We’ve heard so much from friends about the fall colours in Vermont, that we decided to plan a trip in 2021. That didn’t happen because of COVID, but we managed to make it happen in 2022. We invited my sister and her husband to join us and booked four days at the Holiday Inn Vacation Club at Mount Ascutney.

We left Toronto on Sunday and travelled as far as Montreal, staying at St. Jean Sur Richelieu overnight. Monday was the beginning of exploring the highways and byways of Vermont. Our first stop was Burlington, a city on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, where we stopped for a coffee down by the river and then took a quick drive through town. Our second stop was Stowe, Vermont. It is, of course, famous for its trails and ski slopes but for us non-sporty types, it was just a lovely spot to stop for lunch. We visited Piecemeal Pies on the main street for lunch. Savory pies, made in the English style, are served with soups, salads and other accompaniments. It is a relatively new restaurant in town with a bigger operation in White River Junction. It was certainly popular.

On the way out of town, we detoured to see the Trapp Family Lodge – home to the Von Trapp Family of Sound of Music fame. It’s a beautiful building, rebuilt in the early 1980s after a fire destroyed the original lodge from the 1940s. The property includes some 2,500 acres offering indoor and outdoor resort amenities. A little further along we discovered the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, home of the legendary cider donuts. The donuts are everything the brochure says they are, and an apple pie for dinner that night wasn’t too shabby either.

We stopped for a short time in Montpelier to pick up groceries and then on to Mount Ascutney to check in at the Holiday Inn Resort. After a BBQ chicken dinner and cheering on the Blue Jays, we retired for the night looking forward to our first day trip tomorrow.

This area of Vermont is ideal for short day trips. I had found a number of routes on line, and the first one we chose started in Chester and travelled along small back roads through Grafton to Townshend (Route 35). Grafton is home to the Grafton Village Store, Grafton Village Cheese and the Grafton Inn. There are many photo stops along the way.

Other days we explored routes in the other direction. The road to Woodstock (Route 44 and 44A) became quite familiar to us as we found we needed two days to explore the towns of Woodstock, Quechee and Taftsville. On a nice sunny, warm day we stopped for ice cream and a wander through the quaint town of Woodstock. Another day we visited the Quechee Gorge and Simon Pierce Glass facility. Unfortunately, the restaurant there is so busy that it requires reservations a month in advance.

People had recommended that a visit to Sugarbush Farm was a must so we fit that in on one of our last days. It’s a bit of a hike – especially if you take a wrong turn – but well worth a visit and even more so if you have kids. We came away with a number of different kinds of cheese that are packaged such that refrigeration is not needed. They also have maple products but as Canadians, that’s like taking “coals to Newcastle” as the saying goes.

Since we were staying in Mount Ascutney, a trip to the top was a must. It’s in the State Park so a $5 per person entrance fee is required. The entrance is just a short 10-minute ride from the resort. Once you get to the top parking lot, there is a hiking trail that takes you a further distance to the very top.

We enjoyed a number of meals at local restaurants although there isn’t anything that is really close to the resort. The Holiday Inn does have a restaurant on-site, called the Maple Kitchen, which is open Tuesday – Sunday. The food and presentation is quite good, but the noise is significant because of a very low ceiling. A trip to White River Junction to Elixir was our favourite. Made more enjoyable by a server who was passionate about seeing that we were well looked after, the food was wonderful and the ambience was classy rustic. Reservations are required as it has become one of the town’s most popular restaurants in just the short time it has been open. Another evening we enjoyed a visit to The Common Man in Concord, NH. A very large restaurant with a lovely outdoor patio beside a waterfall, the food served is typical New England fare and very plentiful. Gas is cheaper in New Hampshire so a planned fill-up was a bonus.

We spent just three full days in the Mount Ascutney area but realized there is so much more to see. A return visit will be planned for the future.