adirondack scenic railroad

Nice relaxing ride. Food available on board. Special trips.Old restored train cars. Plan it right and you can also ride the Adirondack Carosol in Saranac Lake or tour Lake Placid. Hoping they will extend the trip to Tupper some day!

This railroad is a wonderful and fun way to learn about the Adirondack's history from local people. The scenery is beautiful and the "guides" are informative. A great idea for a family, or even just pals who love trains. My father and nephew would go every day if they could.

Its worth the donation to the museum that's keeping trains and railroads like this one still running. The volunteer staff was very friendly and knowledgeable with historic facts about the Lake Placid region. We sat in the open air car, as most riders did. Penelope the Clown was enteraining children in the Dining car. They could use help with funds to keep it going. It would have been nice to have some posters on the walls on the inside of the cars with historical photos and facts. Maybe facts about the plant and wildlife that you were looking at through the windows. Great learning experience for young children. And for adults, a good reality check to relax and forget about your worries, even if its only for 45 minutes.

We took the Adirondack scenic railroad trip from Saranac Lake to Lake Placid on a Sunday, which, during the summer months, is advertised as Ice Cream Sunday. It costs $19 per adult for a round trip ticket (approx. 45 minute, 9 mile trip each way) to Lake Placid and back and is supposed to include a complimentary ice cream bar or ice cream sandwich. This is an weekly attraction that runs all summer each year. The scenery along the route was disappointing. Other than a couple of scenic ponds, the tracks went mostly through wooded areas with the only scenery being trees. Once in Lake Placid, we had almost an hour wait for the return trip to Saranac. Unfortunately the train depot is in the back of the village, well away from shopping and restaurants and there was no shuttle or other transportation available to take us there, so other than a short walk to a park down the street, we sat around the train depot where there isn't much to see or do. Then, they ran out of ice cream before the return trip back which is when we wanted to get ours. We even asked when we got on the train in Saranac if it would be available on the return trip and were told yes. This was in addition to them running out of their daily special (two chili dogs for $4) right after we left Saranac. Poor planning on their part for a recurring attraction. For what was offered (or in this case unavailable), everyone in my party felt the trip was over-priced, poorly planned and would not recommend it.