GENERAL INFORMATION
- Please wear comfortable walking shoes.
- Many tours require a fair amount of walking or stamina. Please be respectful of guides and other participants and ensure that you are physically able to participate in the outing as described. Please contact AARCH if you need more information about the type of physical activity required for each individual tour.
- Lunch and beverages are often NOT included on tours unless otherwise noted. Please bring your own lunch and beverage and know that you may also need to carry it for the duration of the tour.
- AARCH tours are held rain or shine and we will not cancel due to weather unless there is a severe weather emergency. There are no rain dates for any AARCH event unless otherwise noted. Please dress appropriately for the variable weather conditions of the Adirondacks.
- Pets are not allowed on AARCH tours.
TOUR LOTTERY FAQS
I’m a member of AARCH. Who can I invite to tours or events with me?
You are welcome to invite members and non-members to AARCH events. Pricing will differ for non-members, as noted in the tour schedule. Note that most outings are limited to four reservations per member. Parties of members are limited to one request per party of four.
What is the waiting list?
AARCH has a membership of nearly a thousand households and tours normally have 30 openings, unless otherwise stated. Our waiting list is a list of people who have expressed interest in attending a certain tour, after the tour has been filled. People are placed on the waiting list in the order their requests were drawn through the lottery or in the order they made their requests after the initial lottery process was over. If spaces open on a tour, people are contacted sequentially from the waiting list to try to fill the open positions.
Why is a tour marked “Advocate-Level Only”?
As a way of thanking our larger donors (Advocate-level members and up, $150+), we occasionally offer a special event that is only available to these members. Many times, we will offer this event again a year or two later to our full membership. If someone wants to register for a “Advocate only” tour but is not a Advocate-level member or up, they can increase their membership giving to qualify.
How do you choose where to go?
AARCH has been offering tours and workshops since 1991, and we take great pride in the number and variety of places that we’ve explored throughout the region – nearly 300 different outings and counting. Each year we offer an assortment of events that explore a variety of subjects and themes, are spread throughout the region, and will appeal to different audiences. We repeat many of our most popular tours, but we are constantly looking for new places to explore, and we aspire to offer several new outings each year.
If a tour is consistently sold out, why don’t you just offer it more often?
All the places we visit require a great deal of planning and orchestration. Many of these places are special camps, homes, and businesses, open to us on a very limited and exclusive basis. We are occasionally able to offer an outing more than once each year but to honor the wishes of our hosts, we are most times limited to one outing.