Planning a trip to Burlington, VT
Getting There
Burlington is at the junction of I-89, Route 7, and Route 2. Burlington International Airport (BTV), about 3 miles east of downtown, is served by Continental Express (tel. 800/525-0280; www.continental.com) nonstop from Boston and Newark; Delta Connection (tel. 800/221-1212; www.delta.com) nonstop from Atlanta and Cincinnati; JetBlue (tel. 800/538-2583; www.jetblue.com) daily from New York City, United (tel. 800/241-6522; www.united.com), from Chicago and Washington's Dulles airport, and US Airways Express (tel. 800/428-4322; www.usair.com) from New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington's National airport.
Amtrak's (tel. 800/USA-RAIL; www.amtrak.com) Vermonter service offers daily departures for Burlington from New York, New Haven, Springfield, Massachusetts, and points beyond such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C. It's a pretty cheap ride ($44 one-way from New York at last check) -- but it also takes 9 1/2 hours from New York, longer from most other points.
Vermont Transit Lines (tel. 802/864-6811; www.vermonttransit.com), with a depot at 345 Pine St., has bus connections from Albany, Boston, Hartford, New York's JFK Airport, and other points in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
Visitor Information
The Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, 60 Main St. (tel. 877/686-5253 or 802/863-3489; www.vermont.org), maintains an information center in a stout 1929 brick building just up from the waterfront and a short walk from Church Street Marketplace. Hours are Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm. On Saturday and Sunday, helpful maps and brochures are left in the entryway for visitors. A summer-only information booth is also staffed at the Church Street Marketplace at the corner of Church and Bank streets (no phone).
The free local weekly, Seven Days (www.7dvt.com), carries topical and lifestyle articles, along with a very good weekly listing of local events and happenings.
Special Events
First Night Burlington (tel. 802/863-6005; www.firstnightburlington.com) turns downtown into a stage on New Year's Eve. Hundreds of performers -- from rockers to vaudevillians -- play at nearly three dozen venues (mostly indoors) for 10 hours beginning at 2pm. The evening finishes with a bang at the midnight fireworks. Admission is $20 for adults (or $12 if you purchase before Christmas), $6 for children, and covers all performances.
The Vermont Mozart Festival (tel. 802/862-7352; www.vtmozart.com) takes place in and around Burlington (and farther afield) from mid-July to August. (The festival also has a winter series.) Ticket prices vary considerably. Call for a schedule and information, or check the website.
Orientation
Burlington comprises three distinct areas: the UVM campus atop the hill, the central downtown area flanking the popular Church Street Marketplace, and the waterfront strip along Lake Champlain.
University of Vermont -- Founded in 1791, and funded by a state donation of 29,000 acres of forest land across 120 townships, the university now has grown to accommodate some 8,000 undergraduates and more than a thousand graduate students, plus a few hundred medical students. The campus is set on 400 acres atop a small hill overlooking downtown and Lake Champlain to the west; it also has a glorious view of the Green Mountains to the east. The campus is large, with more than 400 buildings, many of which were designed by noted architects of their day, including H. H. Richardson, and McKim, Mead, and White. (By the way, it's UVM, not UVT; the initials stand for Universitas Virdis Montis, or University of the Green Mountains.) A controversial new student center opened in 2007, dwarfing some of the surrounding buildings with both its size and boxlike design, but it's here to stay. What UVM doesn't have is the usual college neighborhood of beery bars, bagel shops, and bookstores immediately adjacent to campus. Downtown serves that function, 5 blocks away, connected via College Street. In fact, a free daily shuttle that looks like an old-fashioned trolley runs along College Street between the Community Boathouse on the waterfront and the campus, year-round from 11am to 9pm. Use it.
Church Street Marketplace -- Downtown centers on the Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian mall alive with activity throughout the year. This is the place to wander without purpose and watch the crowds; you can always find a cafe or ice-cream shop to rest your feet. While the shopping and grazing is good here, don't overlook the superb historic commercial architecture that graces much of downtown either. A number of side streets radiate from Church Street, with a mix of restaurants, shops, and offices.
The Waterfront -- The waterfront has benefited from a $6-million renovation centered on Union Station at the foot of Main Street. The renovation includes some newly constructed buildings such as the Wing Building, an appealingly quirky structure of brushed steel and other nontraditional materials, blending in with the more rustic parts of the waterfront. Next door is the Cornerstone Building, with a restaurant and offices, offering better views of the lake from its higher vantage point. Nearby, the city's Community Boathouse is an inviting destination on a summer's day . Bear in mind that Burlingtonians accept a fairly liberal definition of the adjective "lakeside." In some cases, it can mean a shop or restaurant 300 feet away.
