This was an opportunity to check off a bucket list item. The Tabernacle Choir rehearsal was awe inspiring. Salt Lake City proved to be interesting as well.
The tour or overview of Salt Lake City and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Rehearsal was excellent. If you are looking to gain a quick overview of Salt Lake City and get a true flavor of its history and its evolution to today this is the tour for you. We found it as an excellent introduction Salt Lake City. It gave us many ideas as to what we wanted to see more in depth during our stay. Simply stated the capital Building was extraordinary and our guide Jim made sure to allow us time to explore and take pictures during our stop there. The drive through the city, the university of Utah and Fort Douglas were informative and enlightening as Jim described events, and developments to Salt Lake City from its humblest of beginnings. This is the Place Park and reenactment center is a must to return to. One can truly get a feel for what life was like as the settlers tried to carve out their existence. Dinner at the Lion's house at your own expense was good old comfort food, well prepared and a friendly staff but don't be surprised by the cafeteria/buffet style service. Jim was excellent in that we had about 25 minutes before we needed to be at the Choirs rehearsal so he gave us time in Temple Square, what a serene place in the midst of the metropolis of Salt lake City. It will be an area we return to for further review.
We then went to the Conference Center where we were able to spend a little over an hour watching the rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Outstanding does not do it justice and to be frank seeing the rehearsal, hearing and watching the directors changes and implementations was very interesting and unlike seeing a performance. The setting, the music and the singing were obviously world class and our entire group enjoyed it immensely. As an added delight for this evenings group we got to see Alex Boye perform with the Choir and he was a joy to listen to. Our return to our hotel pickup site went smoothly and quickly although we did drive through a seedier part of town, which is all too familiar in most large cities these days.
We rate this tour quite highly and would recommend it as an introduction to Salt Lake City.
Our tour guide was pleasant and very informative about each site we saw, giving historical and cultural information. Our tour was on Sunday morning, and it included seeing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Sunday morning performance -- stunning! After the choir performance, the tour guide took us to numerous other interesting sites around Salt Lake City, such as the Utah state capital, the Pony Express national memorial, the Bee House, and others. The tour ended with a very good buffet lunch which is not included in tour price, and then a return to our hotel. We were very glad that we took this tour.