Vacation Road

Road trip destination reviews and tips

Month: August 2019

Cabot Farmer’s Store Waterbury Vermont

August 22, 2019 /

After leaving the Ben & Jerry’s Factory, we stopped at the Cabot Farmer’s Store in Waterbury, Vermont. It’s just a short drive down the road from Ben & Jerry’s. The Cabot Farmer’s Store was a great stop! They have a large selection of products including shirts, hats, miscellaneous kitchen items, a freezer section with all kinds of dairy products, jellies and other canned/jarred foods. The best part was a large table filled with all different kinds of Cabot cheeses. It was delicious! There were a whole bunch of kinds I had never heard of and that aren’t available in New York.
They also sell very nice reusable bags and insulated bags, which comes with a frozen ice pack. If you are traveling and don’t have a cooler, buy one of the insulated bags, so you can buy cheese! The reusable bags are $1.00 and the insulated bags are $7.95. My son got a cute little Cabot logo mini cow used for stress relief.
I also bought a shirt with the design in the shape of Vermont with the design shape filled with names of Cabot cheeses and the Cabot logo.
The Cabot Visitor Center in Cabot is further away. Apparently, they no longer offer walking tours, but have a video tour, samples and artisan Vermont products.

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Ben and Jerry’s Factory Tour

August 20, 2019 /

A must do on a trip to Burlington, VT is to head over to Waterbury and tour the Ben & Jerry’s factory. It’s only about 30 minutes east of Burlington. The tour lasts about 30 minutes and each tour leaves about every half hour. We had some time to kill before our tour left, so we visited the gift shop and bought some Ben & Jerry’s t-shirts and a water bottle. Burlington didn’t seem to have a good souvenir shop, other than the Vermont Gift Barn, so we made sure to get a few things here.
The tour starts off with a little video about the history of Ben & Jerry’s. After that the tour takes you to a room which overlooks the processing area. No pictures can be taken here. It was cool to see the large equipment and conveyor belts filled with pints of ice cream. The tour ended with a free sample. Everyone gets the same sample and is whatever they choose for that day. We had sweet cookies and cream, which I couldn’t eat since I’m gluten free. They did offer an alternative for dietary restrictions, so I had a berry sorbet, which was really good. Samples were pretty generous portions too.
The ice cream line was pretty long, so we skipped that, which was ok since the sample was pretty filling.
After the tour, we visited the flavor graveyard. That was pretty cool. There are headstones for each flavor that is no longer made. Some of them were a little gross sounding and didn’t last too long. Others were retired after several years.

The option of making your own tie dye t-shirt is also available in a tent set up outside the factory. We didn’t do it, but probably should have. Shirts were only $13. Vermont is a great place to wear tie dye. You’re definitely not out of place, unlike other states. I wished I had dug out the tie dye Ben & Jerry’s shirt I bought there years ago.
The tour isn’t the most exciting, but the ice cream sample definitely makes it worth it. It’s great activity for kids and it’s reasonably priced.

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Where To Stay In Burlington Vermont Best Western Windjammer

August 14, 2019 /

On a recent vacation to Burlington, Vermont, we stayed at the Best Western Windjammer hotel. This was the first time we stayed there, and it turned out to be a great choice! The room had two double beds, bathroom, closet, flat screen tv, coffee maker, small table with two chairs, dresser, refrigerator and microwave. The refrigerator and microwave were stored inside a large closet inside the dresser. There were usb and extra plugs for charging electronic devices. The room seemed pretty clean.
The bathroom had a tub/shower combo. The soap, shampoo and body lotion samples were natural and chemical free, which was a nice change from the usual chemical filled toiletries at other hotels. The brand was Pharmacopia.
A full, free breakfast was included. It consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage patties, mini cinnamon rolls, muffins, Chobani yogurt, toast and bagels, cold cereal, make your own waffles, apples/oranges/bananas, black tea (no green tea), coffee, juice, milk and water. It didn’t seem to change and got a little boring after three days, but overall it was very good. Being gluten free also limited my options.
There were two pools, one indoor and one outdoor. We only visited the outdoor pool which we ate breakfast near one morning. It looked pretty clean.
Warm cookies are served every night at 8:00.
There are additional snacks for purchase.
The hotel is set back from the road. The room was pretty quiet and the beds were fairly comfortable.
The hotel has a shuttle to the airport. I don’t know if it would take you to downtown Burlington. The hotel is about 6 minutes from downtown, so we just drove ourselves and parked on a side street called Pine St.
The hotel is right next to a Moe’s restaurant and across the street from the Vermont Gallery Barn, which is definitely worth a visit. The Best Western has a restaurant called the Windjammer, but we didn’t eat at it. It was however, recommended to us as a good place to eat. There are also a bunch of restaurants in the nearby vicinity. Bueno Y Sano was a good, quick Mexican restaurant. We also ate at Chili’s, Longhorn Steakhouse and the Outback Steakhouse which were all pretty close. Trader Joe’s is also nearby.

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Echo Aquarium and Science Center Museum Burlington Vermont

August 7, 2019 /

Burlington, Vermont is a pretty popular place for outdoor activities like biking, sailing, hiking and skiing. A fun indoor activity is the Echo Aquarium and Science Center. It is located at the end of College St. down near the shore of Lake Champlain. There are quite a few exhibits with fish, frogs, snakes, an eel and turtles.

There is a hands on earth science exhibit area that’s good for younger kids. There’s also a play area for kids 6 and younger.
There is currently a special exhibit feature 50 States Trivia. Each state has an interactive exhibit with fun facts about the state. Be sure to grab a U.S. map at the start of the exhibit to color in the states you have traveled to.
On the second floor of the museum is an outdoor area that overlooks the lake. It’s a great spot for photos.

There are a few short videos that talk about Lake Champlain. One of which talks about Champ, the prehistoric dinosaur that is said to still live in Lake Champlain. It’s a pretty believable video and even shows a photo that was taken of Champ in 1977!

Admission is $14.50 for adults and $11.50 for kids 3 – 14. Kids under 3 are free.

The Echo is open year round from 10am – 5pm.

The only downside is the gift shop is high priced and mainly consists of random science toys that could be found on Amazon. I didn’t see any clothing items.

Also, we didn’t purchase a 3D movie viewing, but wished we had.

The museum is definitely worth a visit!

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