A Storybook Fall Road Trip- Our Time in Vermont and New Hampshire

Our family is attempting to travel to all 50 states through creative road trips. We prefer to choose a route which may have several destination stops throughout the trip. This often results in spending a short amount of time in one city. We love to get the flavor of the place that we are visiting by experiencing dining experiences, seeing a well-known icon from that area or simply experiencing the understated charm of that particular area.

This post shares about our time in Vermont and North Hampshire during our New England fall road trip. We loved our time in the New England states and the fall foliage in Vermont and New Hampshire was amazing! We traveled at the beginning of October and we were so happy to hit the peak colors on the trees.

All of the details of our New England Road Trip can be found at 50 State Journey- The Ultimate New England Fall Road Trip.

This trip began with a flight from Indianapolis to Burlington, VT. We arrived early in the morning. Our first stop was to get our rental car. We had arranged for this in advance; however, the van that we had requested was not available. We were given a Chevy Suburban. We loaded up the Suburban and decided to find some brunch in Burlington. We chose to check out The Friendly Toast which we had heard was great. We put our name in, but there was quite a wait so we spent some time exploring Burlington. We explored the Church Street Marketplace and then returned to the Friendly Toast. Breakfast was delightful and gave us a chance to try authentic Vermont maple syrup. I would highly recommend this restaurant as the food was great and it had such a fun vibe. At breakfast, we discussed that the Chevy Suburban was a bit more of a vehicle than we were expecting. I am a minivan driver, but the Suburban seemed very large. Since we had so much driving ahead of us on this trip (including downtown Boston driving), we decided to see if we could do a trade. We ventured back to the rental car location at the airport and we were now able to make a trade for a smaller SUV (a Ford Escape.) This ended up being a great choice for us. We had plenty of room and we were easily able to navigate all the new-to-us roads.

After getting everything straightened out, we were back on the road. We wanted to make a stop in Stowe, Vermont. We chose to take the scenic route which took us through Smuggler's Notch. We made some fun stops along the way. We stopped at the Vermont Maple Outlet in Jeffersonville, VT for maple creemees. Maple creemees are basically a magical soft serve ice cream mixed with local maple syrup. These were delightful! The foliage was amazing, but maple creemees may have been my girls' favorite part of Vermont. Make sure you stop for one! We arrived in Stowe, but we actually enjoyed the sights that we had already seen more than downtown Stowe. Stowe was very packed with tourist traffic and the iconic white steeple was under construction. We enjoyed seeing the town, but preferred the less-crowded areas.

After checking out Stowe, we headed on into New Hampshire.. On the way, we stopped in Littleton, NH. It is a very quaint small town. In fact, they were having a fire truck parade on the evening that we were there. There were long waits at all the restaurants in town due to the festivities. We were exhausted and ended up grabbing dinner at 99 Restaurants for a quick dinner. We had plans to stay at the Best Western White Mountain Inn in Franconia. We had dinner and then headed to the hotel as this had been a very long day since arriving at the airport at 3 AM. The stay at the Best Western was great and it felt like this inn was tucked into the beautiful scenery.

The next morning, we fueled ourselves with breakfast at the Best Western and then headed out to explore Cannon Mountain. We rode the tram to the top. There was actually quite a bit of fog that morning, but it gave the experience a very eery, but unique feeling. It was very fun to see all the beautiful colors on the way up which then changed to pine trees at the top. We bundled up and explored the top of the mountain. We completed the rim trail, checked out the observation tower and had some hot chocolate. After exploring, we took the tram back down.

After seeing Cannon Mountain, we traveled on to the White Mountain Visitor's Center in North Woodstock, New Hampshire. I had hopes of seeing a moose while in New Hampshire, but this stuffed one at the visitor's center is all I found.

We traveled along the Kancamagus Highway, and we loved exploring the White Mountains. So many fun picture opportunities.

After we traveled the Kancamagus Highway, we made a quick stop at Sweet Maple Cafe in Conway to refuel . This was an adorable coffee shop/ bakery. This definitely gave us Gilmore Girl vibes!

From Conway, we traveled on to Maine. Our destination was the Colonial Inn in Maine.

All of the details of our time in Maine can be found at Coastal Maine- Lighthouses, Seafood and Scenic Views.

All of the details of our New England Road Trip can be found at 50 State Journey- The Ultimate New England Fall Road Trip.

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