Vermont: Things to do

People like to visit this area for a quiet getaway and will probably be asking me for some recommendations so I’ve put together a list. Below are a few places I’ve been and places I hope to check out. I’m still exploring the area so I’ll be adding more in the future.

Food:

Revolution Kitchen – Great restaurant for vegan and vegetarian food! See my blog post here for more details.
American Flatbread – It’s well known for its pizza. Our favorite is the “Power to the People” pizza which is basically a buffalo chicken pizza!
Monarch & the Milkweed – They serve breakfast/brunch all day. My favorite item is the fried chicken sandwich.
Honey Road – I went here with family and it was delicious. It’s got a great variety of small plates. It has many vegetarian dishes to choose from. I am not a huge kale lover but the kale salad was my favorite.
Hong’s Chinese Dumplings – We drove by this take-out place after attending a parade. My husband was astonished to see it. I didn’t understand why but it was once a well-known cart prior to my moving here. When I told someone she has a storefront now, his mind was blown. She would only operate the cart during the warmer months in Vermont…obviously. Anyway, husband likes the pork/chicken dumplings. I myself don’t eat pork so I tried the vegetarian and the chicken/cheese dumplings. The chicken/cheese combo was definitely a lot better than the veg option. Definitely hit this up as it seems to be a local secret.

Drinks:

Dedalus – Dedalus has a really nice wine bar. They also have Wine 101 classes that I highly recommend if you can catch any. I wrote a whole post about them here: Dedalus Wine Shop, Market, & Wine Bar
Shelburne Vineyard – They offer $8 tastings and during the summer they can be done outside which is really nice. They also offer tours (check the website for exact details). My favorite wine is their Harvest Widow’s Revenge which is a red blend. My second favorite is their white wine called Lake View White.
Drink – Drink holds open mic comedy nights on Tuesdays. The performers are actually pretty funny. The drinks are also a little more affordable here than some other places in the immediate area.
Alchemist’s Brewery – This brewery in Stowe, Vermont is well-known to beer drinkers. I don’t like beer. Husband is a fan of their heady topper so he tends to stock up on it from other local liquor stores closer to us. But check it out if you’re a beer lover.
Lincoln’s – This is a speakeasy in VT. The address isn’t listed anywhere I could find online but here it is:
Monarch & the Milkweed

Trivia:

Waterworks – Waterworks holds trivia every Tuesday night. Often they have a theme. One time they were having an “Office” trivia night. I missed it and was pretty devastated. I definitely would’ve won. The answers are open-ended and not multiple choice. Waterworks also has a really nice view of the Winooski River if you choose to visit during the day.
Buffalo Wild Wings – Wednesdays are trivia night. They utilize their touch screens for trivia. The answers are all multiple choice.

Activities:

Burlington Farmer’s Market – I haven’t been but I’m interested in checking it out. I have been to the Winooski Farmer’s Market. It didn’t have many stalls but we did leave with some maple syrup flavored cotton candy and maple syrup flavored popcorn. Maple syrup is a big deal here…
Get Air Vermont– Jumping park but I haven’t been yet. I’ll probably break my foot or something knowing me.
Esc4pe– This is the local escape room place. I haven’t been here yet but if you’ve got a group of people, I imagine it would be fun.
Ben & Jerry’s Factory – I’ve done the tour twice. It’s like a 10 minutes and half of it is a video you watch. The best part is the end with the ice cream tasting. Yum! They do sell their ice cream there but the line is insane. The whole place is packed. It’s pretty awful. Try to not go on a weekend.
Cabot Cheese Store – I haven’t been but it’s cheese…and lots of it so…GO!
Church Street Marketplace – Church Street is just really pretty with all the lights at night and the cobblestone. I like to pop in to Lake Champlain Chocolates here. The mall is under major renovations currently. There’s some nice boutiques but I imagine they may be overpriced. In Vermont, you often find chains are closing because locals like to support locally owned stores. There’s a lot of thrift stores in the area too.
Lake Champlain – Just beautiful. Walk around it, get on it, whatever you need to do to see it.
Hiking – I have yet to go hiking here but Mt Philo is the closest and seems to be a quick hike.

Holidays/Seasonal Events:

Mardi Gras Parade – This is the shortest parade I’ve ever seen in my life. I think they had like 10 floats. But itt was nice to get out and clearly fun for the children there. After the parade was over, all the adults rushed into all the nearby pubs. Hubs was sleepy so we just picked up food and went home. We’ll try to go out for the best part next year.
St Patrick’s Day Parade
Maple Syrup Festival – Like I said, maple syrup is a big deal here.
Burlington Farmers Market
July 4th – This seems to primarily be celebrated July 3rd with fireworks in several places.
Artsriot Truck Stop – Every Friday during the late spring and through the summer several trucks/vendors sell their food/drinks outside Artsriot.

Shopping:

University Mall – I come from Massachusetts. In my standards, THIS IS NOT A MALL. Half the stores have gone out of business or soon will be. One was a seasonal store. Also, the South Burlington library is in the mall. Weird, but convenient if you’re running errands. But also, it’s a really awful library. All their books are from the 1980’s and before. They’re building a new library for the town so hopefully the library will be moved out of the mall and into the new space soon. Anyway, H&M and Target will be opening in the fall which will be pretty sweet.
Church Street Marketplace
Quarter DIX30 – This is located in Broussard, Quebec right outside of Montreal. It’s an easy 1 hour 45 min from Burlington, VT. Zara is probably my favorite store here.

Hopefully this was helpful!