this to allow, at your option, some free time to explore, apart from the group setting).
• Special extras available nowhere else – from a poolside barbeque at the LBJ Ranch to informal encounters with world-renowned scholars or a behind-the-scenes history of the Waldorf's Presidential Suite from inside the suite itself.
• Admission fees to all historic sites, museums and attractions listed on the itinerary.
• Complete baggage handling throughout the tour for your primary piece of luggage.
• All taxes, fees and gratuities for all group functions, including meals, guides, bellmen, and motor coach driver.
• Deluxe ground transportation via climate controlled motor coach, featuring on-board restroom and the latest amenities, including 110-volt power supply (for cell phones, DVD players, iPads or lap tops), as well as free Wi-Fi (wireless internet) throughout the coach.
We handle all of this! All you need to do is:
• Since we are not a full-service travel agency, we can save you money by allowing you to make your own "to and from" arrangements ... you will be able to book your own transportation to the city where your tour will begin, and from the city where your tour ends.
• We do all the rest!
For more information, click on either our Spring (June) or Fall (October) tour itineraries or telephone us at (202) 657-7444.