Things to Do in Burlington

About Burlington

Burlington smells like pine needles and lake water the moment you step out of the airport — a clean, cold scent that sticks to your wool sweater and tells you you’re somewhere different. This isn’t just Vermont; it’s Vermont’s front porch, a city of 45,000 that feels like a village because half of it is the University of Vermont campus and the other half is trying to remember to lock its doors. The real action happens on a single slope: Church Street Marketplace, a four-block pedestrian mall where buskers play folk guitar year-round and the smell of frying dough from the Myers Bagel Bakery (a plain bagel costs $1.25, about $1.10) mixes with the exhaust from the Number 2 bus. Head downhill past the red brick storefronts and you’ll hit Waterfront Park, where the bike path traces the edge of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains across the water look close enough to touch on a clear afternoon. The catch: this is a small city in a cold climate. From November through March, the lake-effect wind off Champlain slices down Battery Street with a bite that can turn a pleasant stroll into a five-minute ordeal, and most of the good restaurants close by 9 PM. But that’s the trade for a place where a flight of Heady Topper and Sip of Sunshine at Foam Brewers on the waterfront runs about $12 ($10.50), and the view from the breakwater is free.

Travel Tips

Transportation: Burlington is walkable if you’re staying downtown, but the hills are steep. The Green Mountain Transit bus system is reliable and costs $1.50 ($1.30) per ride — download the GMT app for real-time tracking. The real insider move is to rent a bike from Local Motion at the waterfront for about $35 ($30) a day; the Island Line Trail that runs north along the lake is one of the most scenic urban bike paths in the country. Avoid relying on rideshares after 10 PM — driver availability tends to drop off sharply, and you might find yourself waiting 20 minutes for a pickup on a chilly night.

Money: Cash is rarely needed — even the farmers’ market vendors in City Hall Park take Square readers. That said, a surprising number of the best dive bars and food trucks (like the legendary Al’s French Frys on Spear Street) are still cash-only, so keep a $20 handy. Tipping is expected at the standard 15-20%, but service charges aren’t automatically added. For groceries, skip the downtown chains and head to the Burlington Farmers Market on Saturdays or the City Market co-op on South Winooski Avenue, where you’ll pay a bit more but the quality of local produce is noticeably higher.

Cultural Respect: This is a proudly progressive, LGBTQ+-friendly college town where political bumper stickers outnumber license plate frames. Conversations about local agriculture, climate policy, or craft beer are welcomed; unsolicited political debates are not. When hiking in the nearby Green Mountains, follow ‘Leave No Trace’ principles religiously — the trails are maintained by volunteers and see heavy use. In a cafe or pub, it’s considered polite to bus your own table if there’s a clearly marked return station. The pace here is deliberately slow; don’t expect New York City efficiency from service staff, and you’ll have a much better time.

Food Safety: You can drink the tap water — it’s some of the cleanest in the country, sourced from Lake Champlain. The street food scene is limited but trustworthy; the food trucks that park near the waterfront (like Buddy’s Thai Kitchen) have the same health inspection ratings as brick-and-mortar spots. The one thing to be cautious with is the local specialty: raw milk cheeses from nearby farms. They’re incredible — the cloth-bound cheddar from Jasper Hill Farm is worth the detour — but if you’re pregnant or immunocompromised, stick to the pasteurized versions. At a restaurant, ordering the lake fish (walleye, perch) is almost always a safe and stellar bet.

When to Visit

Burlington’s personality changes completely with the seasons, and your ideal month depends entirely on your tolerance for cold. For perfect weather, aim for late September through mid-October. The summer crowds have thinned, temperatures sit at a crisp 15-20°C (60-68°F), and the foliage turning the surrounding hills into a patchwork of orange and red is genuinely worth the hype — though hotel prices are at their annual peak, often 50% higher than winter rates. July and August bring the city to life with festivals like the Vermont Brewers Festival in July and the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival in August, but you’ll be sharing the waterfront path with every other tourist in New England, and accommodation books up months in advance. Winter, from December to March, is for the committed. Temperatures frequently drop below -10°C (14°F), and the wind chill off the frozen lake can be brutal. But this is when you’ll find flight and hotel deals — sometimes 40% off summer rates — and have the ski slopes at Bolton Valley or Stowe (a 45-minute drive) largely to yourself on a weekday. The muddy shoulder seasons of April and November are the real off-season; many seasonal businesses close, and the landscape can look bleak, but you’ll have the town almost to yourself. If you’re coming for the food and beer scene, any time outside of a major university break (like early January) works just fine.