One of the prettiest states to visit in the fall is Vermont. Vermont has small cute New England towns set with the backdrop of mountains and bright yellow trees. As these things are well-known, Vermont can be quite crowded and hotels are quick to fill up. I was able to visit Vermont for a long weekend at peak fall season. You can view my complete itinerary here.
BURLINGTON
Flights for Vermont land in Burlington, which is known for its breweries, farms, and Lake Champlain. We arrived late morning, picked up our rental car and headed to Lake Champlain for a lunch time boat cruise onboard the Spirit of Ethan Allen. I wanted to kayak around the lake, but kayak rentals close at the end of September so decided to do the boat cruise instead. It was a nice cruise but I wouldn’t say it’s a must-do if you go to Vermont.
Next up was the Shelburne Farm, which is a cute working farm not far from Burlington. You can take a tractor to a few buildings where the have cheese making demos, farm animals and a couple of food booths. The demos were closed when we got there but it was a pretty farm.
Before heading to Stowe to check into our hotel, we stopped by the Shelburne Vineyard for a wine and cheese pairing. The vineyard was small but pretty and it was a nice stop. Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with Burlington. It just happened to be where we flew in so we figured we’d explore it a little bit since we were there.
STOWE
Now Stowe is where its at! Stowe is a 45 minute drive from Burlington and is where we based ourselves during the trip. There is a lot to do in the area and its really pretty. When I went to book a hotel about 6 months out, most hotels were booked up and they are all in general pretty expensive in the fall since its peak season. I was lucky to find this little gem, the Northern Lights Lodge. The hotel had a cute hang out area with lots of tables, a fireplace, and games. In the morning its used as the hotel’s breakfast area but you can just hang out there in the evening. The breakfast was really good and every night they had warm cookies by reception for guests. They also had a pool and jacuzzi that we used a few nights. Really enjoyed our stay there!
Our first full day in Vermont, we stopped at the Stowe Fall Foliage and Art Festival. It is an outdoor festival and has a lot of the same vendors as a festival I regularly attend where I’m from, the Sugarloaf Festival, but it had some Vermont twists to it. Mainly in the form of maple syrup. There were several maple bourbon tastings, maple gin tastings, maple wine, and regular maple syrup. It was a nice little stop on our way to Waterbury.
Vermont is also known for its covered bridges, which were built starting in 1820 with covers to protect the bridges from the weather. Interestingly, Vermont is the most well-known state for covered bridges and has more than 100, but Pennsylvania has the most covered bridges at 219. The first one we stopped at was the Gold Brook Bridge that is said to be haunted. Legend has it, a spirit named Emily haunts the bridge. Apparently in the 1960’s she was waiting at this spot for elopement with a lover. While she yearned for his arrival, he did not show, and reportedly the devastated bride-to-be hung herself from the rafters above.
WATERBURY
Waterbury has a lot of Vermont food things like apple cider and Ben & Jerry’s. Our first stop was the Cold Hollow Cider Mill where you can watch them press apples into apple cider and sample them. It’s also a big country store with apple cider donuts to buy and a little sandwich shop we had lunch.
Next was the Ben and Jerry Factory. So this was the original place Ben and Jerry’s ice cream started in 1985. You can take a tour through the factory and hear a lot of the history. It was crowded when we got there but we got tickets for the tour and it was about an hour wait. We decided to get ice cream while we waited but the ice cream line was a huge line and took about 45 minutes to get through. Later we found out you can buy small cartons in the gift shop so that probably would have been a better bet. The tour was pretty unremarkable and at the end they give you a tiny spoonful bite of an ice cream sample. In Pennsylvania, I did an ice cream tour at the Turkey Hill factory and that was great! And you get basically all you can eat bowls of ice cream and iced teas. So this was definitely a downgrade from that and I wouldn’t say it’s a must do when visiting Vermont.
The final stop in Waterbury was the Cabot store. The original one is located an hour away but this one was great. You can try dozens of the different types of cheese. There was also a coffee/candy shop close by so we went there and got a maple latte which was a little too sweet for my taste then we went back to the hotel to chill in the hot tub.
WOODSTOCK
Woodstock is known for being a cute small New England town. Some people compare it to The Gilmore Girl’s fictional town of Stars Hollow. On the way there, we stopped by Quechee Gorge for a short hike. I ended up going the wrong way so I made the hike a lot longer than intended but it was really pretty.
Before heading into Woodstock, we went to the Taftsville covered bridge. This one was red and really pretty.
Woodstock ended up being extremely crowded because of the Fall crowds. We parked at a farm and had to walk to the little town but it was very cute—lots of small shops and small restaurants. We went to a coffee shop to eat lunch which took awhile because of the crowds. Then we talked around a bit before heading to our car. I’d recommend doing an over night in Woodstock and exploring a bit more. I’d like to come during their off season to get more of the small town feel.
So the plan was to go to another small town Manchester, but between the longer than expected hike at the gorge and the crowds in Woodstock, we were running out of time to drive all the way there and do what we planned, especially if it was as crowded as Woodstock was. So instead, we stopped at the Green Mountain Sugar House to get a maple creamee (ice cream) and just enjoyed the beautiful views.
THE WHITE MOUNTAINS
I’m a big reader of Appalachian Trail hiking memoirs so have really wanted to go to the White Mountains in New Hampshire since they play a big part in that hike. The White Mountains are known for being very tough to hike and also known for vast temperature changes—it can feel like a hot summer day then all of the sudden you are in freezing conditions. People have died up there because of that. As mentioned before, when I originally booked the hotel for this trip, I didn’t have an itinerary thought of, since it was so far out. I just wanted to get a hotel booked since everything was filling up. Otherwise I definitely would have stayed by the White Mountains. It was almost 2 hours from Stowe but I still really wanted to go and also add another state to my list of places I’ve traveled. Because of the time crunch, we decided to do the Mount Washington Cog railway (the world’s first mountain climbing cog railway built in 1869) to get to the top instead of doing a very long hike.
It was cool going up to the top, but a lot of loud kids on the railway. We were dropped at the top for an hour so got to explore. It was very windy and very cold at the top. There’s also a spot where people take pictures where the Appalachian Trail is. We had fun exploring and then were picked up again by the railway car to take us back.
The plan was supposed to be to do a few short hikes but the parking lots were full everywhere. We also wanted to take a cable car to a different part of the mountain but all the time slots were sold out so we just walked around a bit. Still very happy to see the White Mountains.
MORE STOWE
Our last full day was spent exploring the rest of Stowe. We went to the Stowe Lodge to take the cable car up to the top and it was the most absolute best view! I sat up there for about an hour watching the colors change on the views depending where the sun was shining. This was awesome! Also not very crowded.
Right by Stowe Lodge is one of the prettiest drives in the US called Smugglers Notch. You drive for a few miles through the most beautiful fall foliage. It was pretty crowded doing this but we still managed to find some space to pull off.
On the way to the town of Stowe, we stopped off at another covered bridge called Brookdale Bridge. Stowe has covered bridge tours but I don’t know why anyone would pay for a tour when you can just go drive to them yourself.
The town of Stowe was not crowded like the White Mountains and Woodstock were. It was a really cute town to stop into some shops and have lunch. Very beautiful place.
VON TRAPP LODGE
So the Von Trapp Family lodge was originally on the grounds that the Von Trapp family used as their home in the 1950’s when they fled Austria. A lot of people will stay here on their Stowe trips but its very expensive. Anyone can come and explore the grounds and restaurants so that’s what we did the day before we had to catch our flight. We ate at the Bier Hall which has good German food.
So that was Vermont! I really enjoyed visiting here for the fall although it was very crowded at times. Maybe I’ll go to Connecticut or New Hampshire next year to get to enjoy the fall vibes but with less crowds.
I am almost caught up with all my trips before the pandemic! Next up will be a lot of Chile posts and then some on Madeira Portugal. Then hopefully I will be able to get back to traveling.
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