Vaughan to Burlington: Vermont's lake city by chauffeured car

Burlington, and the road through Quebec

Burlington is the only Eastern-USA destination on this site reached through Quebec: the 401 to Montreal, Autoroute 15 south past the Montérégie's orchards to the Champlain–Lacolle crossing — the border guide's quietest big-highway booth — and I-87 or Route 2 across the Lake Champlain islands to Vermont's largest city, which is a college town of forty-five thousand on a hill above the lake with the Adirondacks across the water and the Green Mountains behind. Church Street Marketplace, four pedestrian blocks of shops, cafés and street music, is the downtown; the waterfront's Burlington Bike Path, the ECHO science centre and the ferry to New York are the lake; the Ben & Jerry's factory at Waterbury, thirty minutes east, is the tour every Vaughan child asks for; the Shelburne Museum, seven miles south, is thirty-nine buildings and the steamboat Ticonderoga on forty-five acres; Shelburne Farms is the Vanderbilt-Webb estate's working farm and inn; and the University of Vermont on the hill is the Grade 12 visit. It is the base of the Vermont week and the northern road's stop for Boston; the Vermont Vacation site has the state, and Hello Burlington has the city.

The road, through Montreal

From Thornhill the 407 and the 401 east — Kingston at three hours, Cornwall, Autoroute 20 into Montreal's ring at five and a half — the Champlain Bridge and Autoroute 15 south for forty-five minutes to the Lacolle crossing, then I-87 to Route 2 across the Champlain islands (Alburgh, Isle La Motte's Saint Anne's Shrine, North Hero, Grand Isle) and the causeway into Burlington, or I-89 from the Highgate crossing if the chauffeur takes Autoroute 35; eight and a third hours by the estimate and eight and three-quarters with the booth and a Kingston stop. A family that splits it sleeps in Montreal — five and a half hours — and has Burlington by early afternoon; the Sprinter carries a family and a week's bags and the bicycles for the lake path.

Church Street and the waterfront

Church Street Marketplace runs from the Unitarian church of 1816 down four blocks closed to cars — the outdoor cafés, the Burlington Farmers Market on summer Saturdays, the street musicians, the Vermont Teddy Bear and Lake Champlain Chocolates shops, the Outdoor Gear Exchange, the Flynn Center's theatre at the bottom — and it is the family's every evening; the waterfront at the hill's foot has the ECHO Leahy Center's lake aquarium and science exhibits for the children, the Burlington Bike Path's eight miles along the shore to the Colchester causeway's bike ferry, the Spirit of Ethan Allen's lake cruises, the Lake Champlain Transportation ferry to Port Kent, New York, and the sunset over the Adirondacks that the city is built to face. The Hello Burlington site has the calendar.

Ben & Jerry's and Waterbury

The Ben & Jerry's factory on Route 100 at Waterbury runs a thirty-minute guided tour — the film of the two founders' story, the mezzanine over the production line, the Flavor Room's sample of the day's flavour — with the Flavor Graveyard's tombstones for the retired flavours on the hill behind and the scoop shop at the end; the tours are first-come on summer days and the factory's site has the hours. Waterbury's Route 100 is also the Cold Hollow Cider Mill's donuts, the Cabot cheese shop and the Lake Champlain Chocolates factory store — the Vermont food hour — and Stowe is fifteen minutes north.

The Shelburne Museum and Shelburne Farms

The Shelburne Museum is Electra Havemeyer Webb's collection of American folk art and buildings — thirty-nine of them moved to forty-five acres: a lighthouse, a covered bridge, a round barn, a one-room schoolhouse, a jail, a general store, the 220-foot steamboat Ticonderoga hauled two miles overland from the lake in 1955, the carousel, the circus building's miniature parade, and the Webb family's Impressionists in a Greek Revival house — a family's whole day, open May to October with the Pizzagalli Center's galleries year-round. Shelburne Farms next door is the 1886 Vanderbilt-Webb estate on the lake — the children's farmyard with the cows, the cheesemaking, the walking trails, the Inn in the family's mansion for dinner — and the family's second Shelburne morning.

The University of Vermont

UVM's campus on the hill above the downtown — the University Green, the Ira Allen Chapel, the Fleming Museum, the Davis Center — is the Grade 12 visit for a Vaughan student with the public New England universities on the list, with the information session and tour booked on the admissions visit page; the Champlain College campus in the hill's Victorian houses is the second tour, and the SUV does both in a morning with lunch on Church Street.

The week, in shape

Saturday at 7 from Thornhill, Kingston's lunch, Montreal's ring at 1, the Lacolle crossing at 1:50, Route 2's islands, the Hotel Vermont or the Hilton on the waterfront by 4, Church Street's evening; Sunday the waterfront's bike path and ECHO, the sunset cruise; Monday the Shelburne Museum's day; Tuesday Ben & Jerry's and Waterbury's food hour, Stowe's afternoon; Wednesday Shelburne Farms and UVM; Thursday the Champlain islands' drive and Saint Anne's Shrine, or the Port Kent ferry to the Adirondacks' Ausable Chasm and back; Friday the road home — Route 2, the Lacolle crossing at 10:30 with the 48-hour exemption on the cheese and the maple syrup, Montreal, the 401, Thornhill by 6. Six nights, the Sprinter on daily hire with the city days released, one number in the booking engine, and the travel desk holding the hotel.

What the chauffeur replaces

Eight hours each way through two provinces and a state, with Montreal's ring in the middle, as a driver; the Lacolle crossing; the islands' causeway road; the Shelburne and Waterbury days' drives; and the Friday's road home. For a couple the trip is a car's; for a family of five with a Vermont week or two families in a Sprinter it is one fare and a parent who ate the Flavor Room's sample rather than driving Route 100.

Seasons

Late September and the first two weeks of October for the foliage — the Green Mountains from the lake are the state's postcard and the week Vaughan families book most, with the hotels doubled and booked by June; summer for the lake, the bike path, the farmers' market and the Shelburne Museum's full season; winter for Stowe's skiing from a Burlington base and the lake's ice; May for the islands' apple blossom and the museum's opening. The Lacolle crossing's Quebec side in winter is the chauffeur's care.

Pairing it

Burlington pairs with Stowe an hour east as the Vermont week's mountain half, with Montreal as the drive's split, with Lake Placid across the lake by the Port Kent ferry, with Boston three and a half hours southeast by I-89 as the northern road's continuation, and with the White Mountains two and a half hours east.

The foliage week, in order, for a family of five

Saturday's drive with the Sprinter and the Lacolle crossing at 1:50, the Champlain islands' causeway with the lake on both sides and the Adirondacks red across it, the Hotel Vermont by 4, Church Street's Saturday market's last hour; Sunday the Burlington Bike Path on rented bicycles to the causeway and the bike ferry, ECHO's afternoon, the Spirit of Ethan Allen's sunset cruise; Monday the Shelburne Museum from ten to four — the Ticonderoga's decks, the circus parade, the carousel, the lighthouse — and Shelburne Farms' inn for dinner; Tuesday Route 100 south — Waterbury's Ben & Jerry's at 9:30 before the queue, Cold Hollow's cider donuts, the Cabot shop, Stowe's gondola at 1 for the colour from above, the Trapp's Tea Room at 3:30; Wednesday Shelburne Farms' farmyard and UVM's tour; Thursday the Port Kent ferry across the lake and Ausable Chasm's boardwalk; Friday's road home. The foliage week's hotel is the travel desk's June hold.

The Champlain islands and Saint Anne's Shrine

Route 2 from the New York side crosses Lake Champlain on causeways through the Champlain islands — Alburgh, Isle La Motte, North Hero, Grand Isle, South Hero — thirty miles of farms, apple orchards and lake on both sides, with Saint Anne's Shrine on Isle La Motte at the site of Fort Sainte Anne, the first European settlement in Vermont in 1666, its open-air chapel on the lake and its statue of Champlain; the Hero's Welcome general store at North Hero and the Snow Farm winery at South Hero are the stops, and the chauffeur takes Route 2 rather than I-89 for the islands' hour whenever the family has the time. The Champlain Islands' site has the orchards' picking season.

Costs, plainly

The Burlington week is a daily hire in the booking engine with the city days released, or a return with the days out on daily hire; the hotel, the museum, the tours and the ferry are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers the cheese, the maple syrup and the Church Street shops. Against the fare are eight hours each way through Montreal's ring as a driver, the Lacolle crossing and the Shelburne and Waterbury days' drives; a couple does this in a car, and a family of five with a Vermont week or two families in a Sprinter book it for one fare.

The Lake Champlain ferries, and the New York side

Lake Champlain Transportation's ferries cross the lake from Burlington to Port Kent (an hour, summer only), from Grand Isle to Plattsburgh (fifteen minutes, year-round) and from Charlotte to Essex (twenty minutes) — the Sprinter boards with the family for the New York side's Ausable Chasm, Plattsburgh's beach or the Adirondacks' road to Lake Placid, and the crossing itself, with the Adirondacks ahead and the Green Mountains behind, is the hour the children remember; the ferry company's site has the schedules, and a family that arrives by the islands' Route 2 leaves by the Charlotte ferry for the variety.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the week with the city days released, or a return with the days out on daily hire; tell us the hotel, the split, the museum's day, the UVM tour, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the Lacolle crossing, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Burlington week