Vermont help

[tinkermom23]

DH and I are planning a special vacation for next fall. Of course we discussed Food & Wine Festival!! But I think we are leaning towards Vermont for a long weekend.

It would be in October. I read that the first 2 weeks are peak but we are looking at probably the 3rd weekend since we have 4 days off school and it might make things easier.
This will be the first time we leave the kids overnight.

Anyway, we need recommendations!! There are so many places that look so beautiful!! We will be flying into Burlington and thinking of taking a train from there??
We don't need to go totally budget, but money is something we do need to consider.

We are definitely looking for tips, thoughts, advice and experiences!!

 

[IFLOSIRI]

burlington is in the vicinity of stratton mountainn and manchester beautiful hiking,shops and restsaurants couple of months later great sking and snowmbiling

 

[goofyernmost]

Sorry, but Burlington is no where near Stratton Mountain or Manchester. They are both way south of Burlington. It is, however, close to Stowe, Mt. Mansfield and many scenic rural areas that are easily accessible by car. Tours can be arranged by bus but sadly I don't know how you might access them (check on the web). If asking my advice I would say, rent a car. There are many interesting and pretty areas but they are staggered about and are easily reached by car...tours are focused on specific areas and don't go off the beaten path where the really good stuff is.

Also there are no trains that are really handy for travel around Vermont. Amtrak runs north and south once a day usually early in the morning (south) and late at night (north). I guess I should have said...there are no trains, period, for intrastate travel.

Vermont is a small state and doesn't have the advanced transportation systems that larger populated areas do.

 

[NatashaDisneyCM]

I agree with post 2. Rent a car, then head south down rt. 89. I used to live in Waitsfield, which I always took exit 10( This would be Rt 100, which is also great to ride along!), that brings you right at the Ben & Jerry's "home base" and you can do the tour! They also have Cabot creamery a few exits south.

Waitfield, where I used to live is at the base of Sugarbush and Mad River Glen.
Beautiful spot!!! Go to AAA and get some info on all the things to see! You also have the Teddy Bear company, in Shelburne/ Burlington.
IT is very easy to ride the highway and do day trips right off in different towns!!

 

[WheresFigment?]

I went to college in Burlington.

If you're flying into Burlington, you can take a taxi to the UVM campus. There are zipcars available through carshare vt on the campus by Morrill Hall and the Bailey Howe Library. The daily rate is something like $49.

Rental cars are a bit hard to come by in Burlington as it is not the type of airport you typically envision. It's very small and there aren't a bunch of rental car places. There is a Majestic car rental on rt 7 in burlington, or an Enterprise on Williston Rd. Majestic used to have pretty reasonable rates.

There are buses, but they require a bit of area knowledge to make good use of. It's very much a "car" city.

That said, if you stay right in Burlington, some suggestions:

The La Quinta on Williston Rd in S. Burlington is 98% of the time the least expensive hotel. Rates were running about $60/night last I looked.

Things to do: The Shelburne Museum on Rt 7 in Shelburne is really, really fun. It's a large outdoor museum with different buildings in a nice scenic setting. Buildings include a barn in the round, a 1950s house, a full park avenue apartment from the 1920s, a barn full of toys and bears, and a 1800s steamboat. Admission is about $20, but it's worth it, and you should be able to see plenty of nice foliage.

If you take a drive further down rt 7 towards ferrisburgh, you will come to Dakin Farm which has all your maple syrup, ham, vermont bacon, etc and is a traditional stop for visitors.

Church St Marketplace downtown is always festive and a fun place to just stroll around. This is also the area of most of the good food establishments.

If you want to go for a really fabulous, romantic meal, I highly recommend the Trattoria Delia on St. Paul St. It books quickly, so make reservations. They make some of the best italian food I've had, including trips to italy.

For more casual fun, American Flatbread makes great wood fired pizzas and has the Zero Gravity microbrewery in house. Sweetwaters on Church also has fabulous food and drink.

There's a lot to do right in the area (still need a car, but you don't have to go far) to see a whole lot of fall and get the Vermont experience.

Hope that gives you some places to start. We'll be up for the day ourselves on Oct. 21.

 

[goofyernmost]

I'm afraid that I have to disagree with Figment on a couple of counts. The first is that there aren't many car rentals available. I just did a quick check for just Thrifty and they had "wild card" rentals for $28.00 per day. I just rented a "wild card" and they gave me a full size car. Hertz, Avis, National, Budget, and almost all of the big names are available here.

Burlington has all ranges of hotels from 5 star to Econolodge and many B&B's in all areas.

The Waitsfield area along with Stowe is very scenic and if you have the time and inclination a drive from Burlington to St. Johnsbury on Rte. 2, will afford a lifetime worth of great vista's and bright colors in the fall. You can ride to the top of Mt. Mansfield on the enclosed gondola...Jay Peak (north) has the same type of to the top gondola available.

 

[tinkermom23]

Thank you for all the information!
DH has a coworker who told us to take the train everywhere. I told DH that we should check the Disboards. He said that we're going to Vermont, not Disney, but I told him the Dissers have a vast knowledge of all things!!!!

I will go to AAA and get some info too. I totally forgot about them. I have been looking at B&B and Inns and there are a lot to choose from in Stowe area. With the rental car that looks easy to get to.

Any other recommendations for where to stay? What to see? What not to miss??

 

[WheresFigment?]

I'm afraid that I have to disagree with Figment on a couple of counts. The first is that there aren't many car rentals available. I just did a quick check for just Thrifty and they had "wild card" rentals for $28.00 per day. I just rented a "wild card" and they gave me a full size car. Hertz, Avis, National, Budget, and almost all of the big names are available here.

Burlington has all ranges of hotels from 5 star to Econolodge and many B&B's in all areas.

The Waitsfield area along with Stowe is very scenic and if you have the time and inclination a drive from Burlington to St. Johnsbury on Rte. 2, will afford a lifetime worth of great vista's and bright colors in the fall. You can ride to the top of Mt. Mansfield on the enclosed gondola...Jay Peak (north) has the same type of to the top gondola available.

Well, of course they do have several hotels, but they were asking about doing it on the cheap, and that is the best value hotel I've found in terms of a combination of price, location, and amenities/comfort. The B&Bs in foliage season tend to start in the $150 range for the very small and rural ones, and go up to the many hundreds down in stowe or up in the colchester area. It's very nice and centrally located for the $60/night average rate. Usually the going rate for even the holiday inn express is $150+ during foliage season.

As far as rental cars, that seems to have changed. I am Hertz platinum, but I always had trouble actually getting a car from them because it seemed like they had about 8 cars allocated to the burlington airport. They may have changed that, I moved away a year and a half ago.

From the burlington airport it is roughly a 1/2 hr drive to the major parts of stowe and the main Mountain Rd. If you want to stay in stowe, I recommend the gray fox inn or Commodore's, or on the pricier side, Topnotch is BEAUTIFUL but in the $300/nt range during foliage season.

In other areas of Vermont, there are some truly beautiful B&Bs in the Woodstock area (Okemo region) but those are about 1 1/2 hrs south of Burlington.

Oh, also, the gingerbread pancakes at Penny Cluse Cafe on Cherry St. in Burlington are not to be missed if you stay in the area! I'm going up on my birthday next month just to have these for breakfast with my hot cider. I miss vermont!

 

[scrapquitler]

We usually stay mostly in Southern Vermont, so I'm not an expert in the Burlington Area, though we visit there 2-3 times a year.

Some of my relatives go to Stowe on a regular basis. A few years they bought a slopeside condo, but before that, they always stayed at the VonTrapp Lodge, which they love.

In Burlington, the open air market is lovely, The SHelburne Museum is fabulous, and Vermont Teddy Bear offers a tour of the factory (that's actually in Shelburne, just south of the Museum). There are also some tour boat rides you can take on Lake Champlain, but I don't know how far into the fall they operate (my guess would be that they stop around Columbus day, but I'm not sure about that)

If you head south towards Manchester, the ride up Mt Equinox in your car is beautiful. Manchester has a lot of shopping, and an Orvis store.

During the fall, pretty much any drive around is going to be scenic. There are tons of B&Bs.

If you want to do a 'train ride', you can drive over to White River Junction and take the Green MOuntain FLyer...it's a tourist train ride on a restored train, I think the ride lasts about 1 1/2-2 hours. Nice ride, brings you back to the same place you start, it's certainly not Amtrak. WRJ is about 2 1/2 hours from Burlington.