GRISWOLDDAD
Parenting, Entertainment, and Travel Tips
Things to Do in Vermont
*To see a list of Vermont's best yearly events, click here.
Statewide, Vermont is known for its skiing, in places like Sugarbush Resort, Mount Snow, Killington Ski Resort, Bromley Mountain, Okemo Mountain Resort, Stratton Mountain, Burke Mountain, Bolton Valley, Pico Mountain, and Mad River Glen.
Before the snow hits, though, Vermont is also known for its autumnal beauty as the leaves change color. People flock to Vermont during this season.
Like New Hampshire, Vermont is also known for its covered bridges, and actually has the densest concentration of these bridges than any other state. The longest covered bridge in Vermont, and the entire country, is the Windsor-Cornish bridge that connects Windsor, VT to Cornish, NH. To see a lot of the bridges within a short drive, go to Bennington, which has 5.
Burlington and Lake Champlain
The Lake is very beautiful and very large, it connects Vermont to New York to Canada! This area is very pretty, offers plenty of outdoors activities, like biking, hiking, and driving the Lake Champlain Scenic Byway, and water activities, like boating, swimming, and kayaking, and has a wonderful small town feel.
Burlington has been voted the #1 Dream Town in America by Outdoors Magazine. Another thing that gives Burlington that great "Dream Town" feel is its very own "Dream Team", the minor league baseball team called The Vermont Lake Monsters. With one of the oldest stadiums in minor league baseball, Centennial Field, and a mascot named Champ that's modeled after a lake monster like Nessie of Lock Ness, the team is a lot of fun. This is hometown atmosphere, mixed with nostalgia, baseball, and hot dogs!
If you're not up to taking your own boat out onto the lake, boat tours can be a really fun way to get out there and experience it. Be sure to see the pristine and peaceful Lake Champlain Islands nearby. They are the perfect place for a summer recreation getaway from the cities and the hustle bustle.
Lake Champlain
Danville
This is the home of one of the most fun things I've ever done. Honestly, I know corn mazes are all over the place, but not like this: The Great Vermont Corn Maze.
The owner is what made this one so different. He doesn't just accept money from you and let you go on your merry little way...Nope. This retired psychologist actively "stalks" you through the maze. He has internal maze paths just for him, blocked off to everyone else, and "knows where everyone is pretty much all the time." It's like it's one big psychological study with this guy! If you put an "X" on the ground to mark where you've been, he erases it and puts your mark somewhere else to really confuse you.
When I went, I tried to be smart and do the maze defeating method used in the mythological story about the minotaur and the labyrinth in which you put your right hand on a wall and always do right turns, the way that keeps your hand on the wall. You will go down dead ends, but you will NOT go in loops. I tried that...and got completely lost. My wife and my friend's girlfriend abandoned me and my friend and went their own way. They were out long before us, and the owner had to come help us out... I said, "but I did the minotaur trick." The owner smiled and said, "you mean the right hand thing? Yeah, I didn't want that to work. So I put in bridges. Every time you crossed a bridge, you missed a right turn which stopped that trick from working."
I was defeated by the evil genius! It was great!The image below is from his website and is the particular maze I went through, but he changes it every year.
Stowe
Since Vermont has SO many skiing opportunities, it seems natural that they'd have a ski museum. The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum displays and preserves Vermont's skiing history. "Snowboarding" was added in 2011.
However, this town is known for something else as well. Have you ever heard of a little movie called "The Sound of Music?" Well those same Von Trapps who inspired the movie moved to Vermont after the events of that movie and built a large house that has since been turned into a ski lodge with Austrian style architecture and plenty of fun activities.
Skiing in Stowe
Waterbury
Visit Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory where you can go on a 30-minute guided ice cream factory tour that is fun and educational for all ages and offers guests the opportunity to learn about how they make their ice cream. From the site: "We know that getting your favorite flavor or trying a new one is priority at the factory, so our full service scoop shop menu includes special items (hello, Vermonster!) as well as traditional favorites (like waffle cones and hot fudge sundaes!)."
