Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.
Last Updated: May 2026
Burlington is Vermont’s largest city, which by most states’ standards would still count as a small town — and that’s precisely its charm. Perched on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain with the Adirondacks visible across the water on a clear day, Burlington manages to feel genuinely cosmopolitan without losing the easy friendliness of the Vermont countryside. We arrived during the Church Street Jazz Festival, which turned out to be perfect timing.
Last Updated: May 2026
St. Johnsbury sits at the southern gateway to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, a small city with an outsized cultural legacy — the Fairbanks Museum, the Athenaeum art gallery, and some of the best cheddar cheese in America all within a few blocks of each other. Our days here ranged from industrial curiosity (watching granite get quarried and turned into bowling balls) to genuine emotion (a hilltop chapel built in memory of a beloved dog), and from the verdant Vermont countryside to the dramatic gorge carved into the granite of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
[Read more…] about St. Johnsbury, Vermont: Cabot Creamery, Dog Mountain Chapel & Flume Gorge
Last Updated: May 2026
Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is the state’s best-kept secret — a vast, largely undeveloped stretch of forests, farms, and glacial lakes that feels like it was left behind by time in the best possible way. We based ourselves in Barton to visit Sandy’s parents Rich and Sylvia, explore the stunning Lake Willoughby, and meet the newest member of their family: Sadie, an eight-week-old chocolate Labrador who immediately stole the show.
[Read more…] about Barton, Vermont: Lake Willoughby, Northeast Kingdom & a New Puppy Named Sadie
Last Updated: May 2026
Vermont has a way of slowing you down, and Quechee was no exception. We spent several days exploring the Upper Valley region — watching molten glass transformed into art at Simon Pearce, crossing four of Vermont’s iconic covered bridges, peering into the dramatic Quechee Gorge, tasting farmhouse cheese at Billings Farm, and wandering through some of the most extravagant spring wildflower scenery we’d seen anywhere. It was the kind of trip that makes you want to move here.
[Read more…] about Quechee, Vermont: Simon Pearce, Covered Bridges & Quechee Gorge
Last Updated: May 2026
We enjoyed finding all the covered bridges and historic homes in Bennington, Vermont — more than we expected from a brief stop on our way north.
We thought this house was condemned. It was oddly beautiful and would make a great haunted house. Then we saw people sitting on the front porch. Whoops.
Last Updated: May 2026
We were on our way to Vermont and stopped in Newburgh, New York for a few days. We didn’t expect much from the area — and then we ended up at the oldest winery in America, a legendary custom motorcycle shop, and a second winery that turned out to be growing their own grapes and doing very well. Not a bad detour.
