VT travel date help

Hi.

There will be a a lot of leaf peepers the third week of October, but if you book hotels well ahead of time, you should be fine. The summer is crowded as well, because, well, because Vermont is really beautiful. It will be far less busy in early June than in October.

Waterbury is a good place to call home between the beer (pro pig, black back, resoivoir,), ice cream (Ben and jerry's), Alchemist new operation in Stowe should be open, and some great hikes. I recommend Hunger mountain as a good hike (3.5 miles I believe).

FYI - Julius is brewed by Tree House in Western MA and is available semi regularly, regardless of the season. Sip is available all year.

 

The third week in October is usually too late for foliage.....at least in the northern part of the state.

If you want to take the chance that late it would not be too crowded then. The Stowe area can get crowded on weekends. The whole state is pretty mobbed on Columbus Day weekend, but usually clears out after that.

Hikes

Strenuous Hike Mansfield or Camel's Hump. If you move south to the Sugarbush area. Take off anywhere on the long trail from Appalachian Gap or Lincoln gap. Go as far as you want.

 

We always make Stowe our home base, great location anytime of year, typically rent a townhouse at stony brook condos. Close to waterbury, 1 hour to hill farmstead, easy to acquire all the beers you are looking for if you will be there for a week. Sterling pond hike is a must by smugglers notch.

 

Waterbury has some amazing bars, but there's not much to do there outside of that. Burlington on the other hand is an actual city were you can walk to cafes, shopping, art galleries, several breweries, etc, and the bars and restaurants are still excellent. If you're looking for more of a home base while you drive to other destinations, Waterbury is an excellent choice (same goes for Stow I guess, though I haven't spent much time there), but if you'd like to stay in a place where you don't necessarily have to drive to find something to do, Burlington is the better choice.

 

Normally true, but with the record high temps this year, the foliage season will be 1-2 weeks extended/late.

 

As far as availability of beer goes, don't worry about it. There's no significant difference (at least that can be predicted a year out) in what will be available in summer versus fall.

Regarding brewery traffic, you might see somewhat smaller crowds during in the summer (non-holidays), but it's not going to be a huge difference. Again, I would not really worry about this.

The weather is something you should consider. Northern Vermont in late October can be beautiful, but it's not warm and it could be downright nasty. How important is it to you that it not be 45 degrees and drizzling the whole time you're there? If you're ok with that kind of weather and you want to see the foliage, go for it. If that's a bummer for you, go in the summer.

 

Seen nothing record high around here. Leaves at peak in Southern VT right now.

 

I am in Warren right now. The leaves this year are probably 2 weeks late. This is the most green I have seen in 10 yrs at this time. This would be a great year for 3rd week as long as they don't get wind and rain right before.

 

I'm in central NH near Concord not much color here yet and I was in Woodstock VT this afternoon not a lot of color there either. I'm hiking Mt Washington on Friday with a couple of friends and will let you know how the color is from there. It's going to be great somewhere in your travels in New England that week. They are predicting great weather this week here but you never know I've hiked Washington before this time of the year and needed snowshoes to summit.

 

I was in Warren Columbus Day weekend last year and I feel like the colors were actually a little post peak. The weather was pretty nice though. Though if you combine it with southern VT and MA, colors might be right at peak in 3rd week of October in those areas.

 

I'd say go as soon as you're out of school, late June. Usually things are just getting going, the weather is nice, but not yet potentially oppressive and there are plenty of events going on. I'd advise against fall if hoping for good foliage. Foliage is a crap-shoot...this year we're way behind schedule...we still haven't even seen a frost yet here which is pretty of unheard of. Some years excessive rains can make the foliage crappy. Last year was great for leaf-peepers in our neck of the woods because of a hard freeze in mid-Sept and dry conditions. But you just never know what to expect year in & year out.

I'd agree that Stowe is great jumping off point. Alchemist's new brewery will hopefully be on line by that point (fingers crossed) and the scenery is stunning. Book early and hopefully you can get a great deal.

 

I was in Warren last year for Columbus day last year as well. Also was just there in August for my birthday. Summer is definitely better. Amazing hiking, beautiful weather, all of the beer spots are gonna be there(they're always busy, fyi). Alchemist and Lawson's don't have places to visit at this time(Alchemist maybe next year?) but still a TON of breweries and awesome spots to hit. Stowe Area is a great area to stay. Within an hour of Burlington, 10-15 from Waterbury.

 

Boy now that is planning ahead. Wonder if will we will hear back and find out how the events of 8 months hence turned out.

 

Since early September and In the Burlington area Heady and Lawsons deliveries have been lasting longer. so have the fiddlehead releases.... If beer is your main focus, i would plan the trip for your "spring vacation week"

 

I did the VT beer circuit and some day hikes (Mt Mansfield, Jay Peak & Quechee) in mid June this year and it was gorgeously green as only Vermont does it. You can lead peep a lot of places....

 

My husband and I are in Vermont right now from New Jersey. It's really not crowded at all. We came up Wednesday and spent the day in Waterbury. We went to Blackback for lunch. We loved it there- Amazing food, great beer, and our bartender was excellent. Craft beer cellar had heady and sip of sunshine four packs. We lucked out since SOS was distributed Tuesday, but it was still there. Besides that, they had crooked stave sours and prairie bomb which we don't get at home. We also hit up Ben and Jerry's and cold hollow cider. We stayed at Stowe Mountain Lodge. Doc ponds and the bench had great beers on tap. Stowe gets heady on Fridays. They had plenty of hiking. We are beginners so we did Moss Glenn Falls and Bingham Falls which offered great views while drinking our heady (probably not allowed to do that, but whatever haha). The resort also has a spa for when you want to take a break from the beer. The rooms had a kitchen so if you spent too much on beer and lack money for food (like we did haha) you can make dinner in your room. Hill farmstead was about an hour drive. Foliage is perfect right now, however it depends on so many different factors. They're expecting snow tomorrow too.