Visiting Vermont on a Budget
Vermont packs more free outdoor and walkable-village charm per square mile than almost any state in New England. Burlington fronts Lake Champlain with a free waterfront bike path, Church Street Marketplace, and lake-and-mountain views; the capital at Montpelier offers a free State House and Hubbard Park; and Stowe pairs a free recreation path with waterfalls and Mount Mansfield. The classic villages deliver the rest for little or nothing: Woodstock's green and Mount Tom trails, the Upper Valley's free Quechee Gorge and Norwich science and baking stops, St. Johnsbury's free Athenaeum and Dog Mountain in the Northeast Kingdom, and Shelburne's lakeside farms and trails. Visit late September through mid-October for peak foliage.
Cities in Vermont
Pick a city to see free attractions, cheap activities, and budget travel tips.
Burlington, Vermont
Vermont's largest city sits on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain with the Adirondack Mountains as a backdrop — and nearly all its best experiences are completely free. The 8-mile Burlington Waterfront Bike Path connects to the free Island Line Trail and its 3-mile Colchester Causeway stretching out into the lake. The free Church Street Marketplace anchors the pedestrian downtown, free Battery Park and the Ethan Allen Tower overlook the lake at sunset, and the Pine Street/South End Arts District concentrates studios, galleries, and breweries. The $23 ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain and $15 Ethan Allen Homestead Museum are the marquee paid picks.
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Montpelier, Vermont
Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the US — about 8,000 residents in a walkable New England downtown ringed by forested hills. The free gold-domed Vermont State House sits at the head of State Street and offers free guided tours, the free hilltop Hubbard Park climbs to an observation tower over the city, the free Capital City Farmers Market fills Saturday mornings May through October, and free Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks gives a real sugar bush experience just outside town. The $9 Vermont History Museum next to the State House is the budget marquee; most other Montpelier stops cost nothing at all.
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Stowe, Vermont
Stowe is the iconic Vermont mountain town — a tight white-steepled village at the base of Mount Mansfield, Vermont's tallest peak, with the Long Trail and a stack of free waterfall hikes radiating out in every direction. The free 5.3-mile Stowe Recreation Path winds through the heart of town, free Bingham and Moss Glen Falls hikes are quick and scenic, and the $5 Smugglers' Notch State Park drive over Mt Mansfield is one of the most dramatic free routes in the Northeast. The free Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum and free The Current art center handle culture; the $6 Ben & Jerry's tour in Waterbury is the famous family stop.
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Woodstock, Vermont
Woodstock is the picture-postcard Vermont village — an elegant green ringed by Federal-era homes, covered bridges, and a walkable downtown of independent shops. Much of its best is free or cheap: Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, the only national park to tell the story of conservation, opens 20 miles of carriage roads and trails up Mount Tom at no charge, and Faulkner Park and Mount Peg add more easy summits. The adjacent Billings Farm & Museum is a splurge that brings a Rockefeller-era working dairy to life. Add a covered bridge, a hillside cheese-and-maple farm, and the village green, and a day here barely dents the wallet.
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Quechee, Vermont
Quechee and its Upper Valley neighbors pack an outsized share of Vermont's best free and educational stops into a small radius along the Ottauquechee River. Quechee Gorge — Vermont's deepest, a 165-foot chasm spanned by a Route 4 bridge — is free to view, and trails drop to the river below. The VINS Nature Center brings raptors and a forest canopy walk; Simon Pearce blows glass for free in an old riverside mill. A short hop into Norwich adds the hands-on Montshire Museum of Science, the King Arthur Baking flagship, the village green, and the Gile Mountain fire tower's 360-degree view — most of it free.
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St. Johnsbury, Vermont
St. Johnsbury — 'St. J' — is the capital of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, a handsome Victorian town built on the Fairbanks scale-manufacturing fortune, which also funded two of its free cultural gems. The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium packs natural-history wonders and the state's only public planetarium; the 1871 Athenaeum is a free library and art gallery hung with Hudson River School paintings. Add the joyful, free Dog Mountain and its Dog Chapel, Catamount Arts' galleries, the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, and a walkable downtown, and this is one of the best-value stops in northern Vermont.
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Shelburne, Vermont
Just south of Burlington on Lake Champlain, Shelburne crams several of Vermont's marquee attractions into one town. The Shelburne Museum spreads American art and folk treasures across 39 historic buildings and 45 acres, while Shelburne Farms — a 1,400-acre Vanderbilt-era estate and working farm — opens its walking trails and lake views for free. The Vermont Teddy Bear factory tours run a few dollars (free for kids), and nearby Mount Philo's short climb delivers the classic Champlain Valley panorama. Add lakeside nature parks, a vineyard tasting room, and a walkable village, and Shelburne rewards a budget day out.
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More on Vermont from TravelCheapUS
In-depth budget travel guides from our companion blog that mention Vermont.