Vermont - Any Recommendations?

[Ksyrup]

The wife and I are headed to Vermont for a 4-day long weekend this Saturday. We rarely do anything without the kids, so this will be a (welcome) change. We're staying near Sugarbush and planning to do a few day trips around SW/SE Central VT, plus the day we leave we're going to hit the Lake Champlain area before heading to the airport (flying out of Burlington). We likely won't have time to head too far south, or hit the NE portion of VT.

Any places we absolutely need to see - natural or otherwise - places to eat, etc.? Never been to VT, so we're looking forward to it. Appears the weather is going to be a bit warmer than I expected, but we're dealing with that in KY this week, too, unfortunately. We may be hitting it a bit before peak given the temps but I still expect it to be a great trip.

Any recommendations, tips, etc., are appreciated.

[ISiddiqui]

Vermont you say?

[Thomkal]

I lived on the other side of Lake Champlain for the four years I was in college at Plattsburgh NY, so this was some 30 years now (sigh) but I remember the bridge we took from Plattsburgh to Vermont was worth checking out. If you can get over to NY, the Adriondacks (Whiteface Mountain) and foothills are great for nature lovers. Lake Champlain is a must too.



Make sure you bring jackets, sweaters, long pants, etc because it can get cooler without any warning practically. Enjoy, it was really beautiful when I lived there, and likely still is.

[jct32]

If you like Ben and Jerry's ice cream, the factory is about 30 minutes away from Burlington. We visited and it was pretty cool, you get a tour of the factory and then you can get some ice cream at the end.

[Castlerock]

Both of these recommendations are in the Sugarbush area:

American Flatbread (in Waitsfield) is a pizza place I like a lot. Gourmet-type pizzas. It has weird hours and is often closed but when it is open it is VERY popular.

The Warren Store (in Warren) is essentially a New England Country Store but it is also pretty unique. Fantastic sandwiches in the deli.

[Thomkal]

How could I forget Ben and Jerry's-definitely a must see

[corbes]

Are you looking to go hiking, and if so what is your tolerance for distance and strenuousness?

[Ksyrup]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I wouldn't mind doing a bit of hiking, but likely not going to be much given my wife's got a hip issue. I don't think she could handle a long or strenuous hike.

It's a bitch getting old.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

It's a bitch getting old.

That's not a nice way to refer to your wife

[corbes]

OK, some non-hiking agendas:
Go to Church Street in Burlington
Eat at Single Pebble in Burlington
Go to Shelburne Farms (Shelburne is just south of Burlington)
Drive north-south on Route 100
Eat at Hen of the Wood in either Burlington or Waterbury, if there's a table open.
Eat at Tiny Thai in Winooski and order from the real Thai menu.
Eat at Yama's in West Lebanon, NH, and order from the Korean menu.
Visit the Quechee Gorge and the village of Woodstock
Hike (walk) up Mount Tom in Woodstock,* take a picnic up there from Woodstock Farmers Market on Route 4
Look at 7daysvt.com for calendars of activities
Attend a concert at Flynn Theater or Higher Ground in Burlington
Go to Isle La Motte and see the fossils
Go to Burton Island (ferry from near St. Albans)

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

That's not a nice way to refer to your wife

Ha!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by corbes

OK, some non-hiking agendas:
Go to Church Street in Burlington
Eat at Single Pebble in Burlington
Go to Shelburne Farms (Shelburne is just south of Burlington)
Drive north-south on Route 100
Eat at Hen of the Wood in either Burlington or Waterbury, if there's a table open.
Eat at Tiny Thai in Winooski and order from the real Thai menu.
Eat at Yama's in West Lebanon, NH, and order from the Korean menu.
Visit the Quechee Gorge and the village of Woodstock
Hike (walk) up Mount Tom in Woodstock,* take a picnic up there from Woodstock Farmers Market on Route 4
Look at 7daysvt.com for calendars of activities
Attend a concert at Flynn Theater or Higher Ground in Burlington
Go to Isle La Motte and see the fossils
Go to Burton Island (ferry from near St. Albans)

Very cool, thanks for the suggestions. Quechee Gorge is on our list and probably a couple of the others are along some of the drives we are planning, so this will give us some more specifics to be on the lookout for.

[Sublime 2]

Fan of craft beer? Plenty of places to stop in VT if you are. The Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, Three Penny Tap Room, plus a ton more.

Quechee Gorge is pretty cool. Some newer country style shopping there now too.

Nothing spectacular, but the country's (world's?) longest covered bridge is about 5 miles north of me, connecting Windsor, VT and Cornish, NH.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[ColtCrazy]

Drove through there over the summer. We did the Ben & Jerry's tour, and it was a lot of fun. We drove over the bridge from New York near Fort Crown Point. The lake there looks great between NY and Vermont, and the ruined fort is a nice walk.
Burlington itself had a nice waterfront area. Ate at the Skinny Pancake, which everyone liked. Can't remember the pizza we got as it was mostly forgettable.

[JAG]

Haven't seen a Vermont version of this thread before. I actually have something to contribute.

I second Church Street in Burlington and the Waterfront area there.

Also second / third / fourth etc... Ben & Jerry's plant tour in Waterbury.

If you're taking the suggestion to drive north-south on Route 100, a little ways off the trail, you could stop at the ski resort at Stowe and take the gondola ride up Mt. Mansfield. I haven't been in ages though, so make sure this still exists.

I'll see if I can think of anything else later. Have a fun trip.

[Ksyrup]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was looking at staying at Stowe mainly because I think AIG employees get significant discounts even though AIG no longer owns it. But, I wanted to be somewhere a little more centrally located so we're staying near Sugarbush. We will probably make a trip up there though.

[JAG]

If you’re not wedded to staying in Vermont for the entire trip, Montreal is about an hour and a half from Burlington and is a pretty cool city. On the way there, there are a lot of little cideries in the Quebec countryside that could be fun to visit (and a lot of nice fall colors on the drive as well). There’s a decent little restaurant / chocolatier on the way as well called L’Ouef.

Restaurant l'Oeuf | Mystic

[Draft Dodger]

if you do go to Quechee there's a nice bird sanctuary nearby - VINS Nature Center. Mostly rescued birds of prey. It's not very big, you can do it in an hour or two, but a great place to see majestic birds up close.

I was going to say the Cabot cheese factory but sounds like they are no longer doing tours.

another recommendation for Church St in Burlington. Very important

if you are a beer guy, The Alchemist beer in the area is supposed to be really good. Like I had some family drive up from Virginia to pick up some beer there. There's limits to how much you can buy and on what days you can buy it. No idea if it's actually any good...

[BishopMVP]

Can confirm. Heady Topper from The Alchemist is that good.

[Poli]

I need to start asking these questions on my road trips.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah it was last-minute thought on my part (we leave Saturday), but I'm glad I did.

[Poli]

I drove through NH and VT on my way to Canada earlier this year. Someone tipped me off to take the Kancamagus highway. I wasn't able to do that time, but it's on my list of things to do in the future. I may surprise my wife with a trip there next year.

[Ksyrup]

Got back late last night, had a great time. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Weather wasn't great - we didn't see a bit of sun until yesterday. Colors were still amazing, though I would have liked to have seen them in the sun too. We did a bit of hiking but because of the weather, we cut that back a bit. Never really rained hard, but we had thick overcast and misty/drizzly conditions the first 3 days no matter where we went.

Ended up doing close to 800 miles in less than 4 full days. Spent most of Saturday after we landed in Waterbury up 100 to Smugglers Notch. Had lunch at Prohibition Pig in Waterbury, really good. Did Mt. Mansfield but when we got to the top and hiked the last little bit it was raining and blowing a good 30mph and completely covered in clouds/fog. Ben and Jerrys tour was sold out by the time we got there at 4, and I wasn't waiting in what looked like a solid 60-90 minute line to buy a cup of ice cream.

We stayed in Warren near Sugarbush. Tried for dinner at American Flatbread but a 3 hour wait was just a tad too much. Ate at Blue Stone, Mad Taco and Fit to be Thai'd around the area, all 3 were good. Stopped at Warren Store 2 mornings for tea/cider on our way out to drive.

Sunday we drove down 100 to Killington and then headed east for Woodstock and Quechee. Ended up just doing Quechee Gorge and the Village due to the weather, so we headed north from there to track down covered bridges. The wife was all stoked about going on a scavenger hunt of sorts, so that's what we did. Actually got to brush off our paper map skills when we lost signal, which happened frequently. From there, headed back west, caught the Middlebury Gap and went to the west side of the mountains before heading back to Warren.

Monday we did Northeast Kingdom - went up Rt 2 to Marshfield, spent some time in Groton State Forest (did Owls Head - again, no view due to weather), then cut NE to Willoughby State Forest - view over the lake was awesome, though the fog rolled in quickly after we got there. Headed up 5A to Newport, had lunch, then made our way back toward Warren while tracking down covered bridges.

Yesterday we left Warren for Lake Champlain - drove all the way up to Alburg, and then back down to Burlington to Church Street for lunch before heading to the airport.

Beautiful state, really enjoyed it. Amazed at how few chains of any kind were there. I think we saw 3 McDonalds and 1 Wendys, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell. No Wal-Marts!

Weather could have cooperated better, but I kinda liked the doomy feel to the dying leaves and colors. Probably had something to do with me listening to Type O Negative's October Rust on the plane ride in. If I ever decide to record a black metal album, my wife took a bunch of pics that could easily end up as the cover...

[Thomkal]

Sounds like you had a great time, sorry the weather didn't cooperate more.

[JAG]

Funny thing about Wal-Mart and Vermont. There was a huge battle over that issue for a number of years while I was growing up. In the end Wal-Mart won, but Vermont did manage to be the 50th of 50 states to have one.