VERMONT
Burlington, Vermont
These posts are going up ridiculously late but I don’t think anyone will notice. Yes, I was in Burlington, Vermont back in September! I was visiting an old coworker who lives there now.
Getting to Burlington from San Francisco is a pretty long trek and requires a layover. Since the layover was in JFK, I figured I’d do two legs of my trip and go to Vermont first, then spend a few days in New York City after.
Burlington has that cute small town feel, nestled in greenery with a big lake. Some notable things to do in town include going to the farmer’s market, going on a bicycle ride, hitting up the local breweries and going to the comedy club. It feels a bit like miniature Austin on a Friday or Saturday night right downtown, since there are multiple colleges in town.
Here are some articles I read to help me plan
My flight got delayed by about 18 hours so we missed some midday hang out time but we were able to hit up the farmer’s market Saturday morning. As a Californian it was a bit underwhelming – feels like a pretty typical farmer’s market to me. I think the main draw is how the whole town comes together. You can get coffee, produce, snacks and even clothing while listening to live music.
We got some produce and fish to make fish tacos for later in the weekend!
Besides the farmer’s market, there’s the infamous bike path. It’s a nearly 20 mile trail that goes along the water and out along a causeway. To complete the trail, you take a little bicycle barge to cross onto an island. We didn’t take the barge (because we were already at 10 miles and had more to do) and turned around there.
It is well worth doing, pretty flat, and highly customizable to your desired difficulty level.
It was a beautiful day and on the weekend besides so I made sure to book my bicycle rental in advance. When I arrived all the bikes had been rented out.
On the way back we stopped at Foam Brewers brewery. It’s right off the bike path and has a food truck for burgers and a nice big beer selection.
That same night after we’d showered and rested for a bit we headed over to the Vermont Comedy Club. I actually can’t remember who we went to see anymore but it’s a pretty cool venue. Apparently it was at one point a roller rink! There were some bachelor parties there from out of state which was a bit surprising. And the comedians were pretty good too.
A lot of this was all in one day which was pretty intense but it was gorgeous weather out and I got plenty of fresh air and tasty treats.
Apparently you need to get yourself a Creemee if you come to Vermont. It’s just soft serve but they top it off with all kinds of toppings and syrups. We got one at Little Gordo Creemee Stand after doing some grocery shopping. I got mine with a little cup of maple syrup to dip my cone into haha.
Since I was here for labor day weekend they weren’t giving tours but another thing to look into doing would be do a tour at the Ben and Jerry’s factory outside of town.
And finally here’s my list of recommended breweries that I didn’t have a chance to go to:
- Switchback Brewing Company
- Magic Hat Artifactory
- Zero Gravity Brewing
- Citizen Cider