# A Vermont Fall Foliage Road Trip for Two > Three Vermont days for two: sunset on Lake Champlain, the hairpins of Smugglers' Notch, and an unplanned day down Route 100's Mad River Valley. Canonical: https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/burlington-vt/fall-foliage-road-trip HTML: https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/burlington-vt/fall-foliage-road-trip - City: Burlington, VT - Trip: Foliage road trip · 3 days · 6 stops - Audience: couples - Season: Peak color late Sept-mid Oct - Last reviewed: 2026-09-24 - Plan this trip: https://wonderkit.app/start?city=Burlington&source=premade_trip&vibe=romantic&wk_src=itin-burlington-vt-fall-foliage-road-trip&itinerary=burlington-vt%2Ffall-foliage-road-trip&wk_cta=markdown ![A Vermont Fall Foliage Road Trip for Two](https://wonderkit.app/og-heroes/burlington-vt/fall-foliage-road-trip.89dba5a8.jpg) Leave Lake Champlain after breakfast and by lunch you can be a week deeper into autumn. Vermont colors from the top down: Smugglers' Notch and the slopes around Stowe usually turn in the last week of September, while Burlington and the Champlain Valley follow a week or two behind. This loop spends that gap well, with a night on the lake, a night in Stowe, and the roads between them as the real destination. Good to know: Vermont 108 through Smugglers' Notch is a tight mountain pass that closes for winter every year, usually in November and sometimes in its first week, so check road status before you build a day around it. ## How to use this plan Read Vermont's weekly state foliage report a few days before you drive, and book Stowe and Burlington rooms early for the first two weekends of October; both fill fast. ## Day 1 — Burlington and the Lake Champlain waterfront ### Anchor: Church Street Marketplace *Church Street, then the waterfront* Ease in with the lake. Church Street Marketplace is four pedestrian blocks of shops and cafés running between the university and the water, and from its south end it's a ten-minute walk to the Burlington Bike Path, with the Adirondacks lined up across Lake Champlain. Stay for sunset over the lake and the mountains beyond it; that is the reason to spend this evening by the water. To see it from a deck, Whistling Man Schooner Company sails from the Burlington Boathouse into October, weather permitting. ### Backup: Shelburne Museum A gloriously odd rainy-day swap a few miles south: 39 historic buildings, a beached steamboat, a round barn and a lighthouse among them, gathered onto one property as a folk-art and Americana museum. Several buildings keep seasonal hours, so check your date; the grounds carry a gray afternoon on their own. ### Eat & rest Church Street has Burlington's easiest run of dinners, casual to sit-down, all minutes apart. Or eat near the Boathouse, where a few waterfront restaurants catch the last light over the lake. *Downtown hotels put Church Street and the lake on foot. Flying in, the airport is 15 minutes away; Boston is 3–4 hours by car. Half a day.* Day reference: 1 ## Day 2 — Route 100 to Stowe, and Smugglers’ Notch ### Anchor: Smugglers' Notch State Park *Drive Smugglers' Notch* This is the drive you came for. Route 108 squeezes out of Stowe between Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak, rock walls close enough to touch from a pullout, and drops into Jeffersonville about 20 minutes later. That's without stopping, and you will stop: for roadside waterfalls, rock formations and short trails to caves smugglers really used in the 1800s. Up here the color often runs a week ahead of Stowe. The road is narrow and hairpinned and not for RVs or trailers, so take it slowly and pull over only at the pullouts. ### Backup: Stowe Mountain Resort Gondola SkyRide *The Stowe gondola instead* All the height, none of the hairpins. The Gondola SkyRide at Stowe Mountain Resort lifts you to the shoulder of Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak, with the whole valley spread below. It runs through mid-October, typically 10am to 4:30pm; check stowe.com for the season's last day before you count on it as your Notch-closed plan. ### Eat & rest Stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill on Route 100 for fresh-pressed cider and cider donuts; it opens daily, year-round. Ben & Jerry's Factory, a few minutes on, runs fall tours until about 5pm, with tickets released only about two weeks ahead. Stowe village has dinner within a walk of most lodging. *Burlington to Stowe is about 40 minutes. Fill the tank before the Notch, because there is no gas on the pass. A full day with stops.* Day reference: 2 ## Day 3 — The Route 100 valley south, at your own pace ### Anchor: Route 100 Scenic Byway *Drive south on Route 100* Today has no plan, on purpose. Follow Route 100 south from Waterbury through Waitsfield and Warren, the Mad River Valley, one of the least rushed stretches of Vermont's classic north–south foliage road. Covered bridges, farm stands and mountain views keep opening at the bends; pull off wherever looks good, and give Waitsfield's historic covered bridges a short detour. Save the drive back north for late afternoon, when low sun comes down the valley and gives you the best light of the trip. ### Backup: Shelburne Farms Stay close to Burlington and walk instead of drive. Shelburne Farms, a working farm and National Historic Landmark on Lake Champlain, has about 10 miles of trails through meadow, forest and lakeshore. Trails are generally open dawn to dusk through mid-October; the welcome center and farm store keep shorter off-season hours. ### Eat & rest Lunch at the Warren Store, a classic Vermont country store with a deli counter, or at one of Waitsfield's general stores. Save the last dinner for Burlington or Stowe. *An hour each way between Waterbury and Warren is enough to see the valley without overdoing it. Half a day or a whole one.* Day reference: 3 ## Rainy-day backups October in Vermont changes its mind often. When it turns against you: - Shelburne Museum \(Day 1\) or the indoor Ben & Jerry’s Factory tour in Waterbury \(Day 2\). - Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, built by the real von Trapp family, with a bakery and mountain views to wait out a shower. ## Timing a Vermont foliage trip - Color usually reaches the Northeast Kingdom and high ground around Smugglers’ Notch and Mount Mansfield in the last week of September, Stowe and Waterbury in early October, and the Champlain Valley by the second week. - Columbus Day weekend is the busiest of the season for rooms and Route 100 traffic. Weekdays, or a week either side, are noticeably calmer. - Decide together which night is Stowe and which day is the Notch; the lake evening and the Route 100 wander are the parts you get to improvise. ## Plan this trip with your group [Start from this plan in WonderKit](https://wonderkit.app/start?city=Burlington&source=premade_trip&vibe=romantic&wk_src=itin-burlington-vt-fall-foliage-road-trip&itinerary=burlington-vt%2Ffall-foliage-road-trip&wk_cta=markdown): invite your group with one link, everyone votes on what stays, and the plan is rebuilt around your dates in about a minute. Free to start; a person completes it in the web app. ## Keep exploring - [What's on now in Burlington](https://wonderkit.app/discover/burlington-vt/couples) - Part of: [Fall foliage trips](https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/c/fall-foliage) - [New Hampshire fall foliage road trip](https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/north-conway-nh/fall-foliage-road-trip) - [Maine fall foliage road trip](https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/portland-me/fall-foliage-road-trip) - [A fall weekend in the Berkshires for couples](https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/lenox-ma/fall-weekend-for-couples) - [All Burlington itineraries](https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/burlington-vt) Every place on this page is verified — [how we check](https://wonderkit.app/itineraries/how-we-verify) --- Content from WonderKit public guides. Trip planning accounts are human-only at https://wonderkit.app.