I thought for sure there was already a topic string on the Summer Vacation scenario, but I couldn't find it.
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I finished this game with mixed emotions. I liked the game concept of delivering tourists to beach resorts (that was a new twist) and I liked the layout of the map - the industry options were balanced and challenging. I didn't mind using troops as surrogate tourists, although placing a barrack or resort in a far distant city might have compelled me to expand to the edges of the map. The game had a few weak spots. 1) I could transport tourists from one resort to another and then back again, and it counted towards my goal. All I had to do was set up a circuit of troop trains which picked up and delivered tourists between the resorts to meet the tourist number goal. 2) The revenue source at each resort was mystifying. The territory space for the resort area was too tiny to place an industry, and placing an industry beside the territory (within the station cache) didn't seem to make any impact on the 'resort revenue'. I guess I could have looked in the editor and figured out what was being counted as resort revenue, but didn't. 3) Large parts of the map were not used. Once the tourist stream was in place, there was no incentive to expand the railroad network any further - although I did for the fun of it while waiting for the tourist numbers and resort revenues to climb.
Overall I give this scenario a thumbs up. Start as early as possible on transporting the first tourists. Realize that each resort is a territory (as I didn't at first) which must be bought. The log-lumber industry string is a good cash cow. Textiles are OK. Dairy products are good but dairy farms are few and scattered early in the game. Steel is limited but a good investment.
* Lama's Summer Vacation spawns another possible game scenario for those able to create maps. Hot springs and mountain resort hotels were great attractions in the eastern US in the late 1800's and early 1900's. People came by the droves on trains from the cities to these resorts. Taking Lama's Summer Vacation premise, one could create a scenario which required building a rail network to the Appalachian mountain resorts, hauling in tourists (troops) and hauling back coal and logs from the mountains to the cities. There is a lot of room for creativity in this kind of scenario.