Spring/Summer 2009 Business Travel Guide

Mixing Family Fun with Business

Bring your family for a mini-vacation while you’re doing business in northern Vermont. They’ll find a rich variety of things to do that are educational, recreational and downright 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 five 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 (the Paul Miller Research Complex) 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. Open daily from 2 to 4 p.m. No admission fee. Please do not visit if you were out of the country in the last seven days. 862-2151. The UVM Morgan Horse Farm is in Weybridge, 388-2011; www.uvm.edu.
The Ethan Allen Homestead, off Vermont 127 in Burlington, is set in the middle of a 284-acre 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 May through October. 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.
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 year-round (except Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve and Day) 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Adults 18 to 61, $9.50; 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 17 through Oct. 25. Adults, $20; students over 18, $18; children 4 to 18, $10. Discount after 3 p.m. Vermont residents half price. 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 May 9 to Oct. 18, but holds events year-round. General property admission is $6; seniors, $5; children 3 to 14, $4. 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. Open daily except major holidays. Factory tours are every half hour from 9:30 a.m. July through October; from 10 a.m. November through June. $2 for adults; 12 and under, free. 985-3001, ext. 2. www.vermontteddybear.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 daily April 1 through Oct. 31. 425-3641. 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. Open daily, year-round, except Thanksgiving and Christmas. 877-2975. www.kennedy-brothers.com.
Vermont State Historic Sites are peppered around the state. Hours and fees vary per site, so check www.historicvermont.org. Chimney Point, an 18th-century tavern at the Champlain Bridge (Vermont routes 17 and 125) in Addison, houses an exhibit on the early Native American and French settlements. 759-2412. Mount Independence is in Orwell, just across the lake from Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y. 948-2000. The Hubbardton Battlefield State Historic Site. 273-2282. The Calvin Coolidge Historic Site in Plymouth is where Coolidge was sworn in as president by his father on Aug. 3, 1923. 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. 933-8362 or 828-3051 off-season. The Justin Smith Morrill Homestead 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. 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 these and other state sites can be found at www.historicvermont.org.
The St. Albans Historical Society 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.
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 except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day; times vary by season. Adults, $3; seniors, $2; children 12 and under, free. 258-6877. 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 a.m. to 7 p.m. June through October; until 6 p.m. November through May. Admission is free. 244-8771. www.coldhollow.com.
A visit to Montpelier should include a stop at the Vermont Statehouse, one of the oldest and best-preserved capitol buildings in the nation. Self-guided tours all year; free guided tours are available July through 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 ride 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: $50 to $100. Call ahead 24 hours for reservations. 496-7141. www.icelandichorses.com.
New England Maple Museum & Maple Market, north of Rutland on U.S. 7 in Pittsford, presents the story of maple sugaring from sap to syrup through demonstrations and slide shows. The world’s largest maple museum offers food and syrup tastings. Open daily March through December. Hours vary by season. 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 November through March; 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; and the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, 388-4964.