Day One: Arrive in Vermont (D)
We will arrive at Burlington, VT airport where our tour guide and motorcoach will greet us and take us to our Vermont Inn for 2 nights. Depending on our arrival time we will tour parts of Burlington and Northern VT.
Day Two: Trapp Family Lodge & Cruise the Lake (B, L)
We are off for a full day of touring in Northern Vermont today as we will travel to Montpelier, Vermont where we will see the gold-leafed dome of the Capitol Building and see how Maple Sugar is made at the Morse Farm Sugar Shack, where we will enjoy “Sugar on Snow.” We will take to the roads again stopping at Cold Hollow Cider Mill; New England’s most famous cider mill. We will observe apple cider being made and perhaps even have the chance to taste the final product! We will have lunch at the famous Trapp Family Lodge, whose family was made famous in the movie The Sound of Music. Of course, no trip is complete without stopping for some ice cream at the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream plant before heading back to Burlington. This afternoon we will enjoy a cruise on Lake Champlain before we enjoy dinner on our own.
Day Three: Baking Class & Teaching Farm (B, D)
Today we will head east towards the New Hampshire border as we begin the day with a baking class at the King Arthur Flour Baking Company. Here, we will have a private class in baking. We will create something we can also eat and forever have the skills and recipe to make it back home! We will then visit Quechee Gorge, often called Vermont’s Little Grand Canyon. It is a deep gorge crowded with fall colors along its narrow shore that we will see from the top of the gorge. Then we will have lunch on our own in the quintessential New England Village of Woodstock complete with its church on the village green. Browse the shops and cafes with some free time. Just out of town is the Billings Farm & Museum. We will tour the farm and museum with its many buildings and animals. If you have ever wondered what the unique challenges are to farming on small, hilly landscapes you will learn this at Billings. It is a teaching museum that enables residents and visitors to prepare for life on a farm with a small footprint. The 1890’s Managers House is a unique look into the actual homelife on a New England farm. We will check into our Inn for the next two nights. Dinner is included this evening.
Day Four: Vermont Trains & Estates (B, D)
Following Breakfast today, we will board the Green Mountain Railroad for a one hour ride through the brightest of New England Fall Foliage. There is nothing quite like sitting back in a vintage rail car and ride through the lush, deep woods of New England watching the colors surrounding you as though you were in a foliage tunnel! We will then visit Hildene’s - the Robert Todd Lincoln Family home. The only son of Abraham Lincoln to survive to adulthood Robert became the President of the Pullman Company, the largest manufacturing company in the United States at the turn of the century. This 412 acre estate features 14 historic buildings, formal gardens and an observatory. Perhaps the most interesting of all is the 1903 Pullman car, Sunbeam, which is a museum unto itself. We’ll finish our day with a stop at the iconic Vermont Country Store. Since 1946 the Orton family has been running the store and catalog company with the initial principles the first Ortons preached – Purveyors of the Practical and hard-to-Find.” This evening Dinner is included.
Day Five: Presidents: Homes & Marble Busts (B, D)
Following breakfast, we will head up the road to the finest preserved Presidential birthplace in America – the President Calvin Coolidge Homestead. Our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge actually was sworn in as President in the sitting room of his home here in Plymouth Notch in 1923. President Warren Harding had just passed away and “Silent Cal” was visiting his childhood home in VT. Learn this story and much more about this principled President. We will continue on through Rutland, VT to Proctor. Proctor is the home of the Proctor Marble company and the Vermont Marble Museum. Begun in 1880, it eventually owned all the marble rights in Vermont, Colorado and Alaska to become the giant in the marble industry for more than a century. You have probably seen Vermont Marble in Washington DC without even knowing it: The Supreme Court Building and the Jefferson Memorial are two outstanding examples along with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Memorial Cemetery. Besides learning more about this history, you won’t want to miss the Hall of Presidents in which every US President is memorialized with a bas-relief style sculpture on their own pedestals. We will then tour to Middlebury, VT including seeing one of only six surviving double barreled covered bridges in North America – The Pulp Mill Covered Bridge. Too low for us to drive through on our coach we will get a close up view of the 200’ long covered bridge. Then we will head to Middlebury for our final two nights with Dinner included.
Day Six: Artisans and Horse Farm (B, D)
Today will be a very relaxing day mostly right in the town of Middlebury. A classic college town (Middlebury College) it is filled with creative and eclectic attractions. Exchange Street is right around the corner from the Middlebury Inn and is home to Danforth Pewter, where we will have a visit the workshop to see these craftsmen at work. We will also visit Maple Landmark a woodworkers paradise with local woodworkers making toys, furniture and other hard wood products. We will also have time to visit Vermont Soap, where soap is handmade by local artisans. In each of these places after seeing the production, you will also have time to shop and bring home some prime examples of Vermont’s talented artists. This afternoon, we will visit the Vermont Morgan Horse Farm, which is part of the University of Vermont. More than 40 Morgan horses live here and our tour will describe how one of the earliest horse breeds in the United States is so versatile as to have been used by the US Calvary as well as coach horses for wealthy men and women of society, and even in harness racing. Tonight, is our final night dinner and we will dine at one of Vermont’s most historic inns – the Waybury Inn. However, it is best known as the site of the TV series the Bob Newhart Show in the 1970’s!
Day Seven 7: Home (B)
Depending on our flight schedule today, we may have time to visit Shelbourne Museum on the way to the airport. It is an unparalleled and unique experience of American history, art and design. Founded in 1947 the museum has grown to 45 acres including buildings housing collections of quilts, folk art, furniture, horse drawn carriages and much more. Today we fly home from our New England Fall Foliage tour with many fine memories of a bygone era.
TOUR INCLUDES:
NOT INCLUDED: