The first time we did the rail bike adventure was 10 years ago when they first started out in Saranac Lake. We had celebrated my birthday and our engagement. I like to try to do something different for our dates besides dinner. I signed up for the Home Run adventure (Cooperstown) which is a 12 mile round trip bike ride, it goes by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It took about two hours round trip. There's two other shorter rides you can take (I believe 8 miles). It's pedal powered and easy to used, it was a lot different than when we did it years ago. You can reserve a tandem or quad bike. The rail bikes are for all ages and not strenuous. They space you out so you're not on top of each other. It was a beautiful ride with wonderful weather. But I would love to come back for the fall foliage (it's the best in NY). Rail Explorer are now located in seven states and they have two locations in New York (Cooperstown and Catskills). I would definitely add this to your bucket list of summer or fall things to do. read more

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Rail Explorers is such a fun experience for the whole family! We did the south bound ride, we got to go over an old bridge. We saw the countryside and really embraced the outdoors. We were in Cooperstown for Fourth of July Weekend. On the website, it was very misleading we thought we were going to ride past the Cooperstown Dream Park, but that was the north bound one. I guess we will have to come back just to ride past the Dream park. read more

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It was fun and easy trip. Once may be enough but had a good time. Staff was good and friendly read more

Rail Explorers - Cooperstown Division - Getting ready to - Tours Near Me - Milford, New York

Excellent experience! We had a great time on our tour! The bikes were easy to use and fun to use.

So, last year we made the trek up to Cooperstown to try something very different with railbikes. I wrote the below review on the Yelp page for the host railroad mostly because I was too lazy and couldn't be bothered to make a new listing for Rail Explorers. www.yelp.com/biz/the-cooperstown-and-charlotte-valley-railroad-milford Enter 2022 and we made another trip to Cooperstown. Why? In their 2nd year here, Rail Explorers expanded their offerings to do night rides. Let me expound: Last year was Rail Explorers first year in Cooperstown and they started with a six mile ride north towards Cooperstown that ends sort of in the middle of nowhere along the Susquehanna River and at an out of service bridge. This year they offer a new ride that takes you four miles south towards Portlandville and also ends in the middle of nowhere along with Susquehanna. But where the ride excels is if you book the Fireside Tour they have a fire pits that they light along with some Adirondack Chairs which makes for great smore making. Also on the way back expect to see thousands of fireflies and we got double lucky with some nearby 4th of July fireworks getting shot off. Truly one of a kind visuals when it's that dark out in the middle of the country. The set up for this is easy. You go to their site (www.railexplorers.net/book/cooperstown/search), enter the number of people, find a date and pay. You'll get an email with some easy waivers to fill out and then you just show up. The lot for the Cooperstown and Charlotte (the host railroad) doesn't have a ton of spaces but we've never had an issue. Inside the station they have a small museum, tons of Rail Explorers merch and there is a rest room trailer out in the parking lot. IME and from looking at their website, even in the middle of summer right now aside from Saturdays you can book times same day or a day or two prior without issue. Why? When you get here you'll see. Milford is in the middle of nowhere. Note, unlike the rides they do in Vegas that are year round or the rides that a different company does in Cape May that go until December, it's daily during the summer and then Thursday-Monday in September & October. Let me say this, we've done railbiking now with three different companies and Rail Explorers is easily the best in terms of the locations they have, the staff they hire, the safety measures in place and the overall ROI experience. Having done both rides in Cooperstown do we have a reason to come back? Not really but in the near future we're hoping to get to their other locations in Newport, RI and upstate NY. read more

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First time on any Rail Explorers experience. Totally professional & nice from reservations to explanations at time of event. Plenty of staff on hand and on ride who all knew their roles well. ( Really earned the full 4 Stars based on its staff who was the best...I do give 1\2 star ratings ya' know....good to be the king) Equipment was clean and in great shape. We took the Milford 12 mile course since it started at 9am and wanted to start our days here. It turned out to be a good choice in the summer since it is still somewhat cool that early. These carts can get up to close to 10 miles per hour so the cool breeze is awesome. Great workout even though it is electric- assist. Not strenuous at all. One person will have to be the anchor person ( must always pedal for it to go & the brake person) One thing though, there aren't too many sights on this track. We didn't see any wildlife, mostly trees and a few farms. Still something different. Must be beautiful in the Fall Look on Rail Explorers website for many locations throughout the world. read more

Rail Explorers - Cooperstown Division - Tours Near Me - Milford, New York

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I can'tbelievei never heard of these until a year ago. I've been the time to two locations abs will be going again soon. Really recommend it but spots always book up fast. read more

Rail Explorers - Cooperstown Division - Tours Near Me - Milford, New York

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What a fun experience! The staff were so helpful and friendly.....top-notch! The ride through the countryside was beautiful too. A must do activity if you are in this area. read more

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Who would have thought that pedaling your own Handcar down some abandoned train tracks could be so fun, interesting, and engaging? We signed up for this activity and took our two kids. We were a few minutes late showing up but they accommodated us anyway. There's a nice area to wait before the trip with patio tables and umbrellas. There's a small gift shop in the old train station. There was a brief safety/instructional speech and then we were off. We were worried it would be too strenuous, but the circuit was fairly flat and the electrical assist really did help a lot! I turned it off at one point and you could definitely tell the exertion level went up significantly. There was no digital screen, no headset with prerecorded information, no tour guide or historical information- just a fun little ride through the backwoods on a bike/train/car hybrid that you pedal to keep moving. My lazy kids didn't pedal much on the way out, but my wife and I kept it going just fine. On the way back, the kids pedaled as well, and had fun. Either way, it really doesn't take much effort, which was surprising to me. So if you have some special needs or older/very young family members who can't/won't pedal, don't sweat it. One person gets the seat that has a handbrake- but you won't need that too much, unless you want to stop somewhere to take a picture. It's only used at the end of the ride, really. They space out the customers so you actually have a little time to stop (or at least slow down) and take a picture, or look at some interesting wildlife or the water, if you want. You can't go SUPER fast or you'll run into the people in front of you, and you can't just stop and sit forever, or else the people behind you will get stuck. But there's a happy medium where you can speed up a bit if you like, or slow down a bit if you want to check out a specific area. At the 'end' of the tracks, they have you get off the cart, and wait on a fairly nice little patio/station while they lift your car on a small battery powered hydraulic lift, and turn it around for the return trip. There were Adirondack chairs there to relax in (and I think they even had cold bottled water available). There were mosquitos at the turnaround point though. There were many Chinese tourists on the day we went, if that kind of thing matters to you- we didn't care. At the beginning/end there's a switchyard with lots of pieces of equipment, so if you are into trains, you will find this quite interesting. Stop in the gift shop if you're there early, or after you're done- it's really cute. The weather was beautiful and I have some great pictures/videos/memories from our family outing. Perhaps if the weather is not great, you may not have as good an experience, but we all loved it and still talk about it sometimes. The carts are made in Korea: http://www.esplan.co.kr/?t=1701640363 read more

100 percent yes! This was a great, long track. Super fun. Now I want to go on every one I see. Cooperstown is so nice too.

WARNING!!!!! BEES The rail bikes were great but there were 3 hives on the tracks. One of them was right underneath a cart during a stop where we had to wait to cross the street. Multiple people got stung and were swarmed by bees. 2 people in my party were stung twice. For one of them, it was their first time being stung so we were nervous about allergies. The staff all knew about the bee problem and didn't warn anyone. They said that they spray in the morning and afternoon, but clearly that didn't do anything. Just be aware if you are allergic to bees!! read more

Wonderful staff. Wonderful experience. Decent prices. Would totally go again. The views were stunning.

Great experience highly recommend everyone to do this. Very beautiful area you go thru. Staff is very professional and hilarious.

One of the best adventures in Upstate NY. This is one of the most organized and professional activities I have done in NY. The staff are incredibly friendly, helpful and such good ambassadors of Rail Explorers. They hands down have the best crew of young workers. I would hire any of them any day. read more

Perfect activity for a fall day in the pandemic. You are outside on your own bike with your pod. Seems environmentally friendly with bike power and electric assist. Great activity with your teens. read more

What a rip-off. Over $90 for 2 of us. Ride took 20 minutes there, then a long lay-over while they turned each "bike" so we could return. Not much in the way of scenery. As for the ride itself, whether we pedaled or not, the "bike" went forward.t read more

This is the 3rd time my family have done this railroad explorer ride & each time we did it we had amazing time. We did it in different location each time & we loved it. We did the evening hours with 4 miles each way & had amazing experience. The staffs are very friendly & makes you feel very welcoming. This is a great family activity for all ages & a great way to have fun with family. I highly recommend this activity. read more

Fun experience. Very easy pedaling since is electric motor assist. We did a 5pm trip in late October and was a little less than two hours including a turnaround stop for marshmallow roast/bonfire. read more

We did the charlotte rail line for the fireside trip. It was a very fun experience! The eight mile round trip went significantly faster than expected and the motor on the bike did make it very easy. We also have to give a shout-out to Travis and Henesis (our guides) they were very engaging and a lot of fun! read more