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Inside the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory Tour

What's better on a rainy fall day in Vermont than a pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream? Nothing, that's what. So last week when we found ourselves up in the Green Mountains, we did a road trip to Waterbury, to the original factory and home of Ben & Jerry's for their production tour. We ate ice cream, we got rained on in the Flavor Graveyard and we spent way too much on souvenirs.

The biggest obstacle to taking the Ben & Jerry's tour is getting up to Waterbury, because believe us—this place is rural and without any nearby public transportation. The options aside from renting a car and road tripping there is to join a group bus tour, and that was definitely the most popular option when we visited. Whole busloads of German, Welsh and Japanese tourists dropped by, in addition to Americans on fall foliage tours.

Once you're up at the factory, it's not long until the ice cream starts flowing. Pay $3 per adult for the tour, or check-in on Foursquare to get the tour for free.

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Best Factory Tours / Best-Factory-Tours-Map / → All Tags

Get the Scoop at Ben & Jerry's Vermont Factory

Become an informed consumer while still on vacation! Check out Jaunted's newest series of the best factory tours the world over.

Summer's on its way and nothing says scorching-hot temperatures like a waffle cone the size of your head. Even if you missed Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day last week, celebrate what's cool at the company factory in Vermont.

Famously begun by two hippies who took a correspondence course on how to make ice cream, Ben and Jerry's is now owned by multinational conglomerate Unilever, but the factory tour retains the tie-dyed kookiness of its founders. After watching the manufacturing process over the factory floor, waddle off to the FlavoRoom for the beloved free samples. When your appetite is whetted, take your cone from the scoop shop and walk to the flavor graveyard out by the parking lot to mourn discontinued flavors like Peanut Butter and Jelly and (irony!) 1987's Economic Crunch.

Tours run every day, every 30 minutes starting at 10AM (9AM in July). $3 gets you on a tour (free to kids 12 and under), but $21 gets you a package including a T-shirt and pint coupon.

Related Stories:
· Factory Tours [BenJerry.com]
· Air Canada Makes It All Better With Cookies and Ice Cream [Jaunted]
· Penguin Plunges Keep Burlington Fit [Jaunted]

[Photo: wenzday01]