Vermont

Vermont: The Honest Travel Guide

Vermont is small (pop. 650,000, roughly) and deliberately unglamorous about it. No major interstate cuts through Burlington. There’s no major professional sports team. The state banned billboards in 1968. What it has is specific: genuine farmland, real hills, a craft beer scene that’s actually good rather than just plentiful, and fall foliage that is, without exaggeration, among the most spectacular in the world. Vermont is also the only US state with more cows than people – a fact that explains both the quality of the dairy and the lack of traffic.

Burlington

Burlington is the largest city in Vermont at around 45,000 people, which tells you something about the scale here. It sits on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain with the Adirondacks visible across the water on clear days.

Church Street Marketplace is the pedestrian main street. Independent shops, some decent cafes, and the Church Street Tap Room for local draught beer. Worth a few hours.

Switchback Brewing on Pine Street has a taproom serving the full range. The Switchback Ale is the standard recommendation for good reason. Zero Gravity further down Pine Street is the other serious option – the Andrea IPA is their calling card. Pine Street as a whole has become a productive zone for food and drink and is worth walking end-to-end.

Hen of the Wood on Battery Street is the restaurant that gets written about, justifiably. Vermont produce cooked seriously; dinner runs $60-80 per head before wine. Book ahead.

Stowe

Stowe is a ski resort town 40 minutes east of Burlington that maintains more character than most. The village centre is not large but has good food and easy access to trails.

Mount Mansfield (4,393 feet, the highest point in Vermont) offers trail hiking in summer and ski runs in winter. The gondola operates year-round; the summit in clear weather gives views into Quebec to the north.

Stowe Mountain Resort has 116 ski trails across two peaks. It’s not cheap ($130+ for a day pass in peak season) but the terrain is varied and the snow conditions are usually better than the southern New England alternatives.

The Alchemist brewery, now in its purpose-built facility on Cottage Club Road in Stowe, makes Heady Topper – perhaps the most coveted canned IPA in the United States. The retail shop is free to visit and sells fresh cans alongside merchandise; bring a cooler if you are driving out of state. Admission is free; you pay only for beer.

Woodstock and the Southeast

Woodstock is a small town in Windsor County that photographs beautifully and charges for it. Pleasant for a stop; probably not worth a dedicated trip unless you enjoy the particular pleasure of towns that have decided their own charm is a premium product.

The Billings Farm and Museum 1 mile north of Woodstock is a working 19th-century farm with genuinely good interpretation of Vermont agricultural history. Better than it sounds. Around $18 for adults.

Waterbury

Ben & Jerry’s factory is here, 3 miles north of Waterbury on Route 100. Tours run daily at $4 and take about 30 minutes: a company culture video, a glassed-in mezzanine overlooking the production floor, a sample of mix-ins, and a tasting in the Flavor Room. Worth doing if you are passing. The Flavor Graveyard in the upper car park – real granite headstones for retired ice cream flavours with witty epitaphs – is unexpectedly charming and entirely free. It closes in winter when the upper lot becomes hazardous.

The Foliage Question

Peak foliage in Vermont runs roughly early to mid-October, depending on the year and the elevation. Higher elevations go first. The Northeast Kingdom (the three counties in the northeast corner) often peaks a week before the southern valleys. Route 100 drops you through the heart of foliage country as it runs the length of the state.

Foliage weekends in October are the busiest and most expensive time to visit – book accommodation months ahead, not weeks. Alternatively, come in the last week of September when colour has started but crowds haven’t peaked. This is not a consolation prize; the early colour is genuinely beautiful and the roads are manageable.

Where to Stay

The inn tradition in Vermont is real. The Inn at Weathersfield in Perkinsville, Twin Farms in Barnard (genuinely luxurious, $1,500+ per night all-inclusive), and The Essex Vermont’s Culinary Resort are the benchmarks at different price points.

For ski trips, staying slopeside at Stowe Mountain Lodge (expensive) or in the Stowe village (cheaper, 5 minutes to the mountain) both make sense depending on budget.

Smugglers’ Notch Resort, 15 miles from Stowe, is better for families with young children: a purpose-built ski village with programming specifically aimed at kids.

Getting There

Burlington International Airport (BTV) receives flights from Boston (40 minutes), New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. A car is essential for anywhere outside Burlington itself. This is not a state you experience from public transport.