Does Every Child Need a Ticket?
Yes — the Mountain Christmas Light Delight is sold per person, not per railbike, so each rider gets a ticket and a seat. That includes toddlers, who ride in their own seat with a safety harness. Infants are the one exception in practice: they ride in a front carrier on a parent's chest rather than in a seat of their own. When you book at tunnelhotel.com/book, the number of riders you enter is the number of tickets you pay for.
At $29 a person, a family of four rides for $116 before the 5% activity tax. On the fifteen discounted December weeknights it is $20 a person, or $80 for the same four — and those Monday-to-Wednesday nights are also the least crowded, which is its own gift when you are herding small people in snowsuits.
Pick the 5:00 PM Departure
Four departures run most nights: 5:00, 6:00, and 7:00 PM, plus 8:00 PM on Thursdays through Sundays. For anyone under about eight, the 5:00 PM is the one. It is a few degrees warmer, the sky is already dark enough for the lights to pop, and the whole outing — 4:30 PM check-in at the depot, roughly 30 minutes on the rails, the shuttle back up — wraps before dinner is even late. The 8:00 PM run is beautiful and better suited to teenagers and grown-ups.
What Happens on the Railbike
Nobody pedals. The track runs downhill for about 2.5 miles, so the bikes coast while a guide on the lead railbike controls the pace, and riders travel in groups of five or six bikes. Seatbelts are standard on every seat, and Tracks & Yaks staff help adjust seats and harnesses at the depot. Kids spend the ride pointing: there are hundreds of lights, lit displays along the way, and Christmas music through the trees. At the bottom, a shuttle carries everyone back to the Frostburg Depot at 19 Depot St.
Two rules are firm. Each seat has a 300-pound weight limit, and the railbikes are not wheelchair accessible. If anyone in your group has a mobility question, call Tracks & Yaks at 240-730-4064 before booking.
Food, Bedtimes, and the Bunk Room
Feed everyone first. The Trail Inn Cafe at The Tunnel Hotel, directly across the street from the depot, is open 8 AM to 6 PM daily, so an early supper there before a 5:00 PM check-in works; after the ride it will be closed, and Frostburg's Main Street restaurants are a short drive or a brisk walk up the hill.
If the drive home is long, the hotel keeps two rooms heated through winter, and one of them was built for exactly this group: the Big Savage Bunk Room (Room 202) sleeps six across a queen bed and two bunk sets at $147.06 a night with tax. The Railrider Retreat Suite (Room 201) sleeps four at $169.86. Either can be added to the ride in the same checkout at its normal rate, and check-in is contactless — the door code arrives on your phone, so a sleepy carload goes straight from the shuttle to bed.
Packing List for Small Riders
Snowsuit or insulated bibs, a hat that stays on, mittens on strings, warm boots, and a blanket for the lap. A thermos of cocoa for the wait at the depot. Nothing that dangles — toys, scarves, and loose straps are the things that end up beside the track. And a fully charged phone: the shot from the back of the railbike looking into the light tunnel is the one you will want.
Tickets and the two winter rooms book together at tunnelhotel.com/book. Season dates, times, and prices live at tunnelhotel.com/experiences/mountain-christmas-light-delight.
