Need recommendation for your group that does a Rick Steves quality tour of U.S. East Coast historic sites. Looking for Fall timeline.
I don't think that this is necessarily a "Rick Steves Quality" tour since I know the number of participants on each tour is somewhat larger. I post it just as an example of a tour of east coast historic sites. You certainly could do a little more research into the company and see if it matches your travel style/wants.
http://www.globusjourneys.com/tour/americas-historic-east/ah
Age range? If you are older you might find something with Road Scholar at www.roadscholar.org I have done a number of their programs both US and International and find their guides/leaders are usually quality. Road Scholar contracts with different organizations to provide their programs. They do have a similar model to Rick's in that they are educationally focused and are very clear about what they include.
Whatever you do, do your due diligence on your tour company. (Wow, does that have enough do's in it?? lol) On Trip Advisor I see many complaints about tours provided thru TAKE Tours and Tours4Fun which are budget tours that move extremely quickly, cover lots of territory and are made up mostly of Asian tourists. The complaints I see posted are that the tours are usually conducted in Chinese even if it says multilingual plus hidden costs such as required daily tips to the guide and driver.
My mom does Road Scholar and likes them. Are you totally against doing it on your own? What cities were you focused on? I've planned out a 12 day DC>Philadelphia>Boston that was pretty easy to plan out and we did it all by train and then just planned our sites for each day. Any thoughts on going it alone?
We have very well-traveled friends who love Road Scholar trips. They offer a great many, but none is exactly what you describe. This one comes close, but may not focus solely on historic sites.
Don't know too much about tours but I can tell you that the Northeast in the Fall is an absolutely beautiful time to visit. There is no place like the Northeast to view the beautiful colors of the fall when the trees are in their full glory of reds, oranges, yellow, purples! Vermont is spectacular in the mountains, Maine along the water, or New Hampshire in the mountains are incredible as well.