I've ridden a number of tourist lines...including all 3 of the colorado narrow gauges...so I have a few comments...
If you have a chance to ride the Silver Vista...it might be a good idea...gondolas are nice too! I recommend googling the Silver Vista as its a new replica of a '40s-'50s excursion car of the same name that was destroyed in a fire. It should be really cool. The best cars are near the rear of the train...so that you can get pictures of the engine while going around curves...
Most of their other cars are authentic D&RG 19th century cars...I believe most are Jackson & Sharpp cars.
If you can take a round house tour, they've got some goodies tucked away like a 2-8-0. There's also a 2-8-0 in the city park. All of the power that is used is either a K-28 or a K-36...2-8-2s.
A non-rail fan would probably prefer the D&S to the Cumbras & Toltec...but, a railfan might enjoy the C&T a bit more...and it's west end, Chama, is only around 2 hours from Durango. The scenery is spectacular, although not quite as good as the D&S, and the towns at each end of the line aren't on par. What really makes the C&T so cool is that when they ended their regular operations in the late 60s...they moved a ton of the freight equipment...and MoW to Chama. They have K-27, K-36, and K-37 mikados...but no 2-8-0s. They have a yards full of freight cars...although a shortage of "real" passenger cars (their coaches used to be flat cars). The still use one of their TWO rotary snow plows to open their line in the spring...if needed...and have a variety of other pieces of MoW equipment. Although I haven't been there for a while, they used to pass out self guided tour sheets...while Durango wouldn't let you close to the operation (except on their roundhouse tour which cost $$$). The way the two railroads did things...the D&S is more of a tourist/scenic railway (and the best at that) while the C&T is more of a heritage or preservation railway (complete with hand shoveling of ashes from the ash pit into a drop bottom gondola). The C&T mainline is around 40% longer than the D&S, so they use a bus to return you to your car at the end of the day :-( The D&S was a branchline while the C&T was part of the mainline...the C&T has two big bridges & two tunnels.
If I recall, the Strater (sp?) Hotel used to be THE hotel in Durango. If you go there, be sure to pay attention when you arrive in Silverton...the Silverton Northern's engine house is on your left as you approach the wye.
You ought to rent around the world in 80 days if you can...the american west scenes were shot on the Silverton Branch (the D&S) and the desert scenes where on the Chili line (now gone). The motive power was...if I recall...a decorated C-16 consolidation...either the 268 or 278...both survive. The other movie to rent...if possible...would be ticket to tomahawk...which was essentially a journey from Durango to Silverton with a vandalized RGS #20 (which is currently being restored at Strassbourg, PA!)...but that would be a difficult movie to find (from 1949).
The movie Bite the bullet was filmed on the C&T...but think it was just at the Antonito end (the desert).
You ought to google "narrow gauge circle"....there's a site with wonderful pictures.
If I recall correctly, the package details with hotels are generally not the best deal for a railfan...but I might be confusing that with the WP&Y cruise ship packages (which I know aren't as good as separately purchased tickets...they sardine you).
I may be a DSP&P fan...but in high school I used to read D&RGW books everyday as I ate my cereal...both railroads are absolutely wonderful!