PROHIBITION, GANGSTERS & HISTORY

MONDAY, JUNE 24 - SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2024

EARLY BOOKING DISCOUNT: BOOK THIS EXCURSION BEFORE 3/31/24 AND SAVE $50 PER PERSON

PRICE PER PERSON:

$2,725 - Double - $2675

$2525 - Triple - $2475

$3325 - Single - $3275

Travel protection is available to help protect your investment, your belongings and most importantly, you. The full plan details can be viewed under About / Travel Protection Plan. Rates are per person and based on the excursion price & length, and guest’s age at time of booking. Travel protection must be purchased at the time of booking and paid in full with the excursion deposit. 

TENTATIVE ITINERARY:

Day One – Monday, June 24, 2024: Afternoon arrival in the Toledo Ohio area where we will meet a guide to begin our touring. A gangster guide from the “Glass City Garters, Gambling, Gangsters and Gin tour.”  This 3-hour tour includes a stop at the Toledo Police Museum to view their exhibits that pertain to the topic.  There will be tastings of Gin and Rum along the way.Dinner is included this evening before checking into our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites (or similar) in the Toledo area. 

Day Two – Tuesday, June 25, 2024: Included breakfast at hotel before checking out & baggage handling. Depart for Illinois.  Lunch is included at Lou Malnati’s Restaurant. Following lunch visit the Old Joliet Prison for a 90-minute walking tour led by two docents   who worked at the Prison while it was still in operation until its closing in 2002. You will hear about the daily life at the Prison during their time there – a more personal take on the site’s history. This tour takes you into the East and West Cell Houses, North Segregation, Cafeteria, Chapel, and Honor Dorm.  They will gear this towards Prohibition- Baby Face Nelson was there.  Public Enemies movie filmed there. Late this afternoon, depart for Chicago where we will enjoy dinner at Nitti’s Supper Club. Step inside Harry Caray's landmark building, once owned by infamous Chicago mobster Frank Nitti, and join us for dinner.  The menu includes beer, wine, and soda. After our fun filled day, arrive and check in to Holiday Inn Downtown Chicago (or similar hotel).

Day Three – Wednesday, June 26, 2024: Rise & Shine.  Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before departing. Depart this morning with Untouchable’s Tour Guide for Chicago’s Original Gangster Tour. They have been providing a top-notch educational and historically accurate tour for over 35 years! Their guides present an accurate account of the crimes and activities that were going on in Chicago during the 1920’s and ’30’s (Prohibition). You will hear the exploits of Capone, Moran, Dillinger, and the rest of the boys on this unforgettable Chicago crime tour! Guests remain on the bus for the duration of the tour. Some sites included       are the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the Biograph Theatre, and the Holy Name Cathedral. The tour is educational yet fun. The Gangster Guides are professional actors and bring the world of Prohibition and the 1920s to life. The Untouchable Tour Gangster Guides take on the persona of gangsters and mobsters and will bring the tour to life. We travel to Oak Park to Al Capone’s gravesite. He was known as “Scarface” by the press, “Big Fellow” or “Snorky” to his associates, and “Public Enemy No. 1” to the Chicago Crime Commission. No matter what you call Al Capone, or what you think of the legendary mob boss and bootlegger, he left an indelible impression in Illinois.  The legendary story of Al Capone ends at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside where a humble stone flush with the ground reads: Alphonse Capone, 1899-1947, “My Jesus Mercy”.  A large gravestone proclaims “Capone” for all the family, including Capone’s mother, father, and brother. The resting place for the Capone family in Hillside is peaceful. You’ll find visiting the Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery to be a beautifully reflective experience despite the juxtaposition of the violence associated with Al Capone. “Fun” fact: While Al Capone is widely associated with the notorious St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929 that ended the lives of seven associates of Capone’s bootlegging rival “Bugs” Moran, it is tax evasion for which the mobster was convicted. He went on to be one of the earliest prisoners at the federal penitentiary of Alcatraz.  Capone served his time and lived the last of his years quietly in his home in Palm Island, Florida. He died there in January of 1947 due to complications from syphilis.  Lunch is included at Wildfire Restaurant. Enjoy your included lunch while you and your traveling partners try to solve a Murder Mystery.  In this “married to the mob” event, you’ll never know who to trust. With the two families merging, someone is bound to lose power, which means someone else will lose their life! solve this case with your fellow detectives.  Dress like the cat’s meow for this mafia wedding! Flapper dresses, zoot suits, feather boas and headbands, pinstriped suits and fedoras are all appropriate. Traditional wedding attire is nifty too! Perfect opportunity for a costume party and contest for the group. Solve the mystery and depart to check into the Hyatt Place Livonia, MI or similar. Dinner on your own at many restaurants within walking distance.  Please note that there is a time change to Eastern time

Day Four – Thursday, June 27, 2024: Breakfast is included at the hotel before departing. Our Step on guide will meet you in the lobby and you will begin the Felonies and Misdemeanors, Detroit Cops and Mobsters Bus Tour by Detroit History Tours. Some of the world’s most notorious criminals, mobsters, and gangsters bamboozled their way through Detroit. Meanwhile some of history’s most infamous, brilliant, or honorable policemen tried to stop them. On your Tour, escape into the city’s criminal underworld as you investigate stories about Jimmy Hoffa, prohibition, The Purple Gang, “Joe the Hood”, The Gotham Hotel, and the Detroit Mob families. You’ll hear the story of "La Mano Nera" or black hand extortionists, in Detroit at the turn of the century. You’ll explore the illegal liquor war of the 1910’s. You’ll visit an iconic bar where you learn about the police chief who resigned from his appointment as a judge to bring “civility back to the police”. You will traverse the city and learn the history of mobster owned speakeasies and some of their most memorable raids. From riots to rolling men into the river, from African American gambling rackets to Italian mobsters fixing professional football games, from madams, and street corner pimps to cops, mounted police, and mayors of all types welcome to the criminal side.

Enjoy an included lunch at Tommy’s Detroit Bar and Grill in Detroit.  After lunch you will get a tour of the joint! Tommy’s Detroit was built in 1840 and has a tunnel entrance that was used to smuggle liquor from the Detroit River during prohibition. Learn all about it.  The oldest Speakeasy in Detroit.

Next, we’re off to Two James Spirits. Two James is located in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood, and is the first licensed distillery in Detroit since Prohibition. Two James is committed to producing only the highest quality environmentally conscious handmade spirits utilizing locally sourced agricultural products with the aim of revitalizing the community and reinforcing the craft product movement. You will learn all about the distilling process, and even get to try a few samples!  Take home a    souvenir glass.

Early evening tour of the River Prohibition area. During Prohibition, Detroit took advantage of its location on the international border. With 75% of liquor entering the United States through the "Detroit-Windsor Funnel," the Detroit River became the epicenter of the booze smuggling trade. Dinner is included this evening.  

Day Five – Friday, June 28, 2024: Enjoy your included breakfast at the hotel before checking out. We will make a stop for Duty Free Shopping- become your own “rum runners” before going through customs and entering the US.  Ambassador Duty Free Detroit is a full-service Duty-Free Store located at the foot of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan.  The Ambassador Bridge serves as North America’s #1 Border Crossing. As a Duty-Free Store, items are sold for export and are exempt from certain taxes and duties that would typically be applied to the merchandise sold at a regular domestic retail store. Taxes such as state sales tax and import tariffs are not applied at the point of sale when an item is sold for export.  When a traveler leaves the country, they have the opportunity to shop at a ‘duty free store’ where they can take advantage of these savings and save money on hundreds of items! Lunch on your own while at Ambassador.  Passport required traveling into Canada.

We’re off to Windsor, Ontario. Arrive Holiday Inn Express Waterfront (or similar).

This afternoon, arrive at JP Wisers-Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery.  Experience the story of Canadian whisky. You'll learn about the history of Canadian whisky and the process of making it, from the grains harvested by local farmers to you pouring it into a glass to enjoy. The distillery tour concludes with a tasting of 4 of their award-winning whiskies.  

Stop at Caesar’s Windsor and pick up Benny and Yorkie- 2 gentlemen in dire need of assistance. They board the bus, and your Rum Runners journey begins.  You will travel along the riverfront making several stops as Benny and Yorkie begin to tell the secrets of the bootleggers and the ingenious methods they used to smuggle liquor across the river in the dark of night and over the windswept ice in the dead of winter. They’ll tell of the bootleggers’ hideouts and divulge the location of the Speakeasies and Blind Pigs where the Purple Gang and Al Capone made their deals.  Your tour will end with an included buffet dinner at The Rockstar Music Hall, Windsor, Ontario.

Day Six – Saturday, June 29, 2024: Included breakfast at hotel before checking out. Early morning departure. We will stop in Hamilton, Ontario at the Jackson Square Food Court for lunch on your own.  We will set forth for home, crossing the International border into the United States.    

Proof of Citizenship Requirements

All passengers traveling into CANADA OR INTERNATIONALLY  are required to present proof of citizenship before boarding the coach.

IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CHECK THAT EACH PERSON HAS THIS PROOF WITH THEM. ANYONE WHO CANNOT SHOW PROPER I.D. TO THE TOUR HOST, WILL BE DENIED ENTRY ONTO THE COACH.  FURTHERMORE, THERE WILL BE NO REFUND GIVEN FOR THE MISSED TOUR.

Via Motorcoach traveling into Canada:
ALL U.S. & CANADIAN CITZENS WHO ARE 16 AND OLDER & TRAVELING BETWEEN THE US & CANADA WILL BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FORMS OF VALID ID:

PASSPORT
PASSPORT CARD
ENHANCED DRIVERS LICENSE
  (FROM: NY, MI, MN, VT, or WA)

UNDER 16: For youth under 16, an original birth certificate along with a notarized note from the parent/legal guardian (if not traveling with parent) is required.