Vermont in autumn, ground breaking! I joke, it is a special place to visit during the fall months, I just returned from a long weekend visiting Lake Champlain. This was my first time in the Burlington area of Vermont. Last autumn I visited Stowe (see here), which is not too far from Burlington. Here is how we spent three nights in northern Vermont.
Day One- Thursday
My husband and I drove up from Connecticut on a Thursday morning; this was a trip just the two of us! For lunch we landed ourselves in the area of Northampton Massachusetts and ate a quick service meal at Woodstar Cafe. The sandwiches were yummy! With full bellies we continued the drive up and as we passed the Brattleboro Vermont area, I started to ooh and ahh over the changing trees. I was quite excited! But alas, as we drove over the Green Mountains and into the Lake Champlain area, the leaves were back to being mostly green in lots of patches. So strange the changing foliage!
We checked into our cute Airbnb cabin in Milton and relaxed for a bit and got ready for dinner. I had made reservations ahead of time at Dedalus Wine Bar in Burlington. We drove the half hour drive to that area and I got my first notion of what the town was about and fell in love with it! Not sure what I was expecting but after this trip I will always recommend visiting the Burlington area. Our dinner was fantastic.
There was a Hannaford grocery store in Milton and we grabbed groceries before going home and calling it a night.
Day Two- Friday
I made a nice egg breakfast at the cabin and had a slow morning for day two. I sat out on the back deck overlooking fields, listened to a stream and read half a book. It was the most relaxed I’d been in a while. After a small lunch we loaded our bikes onto the car (we brought our own up with us!) and drove down to the parking lot at the end of Flynn Ave in Burlington. We biked the Island Line Trail up the coastline and back. It was a beautiful day out! There was even one special moment where we saw a deer walking along the railroad track. The trail had many bikers, walkers and runners and lots of mesmerizing sights of Lake Champlain.
We biked north for about 45 minutes and then turned around and headed back to the car. I did not realize how much of a workout the ride was going to be! In my mind the path was plenty flat and easy; most of it was, but the parts that weren’t made me feel as though I was a child again, standing up on my bike pedals to speed up and keep pace with my siblings. :) There are places along the way to grab a drink, snack or use the restroom if needed. The marina area had clean restrooms.
After that nice workout we knew it was a perfect time to visit a brewery. Switchback Brewery is right on Flynn Ave near where we parked so we drove over there and sat outside for a beer flight and snacks. We then grabbed more groceries, after deciding to make a nice meal back at the cabin, and headed home for a relaxing evening. The star gazing at the cabin was amazing!
Day Three- Saturday
After another day of making breakfast at the cabin, we headed out to hike. I wanted a hike that involved views of Lake Champlain but one that wasn’t too far from the Milton area. I decided on Eagle Mountain. It was about a 20 minute ride from our cabin, a drive that included lovely side roads. I enjoyed the drive!
Eagle Mountain has a nice lookout area that was fairly easy to get to; we hiked for a total of about 45 minutes out and back. The wildflowers at the end of September were stunning!
After the hike we drove to the Milton Diner for lunch and were pleasantly surprised by the good food! Back at the cabin we changed and got ready for an afternoon and evening out in Burlington. I wanted to check out the Marketplace area of downtown and it was more lively and fun than expected! We parked at the parking garage at the market and walked around and shopped on a lovely afternoon. There were many people there, lots of restaurants and shopping and good music playing in several areas of the market. Highly recommend going there!
Booked about a week before the trip, we had dinner onboard the Spirit of Ethan Allen cruise boat. We grabbed on street parking near the marina and walked to the loading area. This was the Harvest Dinner cruise they offer and we lucked out with an amazing sunset for the evening!
Any time you are visiting a larger sized lake I highly recommend making plans to get out on the water. The cruise was a lot of fun and we were on dry land by 8:15 pm. If my husband and I were younger we probably would have then gone onto a bar to extend the night, but we were tired and drove back home after the cruise. All three evenings I was in bed before 11 pm, old lady vibes here!
Day Four- Sunday
The last day was essentially for packing up and driving home to our babies at Grandma’s house. We made a few pit stops along the way, coffee at First Branch coffee in South Royalton Vermont (the cutest town!) and then lunch at The Works Cafe in Brattleboro (a place I’ve been before and knew there was good food). We had rain on the drive up to Vermont and rain on the way home but cannot complain because the two days in between had gorgeous early autumn weather.
If I had to make any changes I would have waited until closer of the middle of October to visit the Burlington Vermont area, but we didn’t have that flexibility this year. Other trips coming up in October!
Momma Wanderer 