Three or Four Day Tour

It would be a bit of a whirlwind but if you could fly into Boston, then hit Portland and Burlington you’d be in for a hell of a trip. You’d need a rental car but once you got to each city you could Uber/walk with ease.

At that point, your biggest problem will be picking which incredible spots you can fit in to your trip

 

Just out of curiosity, are there a lot of well-known whiskey distilleries in New England?

 

My beer/distillery recommendation in RI would probably be an overnight in Newport hanging at Norey's and Pour Judgement amongst other bars that evening, then the next day going to Newport Craft Beer & Distilling before heading out of town, and across the bridges to Sons of Liberty Spirits Co -> Shaidzon Beer Co -> Tilted Barn Brewery before hauling up to your next destination (Boston?).

However if coming in from that distance I'd go with @Rysk22 's recommendation of flying into Boston and going to points north and west from there. Your brewery selection will be great. Just not sure of the prime distilleries up that way.

 

Outside of Whistlepig in VT, not really

 

Whistle Pig is the first distillery I'd recommend off the top of my head. But rye whiskey is pretty divisive.

Just make sure you hit Hill Farmstead and check out the ten other threads about beer trips in New England.

 

I would say you should look into flying into Portland, ME, staying there for a couple days, then drive to Burlington & do the same thing.

 

Widow Jane belongs to the Mid Atlantic (NY)

 

Portland, Maine is your best bet. There are areas you can walk 100 feet to 4 different breweries and countless others and bars around the city.

Flying into Boston would let you see a few places in the city. Trillium being the obvious choice.

Stop a day or night in Portsmouth, NH where I live which is directly on the way and halfway to Portland. You can hit a bunch of breweries here.

Then head to Burlington, VT.

You may hear that Treehouse is a must stop. But it’s literally in the middle of nowhere (relatively speaking) and just the opposite direction from what your trio needs.

 

[whispers] beer is great but its often who you're with that makes the experience memorable. Also, merry christmas.

 

If you flew into Boston, and head North to Maine, you could stop in Salem, MA and hit Deacon Giles Distillery for some tasty cocktails as well as Notch Brewing for some of the best lagers in the country.

 

You're adding 5.5 hours of driving to go to add Burlington to a Boston/Portsmouth/Portland itinerary. If you're going to do that, you might as well add in the extra 1.75 hours of driving to visit Tree House.

Also, though Portsmouth is a lovely city, I wouldn't spend use up a precious night there if i were flying from the West Coast for a four day weekend....especially if my aim was world class beer.

 

Northampton, Mass.

Lots of breweries and great taplists. Near proximity to I-91 for jaunts to everywhere from Counter Weight in New Haven, New Park in Hartford, Hermit Thrush in Brattleboro, River Roost in WRJ to Hill Farmstead in the NEK and etc., etc.

 

This is the answer, perhaps with a stop in Waterbury, VT mixed in. Either way, it's A LOT to cover in a few days, and potentially more so depending on the time of year/traffic/etc. Hell, you could probably spend 2-3 days in Portland alone and not hit all the great breweries/restaurants/tap lists.

 

While the Boston, MA>Portland, ME>Burlington, VT trip is theoretically doable, you'd spend a lot of time driving between those cities and would have limited time in each (would need to prioritize stops and monitor time spent at locations).

An alternate option would be to fly into Boston, hit up a few breweries in the area for to-go beer (could even make a Tree House run), then drive straight to Burlington, VT and use that as your homebase for the rest of the trip.

Friday could be spent around Burlington (Burlington Beer Co., Fiddlehead, Foam, Four Quarters, Frost, etc.). Saturday could be a trip to Hill Farmstead and you could hit places like Lost Nation, Ten Bends, Alchemist, and maybe Prohibition Pig or Blackback in Waterbury for dinner on your way back to Burlington.

 

If you swing south, Tree House on the Cape should be open in theory. We also have Dirty Water distillery in Plymouth. I am not a whiskey connoisseur by any stretch but they do make some spirits that I like.

 

Since you only have two full days I would advise you to ignore those suggesting you do Boston, Vermont and Portland. You’d be spending more time in a car than having fun. I would focus on Boston since you’ll probably be flying into there and then a night in Portland.

 

Experience as primary focus: base bulk of trip around Portland or Boston
Beer as primary focus: base trip around going to Hill Farmstead and Tree House

Every part of New England's got at least one or two 9/10 breweries, so you can't really go wrong if the goal is a great long weekend with lots of beer. But if the focus is specifically fly across the country to go to the best and most famous breweries, those two are kind of a must. I would probably recommend flying into Boston and doing TH that day, then spending the rest of the trip in Boston or Portland, skipping VT entirely. Agree with those saying that fitting in all three is a ton of driving, and while Hill Farmstead is the best, VT for 3 nights is a very different trip than Boston or Portland.