It's been our Memorial Day tradition for a few years now to camp in Vermont. So when our summer launch coincided with the celebratory start of summer, it was pretty obvious where we had to start! Since we only planned a few days for this trip, we decided to make it our “greatest hits of Vermont trip”, where we revisited all of our favorite spots and drank all of our favorite beers.
One thing we discovered in our years of Memorial Day camping is that campsites completely clear out on the holiday. So we booked our favorite site starting Monday, but we were itching to get on the road, so we left on Sunday and planned a Harvest Host in Shelburne, VT so we could fully make the most of our first Vermont day. We had a lovely drive up, and arrived at Shelburne Vineyards for an afternoon wine tasting. The venue was on the small side, so reservations were a must to ensure space for your tasting. We were so glad our Harvest Host contact warned us about this, since even on a drizzly day it was full both inside and on their lovely patio. We got a seat outside, overlooking the vineyards, and each enjoyed a sampling of wines. The samplings were arranged according to members of the Schitt’s Creek family, which was a clever and delightful way to group their wines!
I was a Moira, a fun and sparkling serving of white and rose wines. My particular favorite was the 2019 Louise, a dry white wine with a warm floral taste that reminded me of the fall. Craig was a David, enjoying a solid mix of red and white wines, a delightful homage to a wonderful character.
After our delicious tasting, we enjoyed a relaxing night at Shelburne, and planned our stops for the next day. Since Monday was supposed to be dreary, we decided it was a great day to stroll the pedestrian mall in downtown Burlington. The Church Street Marketplace is a charming few blocks, lined with stores and restaurants, closed to vehicles and lovely to spend a morning perusing. We stopped by my favorite little jewelry shop, Zinnia, since I love commemorating each visit with a new ring. We browsed the Outdoor Gear Exchange spring sale, looking for any fun new camping gear. And of course, we had to stop at Lake Champlain Chocolates for some campfire treats. We had worked up an appetite with all our window shopping, so we headed to American Flatbread for some pizza and local Rookie’s root beer for lunch. Vermont does all kinds of beer well, and this root beer is no exception!
After lunch, the sun peeked out, and we strolled by the waterfront of Lake Champlain, soaking in the gorgeous mountain sights that lined the lake. We attempted to go to Foam Brewers for some afternoon beers, but we foolishly did not have a reservation, and they are frequently booked up. So instead, we headed out of town towards the Zero Gravity brewery and tasting room. We’ve loved Zero Gravity for years, and were excited by their expanded patio area and menu for the day. Zero Gravity does wonderful bottle specials, and their newest, Mungo Berry, a heavily fruited sour, was no exception. If you visit, I also recommend their Apres Vous, a tasty dry saison aged in gin barrels. That was a special treat for us when we were stuck in our tent on one rainy, pre-bus camping adventure.
Once we were done with the big city life, we headed out to our campsite at Little River State Park in Waterbury. This park is gorgeous, and its proximity to Stowe and Waterbury makes it an ideal spot to camp while exploring two great Vermont towns.. After our campfire breakfast on Tuesday, we headed out to the Waterbury Annex - home to Lake Champlain Chocolate, Cabot cheese, Vermont Trailwear, and Smugglers Notch Distillery. Due to COVID, the Cabot store was closed, but I highly recommend a visit here when it reopens. They have a wonderful tasting table where you can try all their assorted cheese offerings, and I’ve discovered a few favorites here.
We were sad to miss out on our cheese sampling (and so were Winston and Reese, we always smuggled them out a sample each!), so we decided to drown our sorrows with a tasting at Smugglers Notch Distillery. In all our visits, we had never stopped by here, and that was a silly mistake! We were given a great tour of their products by the woman behind the counter, and once we selected our tastings, she even snuck on a sample of their bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. All of their liquors were delightful and smooth, but we were wowed by the maple syrup, and had to leave with a little barrel of our own.
We continued down Vermont 100 to Stowe, where we had lunch and beers at our absolute favorite Vermont brewery - Idletyme Brewing. They have amazing fried pickles, as well as a thoughtful veggie burger offering. Especially with the proliferation of Beyond and Impossible Burgers, it’s become easy for restaurants to phone in a simple vegetarian offering. While I’m glad to have more options these days, I love seeing restaurants offer a little more thought and love in their veggie meals. They make a Beyond Burger, but topped with chive mayo and extremely tasty pickled red onions. But the real delight of Idletyme is their Danube Blueberry Hefeweizen. By far my favorite beer, they take their already delicious Hefeweizen and brew it with fresh blueberries. The blueberries are added during the fermentation process, so the result is a delightfully fresh and lightly sweet beer. They weren’t offering it in bottles when we stopped by, otherwise I would have loaded our poor small bus with goodies to take home!
The skies had been cloudy, but they cleared up during lunch, so we decided to get in a little outdoors time back at Little River. We headed out on the History & Nature Trail, a short loop through the woods with plaques ripe with information on the land, history, and former owners. Here, I immediately twisted my ankle terribly, and had to limp my way back to camp where I spent the afternoon convalescing with a book in the hammock. Not a terrible turn of events, but I was bummed to cross any more Vermont hiking adventures off the list. I had been excited to return to the Stowe Pinnacle hike, a nice jaunt up the mountain with stunning views of Stowe and featuring mountaintop pups, but alas, not this trip.
Even with my restorative evening, we managed to find some time for a stroll down to the beach on our end of the campsite. The views of the Waterbury Reservoir and the mountains in the background are forever one of my favorite sights. And it wouldn’t be camping if we didn’t end the night with s’mores!
The next day, we tried to get in some morning kayaking on the reservoir, but Winston was feeling a little jittery in the boats, so we did a short, gentle paddle before heading ashore. Since hiking was out, we decided to take a drive through downtown Stowe and check out some spots we love there. We hadn’t been to Stowe Cider in a few years and stopped by their new location for a delicious flight of cider. Their Haskap Cider was incredible, and I learned about a fruit I had never heard of before. But the star was their Puff Puff Pineapple - a semi-dry cider with applewood smoked chili peppers. It was such an unexpected flavor, but one that worked wonders in their cider.
As we were driving through Stowe, we passed Dedalus Wine Bar and cheese shop. We had stumbled into a Dedalus in Burlington a few years ago, and had a wonderful experience tasting cheeses, guided by their cheesemonger. It was exciting to find another spot in Stowe, so we knew we had to check it out. We told the cheesemonger we were looking for our favorite brillat savarin, and he let us try two cheeses he felt would similarly satisfy. And he was right! We tried a delightful soft buffalo cheese and a three-milk truffle infused cheese. Needless to say, we bought them both, along with a fresh baguette.
On our way back to our campsite, we stopped by Waterbury’s downtown to browse the offerings at the Craft Beer Cellar. We’ve always loved stopping here to get a mixed pack of local beers to try, and it was a wonderfully serendipitous moment when we noticed a franchise of this chain had opened in our new home spot of Warwick, NY. It felt fated that our two favorite towns had two great craft beer spots. While at the Waterbury locale, I stocked up on some Zero Gravity they didn’t have available at their brewhouse. As we headed back to camp for fireside beers and fancy cheese, we had to give in to vanity and take a selfie at our favorite view of the Waterbury Reservoir and take a walk along the dam to fully admire the views. (It's tricky getting a family photo with our two rascals!)
With the pups tired out, we felt like we could do a little paddling without them on the water. Nothing says Vermont like a nice golden hour paddle while drinking a cold local beer! And it’s much easier without a wiggling Winston attempting to jump ship. We were hoping to catch the sunset on the water, but it was getting near dinnertime and we had a lavish cheese spread awaiting us.
We headed ashore, where we dined on our Dedalus purchases, an older bottle of Stowe Cider I was saving for a special occasion, and our finest Lake Champlain Chocolates. My favorite thing when traveling is to pair austere accommodations with a little bougie sparkle.
The next morning was Wednesday, the day of our departure. But we’d be remiss to leave this area of Vermont without a stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill. This spot is also a Harvest Host, one with stunning views we enjoyed last fall, so keep that in mind for Vermont travels! Their main bakery and shop is open daily, with delicious local jams, jellies, dressings, and other products, as well as scrumptious baked goods. You won’t be able to leave with less than a dozen donuts! Although we missed it on this trip, the Cold Hollow Cider Mill also has a Lunchonette that offers divine breakfast sandwiches, as well as hard cider tastings that we’ve immensely enjoyed in the past. Between the views, the treats, and the ciders, this is a lovely Vermont spot to enjoy.
While there’s always more incredible things to do in Vermont (check out Dog Mountain!) we really enjoyed our whirlwind tour of our favorite spots. As people who love the outdoors, good beer, and delicious food, I can’t imagine a more perfect spot for us to enjoy than Vermont. It’s a state that seems to pride itself in putting craft and love into everything they make, which means good meals and good drinks. And they appreciate the great outdoors; I always love driving through Burlington to see Lake Champlain and driving 25 minutes out to hike Camel’s Hump. We genuinely love visiting this wonderful place, and if someone helped me get stocked up on cold weather goods to survive the winter, I could really see us calling this state home. You won’t regret a visit to enjoy all Vermont has to offer!
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