Ideas for Day Trips around Burlington, Vermont

Me standing along part of the Queechee Gorge on a day trip to Queechee, Vermont. July 28, 2024.

In every part of the state, Vermont has opportunities to explore. No matter what corner you land in as a base of stay, you’ll have myriad options for day trips to see the surrounding region if you have a car.

And even better: Vermont is so beautiful and nature-blanketed that even the views from your car windows become sites to see.

When we stayed in Burlington, we had more options than we had time to visit. (Which means we’ll return!) Here are our favorites—all less than a two-hour drive from town.

Side note: I’ve also written up my suggestions for what to do while in Burlington!

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury

I’ll go ahead and cover this one first, because I know it’s top of mind (and so I almost don’t need to list it and yet know I should):

About an hour’s drive from Burlington, you can visit a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory for a tour.

Heads up: The visit isn’t worth the drive.

But I know you’ll go anyway.

My spouse held far more interest for me than the ice cream or the tour at the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, Vermont. (Which is how it should be, anyway.) July 27, 2024.

The factory tour is held in the smaller of the two Ben & Jerry’s production facilities in Vermont—the “legacy” location built back when the actual Ben and Jerry still owned the company. (They sold it to Unilever in 2020). The company’s factory tours start about every fifteen minutes throughout the day, seven days a week, and they sell out relatively quickly. (With about twenty people per tour, you can imagine the number of people they’re shoving through there.)

You’ll get a sizeable sample of whatever flavor they offer that day at the end of the tour, which involves a ten-minute marketing video followed by a visit to a platform where a guide will give you another short talk about the different equipment on the factory floor. (The factory isn’t always in operation.) The information provided is perfunctory at best and more marketing than informative in tone.

After you eat your ice cream sample, you get shunted out to a patio where you can buy ice cream at a premium price compared to what grocery stores and even Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shops charge.

Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe

Yes, the “Trapp Family” is that Trapp Family: The von Trapp family. “Sound of Music.” Yep.

When the von Trapps settled in the United States after fleeing Austria during Hitler’s rise, it bought property in the area of Stowe and started a family farm that later grew into a destination spot. And it still is.

You can stay in one of their rooms and suites and make your visit to the Trapp Family Lodge an retreat experience—the large property has restaurants and activities all year long for its guests, from skiing and mountain biking through to yoga and hiking.

If you instead head to the Trapp Family Lodge on a day trip from Burlington, as we did, you will still have options for a visit, including a history talk about the family’s true history, tours of the brewery and its maple syrup operation, and beyond.

We signed up for the history talk and for a tour of the maple-syrup operation. The history talk was absolutely worth it, even if you aren’t a huge “Sound of Music” fan, for the insights into a truly interesting actual family saga. I liked learning about how the musical adapted and adjusted the actual story and how the family hit the radar of the musical’s creators. Hearing how the family’s story continued past the musical’s timeframe, especially given the show’s immense popularity, I found interesting as well. The maple-syrup operation tour was quirky and fun, though I enjoyed the walk through the woods and across the property and a peek into the building where they condense sap into syrup more for the atmosphere than for the information provided.

And yes, the Trapp Family Lodge is still owned and operated by the von Trapp family. (Yes, that same von Trapp family.)

Nature and History on the Champlain Islands

Traversing from Burlington through some of the Champlain Islands and back won’t take you as long as you think—and it will give you an entirely different geography to ogle plus a change of pace that had us meandering along almost soporific, so relaxed the leisurely island pace made us. We left midmorning and were back in Burlington by midafternoon.

And if you like cycling, you can rent a bike and cycle through the islands rather than drive them. We saw as many cyclists as we did motorists out there.

We started our island day with the farthest-out destination we wanted to see: The Goodsell Ridge Fossil Preserve on Isle la Motte. The self-guided tour of the oldest coral reef known today left a lot of clarity to be desired in terms of navigability—visitors follow a map and route markers to signs with explanations—but we did see the bulk of it and had fun spying out the ancient creatures’ shapes from the remaining formations.

Our next stop was the Hyde Log Cabin on Grand Isle. This log cabin, built around 1783, was one of the first buildings constructed in the area and is believed to be the oldest original log cabin still standing in Vermont. Though the cabin isn’t always open for visitors, you can see in through the windows enough to get a sense of the layout and set-up.

I then had to see DonnaSue Bakes+Cooks, also on Grand Isle, hoping I’d catch it open and snag delicious homemade pie. (I’m a sucker for pie.) Though we didn’t happen to pass by on an open day, I took a picture of the cute shed set up through which a resident sells her baked goods to people biking and driving by.

The absolutely adorable DonnaSue Bakes+Cooks. How could I not stop, even seeing it closed? Grand Isle, Champlain Islands, Vermont. July 29, 2024.

Snowfarm Vineyard on South Hero was our final island stop. The vineyard has a wine tasting room and a shop for people passing through and it offers events throughout the year, from a summer and a winter concert series and an autumn harvest festival through to athletic and culinary events.

The tasting room at Snowfarm Vineyards on South Hero, Vermont. July 29, 2024.

Ethan Allen Homestead in Winooski

Turns out if you live in Vermont, you know that Ethan Allen was a real person and not the founder of or a made-up name for a furniture brand.

I even own furniture from Ethan Allen (the brand) and had no idea there existed an actual person named Ethan Allen until we visited the state.

The Ethan Allen Homestead is exactly that: A house somewhat restored to what it might have been in Ethan Allen’s time. (I write “somewhat” because later dwellers had so added onto and changed the building that the reversion to its past required more of a reconstruction than a restoration, based on what I could tell from the pictures on display of the process.)

The Ethan Allen Homestead in Winooski, Vermont. July 29, 2024.

Either before or after you walk out with a guide for the tour of the house, ask to see the videos the museum has on offer that cover the life of Ethan Allen and of his wife, Fanny.

Nature and Glass in Queechee

Heading to the tiny independent village of Queechee not far from Hartford takes nearly two hours from Burlington, but I found the drive worthwhile.

The town itself has barely one picturesque little street vastly overshadowed by the stunning feat of nature running through it: The Queechee Gorge.

You can see the gorge via a short hike through a calming forest by starting from the Queechee State Park ranger station or you can head directly into town to catch an even more magnificent view of it by walking along its rim and across it via a covered wooden bridge.

While in town, visit the Simon Pearce glass factory and store and have lunch in its restaurant overlooking the gorge—just remember to make reservations in advance. (Note: The food is perfectly fine, but the views are far better!)

So Much Still to See!

When we go back to Vermont, we have several other towns we’d like to visit from Burlington and from several other possible bases of stay.

And we will go back, as we loved our visit!

So expect this post to grow over time—and share any suggestions you have for our future Vermont travels. I know I still have so much to see!