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Tags: Fall-Foliage-Map / Fall Foliage Travel / Fall Travel / Outdoor Travel / Amtrak / Train Travel / Vermont Travel / → All Tags

Fall Foliage Travel: Amtrak To True Maple Syrup In Vermont

Live in on the east coast and have a serious craving for some real, true maple syrup on your pancakes before you head out for fall foliage-spotting? There's no other option for such a weekend trip then other than Vermont, with its 50 state parks and late September fall foliage peak.

Actually, the trip to Vermont should be just as packed with red, orange and yellow scenery if you hop on Amtrak's Vermonter, which originates in Washington DC, and goes up through Delaware, New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont almost to the Canadian border.

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Tags: Tubing / Best Tubing Spots / Water Sports / Active Travel / Vermont Travel / → All Tags

Tube The Rivers Of Vermont Before They're Back To Being Frozen

When you think of warm weather, Vermont isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind. However, temperatures this weekend will be in the upper 80s in some places, so it’s fine to put the off the yard work for another week and hit the river. Vermont River Tubing fired up the tubing season in June, and things will run through Labor Day weekend—so you only have a few more weeks to start floating.

Reservations aren’t required, so you can just show up and drop your butt in a tube. It’s only $10 to take a trip down the White River, and you’ll be rewarded with an afternoon of relaxation. If you get lost looking for the place, just ask locals where the Stockbridge Yacht Club is located—they’ll know where you’re talking about.

Things start each day at 10:00, so if you get there around opening you’ll be able to get in a couple trips before the sun starts to set. Lately the river has been doing pretty well, so you don’t have to worry about dragging your lower half along the rocky river bed. Still, wear some old sneakers to protect your tootsies, just in case.

Related Stories:
· Vermont River Tubing [Official Site]
· Seattle's Terrain Is Good For At Least One Thing: Rivers For Tubing [Jaunted]
· Tubing coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of wacky tubers in another location: Evil Erin]

Tags: Vermont Travel / Lakes / Historical Travel / Summer Travel / Festivals / → All Tags

Lake Champlain Turns the Big 4-0-0

It's not every day you turn 400. Heck, it's not every day anything turns 400, but that big birthday is coming up for our old friend Lake Champlain—the Northeast's far quainter answer to the Great Lakes.

Okay well, the lake itself is probably a lot older than 400, but July 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of French explorer Samuel de Champlain’s first sighting of it, and Vermont is going all out for its favorite body of water.

So how exactly do you throw a birthday party for a lake? Vermont has interpreted it as an excuse to celebrate all things aquatic, French, or both. The festivities kick off July 2nd in Burlington with Celebrate Champlain Burlington International Waterfront, a 13-day festival complete with French food, Quebecois artists, and concerts from big names like Tony Bennett and The Roots.

Events coming up in the ensuing months include a boat tour of more than 300 shipwrecks sunk beneath Lake Champlain, a French heritage festival in the tiny town of Vergennes, and tons more historical and education programs throughout the state all year long. For a full list, check out the Celebrate Champlain website.

Related Stories:
· Penguin Plunges Keep Burlington Fit [Jaunted]
· Eat 'n Sleep in Burlington :: Trattoria Delia and Lang House [Jaunted]
· Summer's Swimming Holes [Jaunted]

[Photo: john w]

Tags: 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]

Tags: Healthy Travel / Winter Travel / Skiing / Adventure Sports / Winter Festivals / → All Tags

Penguin Plunges Keep Burlington Fit

Don't know about you all, but we've spent the past week in heavy denial that the holidays are over. It's just so depressing--not only the whole back-to-work thing, but transitioning from two weeks of festive eating and drinking into a time when we're all supposed to be dieting and getting fit. Ugh.

So while we're certainly not about to stop writing about chili half smokes and 22,000-pound cakes, we'll at least make an effort to cover some healthy places too.

So where are these healthy destinations? According to the CDC, Burlington, Vermont is the healthiest city in America. Despite its proximity to the Ben and Jerry's factory, a full 92 percent of Burlingtonians are supposedly in good health. So what are all these hippies doing to stay so healthy, and how can we get in on it?

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Tags: Active Travel / Fall Travel / Bicycling / → All Tags

Active Travel: Biking Through the Fall Colors of Vermont

Bike Vermont, an outfitter in New England that's been around for more than three decades, still has plenty of availability left in October for you to enjoy one last ride before the leaf-covered trees become covered with snow.

Local guides familiar with the area lead all biking tours and you'll be followed by a support vehicle just in case you can't channel your inner Lance Armstrong. You'll stop over at historic country inns and take time to enjoy local specialties for breakfast and dinner to keep you going along the route.

Rates for a three-night trip through the Champlain Islands start at $745, but if you've got more time they have longer options as well. You'll relax on your arrival day, but after that you're looking at about thirty miles as you get underway and then about twenty miles each additional day. If biking in Vermont in the fall is a little too cliché for you, the guides also offer a weeklong biking adventure in Italy for only $2895.

Related Stories:
· Bike Vermont [Official Site]
· Active Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: stop.down]

Tags: Running / Summer Travel / Summer-Vacations-with-an-Edge / Adventure Travel / Videos / → All Tags

Summer Vacation with an Edge: Over Hill, Over Dale

The advent of summer weather may be an inspiration to you to take up a new exercise routine, either to fit into that bathing suit or to get some fresh air. But no novice runner should start with the Green Mountain Relay, a 200-mile race that goes over the hills and through the woods of Vermont.

It's designed for a team, but the high-altitude course, above, is still no slouch, even if you have the maximum competition allowance of 12 runners. (That's still more than a half marathon per person, albeit over two days.)

It's too late to sign up for this year's Green Mountain Rally, but if you hang out in Bennington this weekend cheering on the racers (and buying them pasta dinners), maybe you'll get some tips for 2009?

Related Stories:
· Green Mountain Relay [Official Site]
· Adventure Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Ski-Resorts-in-Summer / Adventure Travel / Summer Travel / Active Travel / Patrick Leahy / President Bush / → All Tags

Ski Areas in Summer: President Bush Not a Fan of Bromley Mountain

Bromley Mountain is having quite the political summer. Vermont's senior senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, snuck a provision into a recent farm bill that would have had the federal government sell some national forest land to the ski resort in his state. But President Bush--or more likely one of his aides--caught the earmark; Bush specifically cited the proposed sale as one reason he vetoed the farm bill.

Congress didn't care for that, and they overrode the veto--only to find out that a paperwork mistake will force a re-vote on the entire thing. So Bush may have yet another chance to stick it to Leahy and Bromley Mountain.

In the meantime, the resort has plenty of summer activities on its current property. A three-track alpine slide is the main draw, but the zip line, "space bikes" and water slide also look pretty decent. If they ever get that extra land from the national forest, who knows what might be added... Maybe a statue of a senator?

Related Stories:
· Bromley Mountain [Official Site]
· Farm Bill Background [NC Mountain Times]
· President Bush's Message on Farm Bill Veto [Official Site]
· Ski Resorts in Summer coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Eat-n-Sleep / Vermont Travel / Italian Food / → All Tags

Eat 'n Sleep in Burlington :: Trattoria Delia and Lang House

Our Eat 'n Sleep feature profiles a restaurant in a random city and a hotel nearby. It's kinda like that old show "Dinner and a Movie" but you know, with restaurant and hotels. And better jokes.

We love Vermont for its cheese, its beer and its hippie ski bums. But turns out it's a great place to go for summer hikes, too. That got us thinking that mountaineers heading out on the trails will be looking for a place to fill their bellies and rest their heads after a long day spent with Mother Nature. And as you'd expect, we know just the place for both.

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Tags: The Simpsons / Vermont Travel / Pilgrimages / Television Travel / MHT / → All Tags

The Simpsons Now Belong To Vermont

Springfield Vermont is the official home of the The Simpsons, sort of. Now that we know where Homer and crew live, time to make a Vermont pilgrimage, to the official home of the first family of cartoons.

The fourteen Springfields of the United States were encouraged to make videos bolstering their Simpsons-worthiness for viewers to vote on online, and the town of 9,000 took first place with its donut-chasing adventure film.

One bitter Illinois resident, displeased with that Springfield's second-place finish, declared that Vermont isn't even a state in retaliation, while another blogger claimed that the real Simpsons hometown would never win such a contest in the first place. People, please, it's a perfectly cromulent prize, so let's embiggen the winning state.

Citizens of all Springfields in the contest will get a sneak peek of the "Simpsons" movie, although Springfield Vermont will host its July 21 premiere. The movie hits theatres nationwide on July 27th. Closest airport to the Simpson's new official home? MHT in Manchester, New Hampshire.

[Photo: MCPLATZ]

Tags: Good Burgers / → All Tags

Adventures of Link: Where To Find A Good Burger In The U.S.

·Shake Shack Meets Corner Bistro on the Sag/Bridge Turnpike [The Beach]
·If Secret Burgers Are Your Thing, Go Here... [HotelChatter]
·In SF, most go gourmet while real folks go to Red's [Barney's/Red's]
·Still Our Favorite Burger In WeHo [Jaunted]
·The Ultimate List Of Favorite Local Burgers [A Hamburger Today]

[Photo: DC Photos of the legendary Al's in Burlington Vermont]

Tags: Tourist Attractions / → All Tags

Geek Love

TurnHere has an interesting video, postulating that Brattleboro, Vermont is a mini San Francisco on the east coast. Supposedly, it's teeming with a heapin' helping of freaks to help round out the comparison.

We found the freaks on display to be lacking a certain freakiness. Unless you count a heavy reliance on a facial hairstyle from the mid-90s to be a prime example of freakiness, which we do not. Other freaks in the video include the shaggy-haired pizza delivery guy and a restaurant owner who broke his foot. Sadly, facial tattoos or flippers are nowhere to be seen.

Brattleboro is a great weekend destination in Vermont, superior to mall-ifed Burlington or too posh Woodstock, but the freak capital of the northeast? We doubt it. It would take a herculean effort to snatch that crown from New York City.