Vermont Vibes: Our Scoop of Burlington and Waterbury

Burlington and Waterbury, Vermonta

Saturday September 9, 2023 to Monday, September 11, 2023

Started 1/10/26

Saturday, September 9, 2023, to Monday, September 11, 2023

Why Here, Why Now

Vermont is the 45^th state that I’ve visited. I left it towards the end because I knew that I traveled to New England with my parents as a child and suspected I’d already been there. But once my partner and I created our goal to visit the 48 contiguous U.S. states, I discovered that he had never been to Vermont at all. To cover our bases, I planned a trip for us to spend some time there.  Although there were quite a few areas that interested me, visiting Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory came up quite a few times in our past discussions. As we are closing in on our travel goal, it made sense that our first trip to Vermont would be to the Burlington area, home of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory.

The drive to Vermont from New York City is approximately 6 hours. Add in a lunch break and a couple of other pit stops along the way, and it could be a full day’s drive.

Settling In

We drove past the Welcome to Vermont sign as the sun was in the early stages of setting. The remainder of our drive was surrounded by a beautiful backdrop of colors in the sky for what was already a magnificent view of hills, grass, and planting fields. I like to drive, but I was happy to be the passenger this time and took a lot of photos. As we rolled into Shelburne (approx. 15 mins from our hotel), we passed the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory, Although I took a photo of the sign out front, the sky had already grown dark so it’s unrecognizable. I immediately wished I’d planned for us to visit the Teddy Bear factory too. Do people visit the factory without children?

Our stay for the next two nights was at DoubleTree by Hilton Burlington Vermont in Burlington VT. While I was researching places to stay, this hotel seemed centrally located for us to visit both Burlington and Waterbury. This gave us a taste of both towns with only a 30-minute drive. The hotel lobby was modern and quite large.  There were several chairs and couches that looked towards televisions and a fireplace. Our room was in the attached conference center; to get to it we walked past the restaurant area and the enclosed pool. We even had a hotel/conference area bathroom directly across from our room. Now, you might not love that idea but having had several toilet issues over the years at hotels, access to a second bathroom is a perk in my book. The next day we parked closer to the conference center door so that we could access our room without parading through the common areas.

Photo 1: Along our drive to Burlington and Waterford Vermont area - this is in Orwell VT.

Photo 2: the lounge at DoubleTree by Hilton Burlington Vermont

Photo 3: the room at DoubleTree by Hilton Burlington Vermont

For dinner, seeing that it was already kind of late, we stayed local and went to The Fish & Chip, a semi-eat-in/take-out restaurant. (It seems to be temporarily closed) It wasn’t far from the hotel at all. It was quiet when we entered but you could tell they were still preparing take-out orders. Our order was easy, two fish and chip plates and we also took ours to go. We returned to the hotel room to unwind from being in the car all day. 

We rarely sit in the hotel room and watch television, but there have been a few rainy trips where we have. This was one of them. The room had access to a streaming service that we didn’t have at home, so we checked out the show Yellowjackets. Well, we stayed up almost half the night watching the first few episodes of the first season. So good.

Oh No!

The weather was overcast and dreary and remained that way through the early part of the day. Luckily, we would be inside for some of it, as we had tickets for the Ben & Jerry’s Factory tour  in the afternoon. Our tour started at 1:00 PM but not knowing what to expect, we arrived early. Over an hour early. Which was a bit too early, there were few people around. This did, however, allow for a leisurely walk around the Flavor Graveyard so that we could read all the tombstones. This turned out to be my favorite part of the visit. As we were finishing up our walk-through, more people arrived.

We slowly walked downhill to the tour building and sat in the waiting area waiting for our turn. We discussed having ice cream while we waited, but I was hesitant to do so in case they started prepping the tour. Once they started checking people in, the tour guide called out last names and people lined up to go inside. We waited… We waited… We waited… my stomach started to lurch, as I thought, I did buy tickets, didn’t I? We were the only couple standing in the waiting area and the tour guide asked our name. He reviewed his list and quietly told me that our name wasn’t on it. Before I could register any type of emotion, he continued, oh, I see you on the tour for tomorrow. Relieved that I had just mixed up the days, I started to revise our itinerary in my head to figure out what we could do today instead of the tour. Before I could even come up with anything, he quickly rearranged things so that we could attend the tour that was entering the factory.

Photo 1: Entrance sign to Ben & Jerry's Factory

Photo 2: Some of the headstones at the Flavor Graveyard outside the factory

Photo 3: Milk, cream and sugar silos for the ice cream factory

The tour wasn’t very long, maybe 40 minutes, but we did learn a lot about how the ice cream was made. As the last segment of the tour, we were given the opportunity to try some of the newer flavors that might be marketed. That was kind of neat. It did kind of unravel our plan to have ice cream after the tour. I skipped my free sample so that I wasn’t too overloaded with ice cream. Then I could choose the flavor I wanted after the tour.

As the tour let out, we headed towards the gift shop. It was relatively small, but easily accessible. They had a whole wall of folded T-shirts to choose from, as well as several hanging racks of them. With all the variety, it took both of us a bit longer than usual to choose the exact ones we wanted to go home with. If a Ben & Jerry’s t-shirt was my only souvenir from Vermont, I’d be happy. However, I was still hoping to shop for another T-shirt that said Vermont or had a Vermont logo on it.

Over to the ice cream window we went. It was outside the factory building, and there were tables and seating nearby. The window and surrounding area were a bit crowded; I suppose you might not even need to have a tour ticket to buy ice cream, that could explain the foot traffic. Ice cream in hand, we found seats and dug in. Their ice cream is rich and decadent, we took our time eating. After about 30 minutes, we walked back up the hill to the car. On our way out of the factory driveway, I pointed out a gift shop across the street that looked like an old country store type of place. We pulled into the lot, but it was closed on Sunday.  

Still Hungry

Since our plan was to spend time in Waterbury today, we rode in the car for about an hour, looking at different buildings and homes. It was rainy, so going to any outdoor places weren’t exactly on the table for the day. Although it was still early, the other plan we discussed for our time in Waterbury was to eat at a barbecue place called Prohibition Pig. One thing that caught my partner’s eye on the menu was Duck Fat fries.

Prohibition Pig is a local, mid-sized restaurant. It’s located on the corner of the block and was easy to spot from the road. We parked on the street and crossed the road to get to the restaurant. We arrived a little before 3PM and were promptly seated at a table in the center of the restaurant. We both ordered local beers and while we waited, we perused the menu. We knew that the duck fat fries were a must for us, so we arranged our meal around the fries. Two sandwiches, one with pulled pork and the other with brisket.

Photo 1: The Waterbury Special - ornamental design that crosses over Route 100 in Waterbury

Photo 2: Inside Prohibition Pig

Photo 3: Street view of Prohibition Pig

After lunch we made one more pitstop on our way back to the hotel, good ole reliable, Dunkin. Having not stopped for breakfast in the morning, I needed my caffeine fix. With coffee in hand, we headed back to our hotel in Burlington and drove around that town for about an hour just to see what else was around. We were very close to the University of Vermont. It started to rain so we headed back to the hotel. It rained hard and consistently for the next several hours.  At least we had Yellowjackets to keep us entertained!

Even though we had a late lunch, by 7PM, we were a bit peckish, a little caged, and needing a break from television. With a quick search my partner found Moe’s Southwest Grill not far away. Although we have them in NY, I’ve never eaten there. It looked like they were closing when we arrived, but we ordered two wraps to go. Back at the hotel, we queued up another episode of Yellowjackets and ate our wraps.

Photo 1: Union Station - near University of Vermont

Photo 2: Waterfront cafe with views of Lake Champlain

Photo 3: Church Street Marketplace area

Leaving So Soon?

We were up and checked out of the hotel by 10:30AM, it was another overcast day, and still a bit drizzly. We drove to Burlington Waterfront for breakfast at The Skinny Pancake. This was an interesting place! I found it to be somewhat retro, yet somewhat not. They source their food locally, and offer several different types of meals, but they promote their crepes!

When you arrive, you walk up to the counter to order your meal, then you choose a seat. We ordered two Noah’s Arks, one with bacon and one with sausage. If you’ve ordered coffee with your meal (which we did) you serve yourself at the self-serve coffee bar where they have different carafes of coffee, and different types of milk and sweeteners. As it was mid-morning on a Monday the restaurant and area were relatively quiet. There was outdoor seating, but we opted to sit inside.

We walked down to the dock and took a few photos after breakfast to stretch our legs before we got back in the car to drive to our next destination. As we ran through our checklist before leaving the area, I was reminded that there was one more thing we needed to pick up, Vermont Maple Syrup. First, we headed to Common Deer, which is about a block away from Church Street Marketplace. Sadly, our timing was off because when we arrived at the store, it was closed for lunch. Had the weather been nicer, we might have walked around the area and visited the store, but we did not.

My partner suggested we go back over to Waterbury and see if the store across from Ben & Jerry’s factory was open, it was! The store, Green Mountain Dry Goods seems small from the outside, but once you are inside, you’ll see there are several rooms of fun things to look at. From jewelry to maple, everything is either made in Vermont or is Vermont themed. My partner scooped up a Vermont keychain and two types of Maple Syrup (mostly because we couldn’t’ choose), one which was in glass bottle in the shape of a maple leaf, and H.G. Woodchuck, Dang Good Maple Syrup. I picked up some random maple candy and two Vermont magnets. We felt accomplished.

Photo 1: Inside The Skinny Pancake (removed people using generative AI)

Photo 2: a view from part of the Burlington Waterfront (close to The Skinny Pancake) Photo 3: Green Mountain Dry Goods store

As we pulled out of the driveway, we started to talk about what we missed, and whether returning to the area at a later date was in the stars. Yes, yes, it is.

Things I learned from planning this trip: I knew when I started that our destination would be Burlington/Waterbury area, what I didn’t know was that I’d be drawn to experience staying at a ski lodge. (I don’t ski).  The drive to Waterbury Vermont is approximately 6 hours by car from the NYC area.

Things I learned from attending this trip: Our hotel was so close to the campus of the University of Vermont that it felt like we were on it! So many scenic views on our drive up. The local roads in both Burlington and Waterbury were quiet.  Although our experience may have been skewed because it was a rainy Sunday. The Vermont Teddy Bear Company isn’t really too far from where we stayed.

Things I keep in mind when organizing a trip for myself: If your only day in town is a Sunday, be sure to make reservations or get tickets ahead of time. Not all places are open to the public on Sunday.

Go back for more! I want to visit the area when the weather is nicer so that we can walk around Church Street Marketplace, Burlington Waterfront and visit some of the farms in the area.

Some information, such as baseball game information and directions were sought by using ChatGPT or Perplexity. Brainstorming blog titles too!