Spring/Summer 2008 Business Travel Guide

Mixing Family Fun with Business

If you bring your family for a mini-vacation while you're doing business in northern Vermont, they'll find a wonderful variety of things to do that are educational, recreational and just plain fun.

A visit to the area is not complete without spending time in Vermont’s most populous city. Burlington boasts lake and mountain views from numerous sites and an award-winning, outdoor downtown shopping mall, the Church Street Marketplace. The rejuvenated waterfront features offshore breezes, a park, skateboard park and bike paths, art galleries, shops and restaurants, and a boathouse and mooring area.

The 90-mile trip to Montreal from Burlington takes a pleasant hour and a half. It’s a little more than three hours for the 225 miles to Boston. At 293 miles, New York City is over five hours away.

The city is enlivened by the large college population at the four area colleges, resulting in an active arts and entertainment scene.

Several other engaging towns and cities are within an hour’s drive of Burlington — Middlebury, St. Albans, Montpelier and Barre — each worthy of a visit.

University of Vermont Dairy Farm on Spear Street in South Burlington, just minutes from downtown Burlington, has more than 100 Holsteins and Jerseys that make their way to the milking parlor daily. Students manage the dairy herd and horse barn on this modern, working farm. Self-guided tours available with no admission fee. 862‑2151. www.uvm.edu/cals/farms/pmiller.html .

The Ethan Allen Homestead, off of Vermont 127 in Burlington, is set in the middle of a 284acre public park. It includes an orientation center in a 1700s tavern, historical exhibits, heirloom gardens and landscaping, and a glimpse of what life was like for Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen and his family in the late 1700s. Open year-round. Admission to the park is free. Admission for the historic site and museum: adults, $5; seniors, $4; children 5 to 17, $2.50. 865‑4556. www.ethanallenhomestead.org .

The Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont is one of New England’s finest art museums, home to outstanding collections of American and European art, as well as permanent exhibits of African and ancient Egyptian art. Call for current exhibits and information on other area galleries. Closed Mondays and major holiday weekends. Adults, $5; Family, $10; Seniors, $3. 656‑2090. www.uvm.edu/~fleming .

ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain is a lake aquarium and science center on Burlington’s waterfront. The design interprets the ecological, geological, biological and cultural history of the Lake Champlain basin. Exhibits change periodically; permanent exhibits include the Awesome Forces Theater, a water-play space for children, an Atlantic tide pool touch tank, a working miniature lighthouse and a replica of the historic General Butler shipwreck. ECHO is open daily year-round; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Adults 18 to 61, $9; seniors 62 and older or students with ID, $8; children 3 to 17, $7. 864‑1848. www.echovermont.org .

Lake Champlain Chocolates, 750 Pine St., Burlington. Visit the factory and retail store to watch chocolate-making from the observation deck. Purchase firsts and seconds from the shop. 864‑1807. Other shops on the Church Street Marketplace and on Vermont 100 between Stowe and Waterbury. www.lakechamplainchocolates.com .

Shelburne Museum, south of Burlington on U.S. 7 in Shelburne, offers 150,000 things to look at in its collection of buildings, folk art, paintings and artifacts. There are 39 exhibition buildings and historic homes, including a lighthouse; a railroad station with a vintage private rail car; and a paddle-wheel steamship, all on 45 lush acres. Open daily May 20 through Oct. 28. Adults, $18; students over 18, $13; children 6 to 18, $9. After 3 p.m., adults, $10; others, $5. 985‑3346. www.shelburnemuseum.org .

Shelburne Farms, a 1,400-acre National Historic Landmark property that boasts a restored inn and restaurant with tours of its formal gardens, a huge farm barn with cheese-making, a bakery, a children’s farmyard and lots of farm animals. The turn-of-the-century estate is a working farm amid beautiful, natural landscapes and lake views. The farm is open from mid-May to late October, but holds events year-round. Day visitor admission to the walking trail is $6; seniors, $5; children 3 to 14, $4. Escorted, driven property tours are $9 for adults; seniors, $8; children, $7. The Welcome Center is on Harbor Road, off U.S. 7 in Shelburne. 985-8442. The inn serves breakfast and dinner daily and Sunday brunch until mid-October. For reservations (required) for dining or accommodations, call 985-8498. www.shelburnefarms.org .

The Vermont Teddy Bear Co. gives tours of its factory at 6655 Shelburne Road (U.S. 7), Shelburne. The company designs, manufactures and sells hand-crafted teddy bears. Tours are every half hour from 9:30 to 5 seven days a week. $2 for adults; children under 12 are free. 985-3001, press 2. www.vermonteddybear.com .

The Vermont Wildflower Farm, a few miles south of the Vermont Teddy Bear factory on the opposite side of U.S. 7, has six acres of fields vibrant with wildflowers and crisscrossed by walking trails. The shop and information center sells wildflower seeds for all areas of North America. Open April 1 through Oct. 31. 985‑9455. -www.vermontwildflowerfarm.com .

Factory Marketplace at Kennedy Brothers, Main Street, Vergennes, offers quality Vermont gifts in the country store, antiques, and crafts made by Vermonters plus hand-dipped ice cream, children’s sculpture garden and a railroad station. 877‑2975. www.kennedy-brothers.com .

Vermont State Historic Sites are peppered around the state. Chimney Point is an 18th-century tavern at the Champlain Bridge (Vermont routes 17 and 125) in Addison that houses an exhibit on the early Native American and French settlements of the area. Adults, $2.50; children under 15 free. 759‑2412. Mount Independence is in Orwell, just across the lake from Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y. Adults, $5; children under 15 free. 948-2000. The Hubbardton Battlefield State Historic Site. Adults, $2. Children under 15 free. 273-2282. The Calvin Coolidge Historic Site in Plymouth is where Coolidge was sworn in as president by his father on Aug. 3, 1923. Adults, $7.50; children 6 to 14, $2; under 6, free. Family, $20. At the Chester A. Arthur Historic Site, six miles outside the village of Fairfield, is a re-creation of the parsonage where the 21st president of the United States grew up. It was built in in 1853, complete with a pictorial exhibit on the president’s life. A short distance northwest of this historic site is the North Fairfield Baptist Church, built circa 1840, which replaced the church where William Arthur preached shortly after Chester’s birth. 933-8362 or 828-3051 off-season. Donations appreciated. The Justin Morrill State Historic Site in Strafford is a Gothic Revival estate that was home to a high-school dropout who opened the doors of higher education to millions of Americans as the author of the acts that established the land-grant colleges. Morrill designed and built the 17-room home in 1849. 765-4484. Off-season 828-3051. Adults, $5; children 14 and under free. Most sites open from Late May through mid October. Underwater Historic Sites: For certified divers, five underwater historic preserves in Lake Champlain are maintained by the Division for Historic Preservation. They are identifiable by yellow buoys, with guidelines that lead down to shipwrecks. Ask about the Benedict Arnold wreck. 828-3051 or 475-2022. Information on all of these state sites can be found at www.historicvermont.org .

The St. Albans Historical Museum on Church Street overlooks Taylor Park, a historic district on the National Register. It contains rooms devoted to the Central Vermont Railway, children’s toys and furniture, military history, including the famed Confederate raid of 1864, and more. 527‑7933.

The Robert Frost Interpretive Trail is a National Recreation Trail that commemorates the poetry of Vermont’s first state poet. Several of his poems are mounted along the trail through the woods and fields of the Green Mountains, his adopted home. The easy hike takes 30 to 45 minutes. It’s on Vermont 125, 5.8 miles east of U.S. 7 in Ripton, near Middlebury College Bread Loaf Campus.

According to surveys, the biggest tourist attraction in the area is the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory tour on Vermont 100 in Waterbury with its scoop and gift shop. The company is part of a large conglomerate, but its heart, headquarters and factory are still here in the Green Mountains. Open seven days a week. Adults, $3; seniors, $2; children 12 and under, free. 882‑1240. www.benjerry.com .

Up the road from Ben & Jerry’s, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, off I-89 on Vermont 100 in Waterbury Center, offers free samples, old-fashioned apple products, specialty foods, Vermont crafts and maple products. Visitors can watch apple cider being made. Open 8 to 7 June through October; 8 to 6 November through May. Admission is free. 244-8771. www.coldhollow.com .

A visit to Montpelier should include a stop at the Vermont State House, one of the oldest and best-preserved capitol buildings in the nation. Self-guided tours all year; free guided tours are available July to mid-October. The legislative session begins in January, and during the week you can watch lawmakers at work. 828‑2228. www.vtstatehouse.org .

From the Vermont Icelandic Horse Farm on North Fayston Road in Waitsfield, you can take a trip through the Mad River Valley on one of the farm’s 30 horses. The Icelandic horse is one of the oldest breeds in the world and the only naturally five-gaited horse. Open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides are $45 to $90. Call ahead 24 hours to make reservations. 496‑7141. www.icelandichorses.com .

New England Maple Museum & Maple Market, north of Rutland on U.S. 7 in Pittsfield, presents a complete story of maple sugaring from sap to syrup. The world’s largest maple museum lets visitors watch the boiling process, demonstrations and slide shows. Food and syrup tastings. Open daily March through December. 483-9414. Adults $2.50; children $0.75. www.maplemuseum.com .

Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium on Main Street in St. Johnsbury is two hours from Burlington, but well worth the scenic ride. The museum is filled with more than 165,000 mounted animals, tools, dolls, dinosaurs and exhibits from Vermont and around the world. Museum is open daily year-round; closed Mondays from October through April; the planetarium is open weekends September through June. Museum: adults, $6; seniors and children 5 to 17, $5. Planetarium: $5. 748‑2372. www.fairbanksmuseum.org .

Other attractions include Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington, 434-3068; the Rock of Ages Granite Quarry in Barre, 476-3119; the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum on Basin Harbor Road in Vergennes, 475-2022; the UVM Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge, 388-2011; and the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, 388‑4964.

(Call ahead to make sure the information hasn’t changed since press time.) •