Today we’re giving you the rundown of our top family-friendly picks for Stowe and Woodstock, Vermont. Earlier this month, I took an amazing trip to the east coast where we started in Portland, Maine and slowly made our way to Stowe, the most picture-perfect fall destination. Stowe served as our home base as we made day trips to other local hotspots including the stunningly beautiful Woodstock, VT and neighboring Waterbury. Here are my suggestions for anyone traveling there soon.

DO:

Stowe Recreation Path: A 5.3 mile path that weaves throughout Stowe, this is an absolute must-see if you’re in Stowe. It’s really the perfect activity for anyone, but especially great if you have kids. There are multiple access points throughout town so we visited different sections of the trail every day during our stay. There are bridges and rivers to cross, fields to walk by and obviously plenty of leaves and other nature treasures to keep kids fascinated.

Walk around downtown Stowe: The downtown area is teeny but filled with great little shops. Tip – make sure to visit the photo booth in the basement of Shaw’s General Store to properly memorialize your trip.

Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour: Is it touristy? Yes. It is cheesy? Yeah, sort of. Do I recommended? HECK YEAH! Go through a 20-ish minute tour, learn how ice cream is made and then get samples. My two year-old loved the tour and the best part was discovering the giant playground on the factory grounds. After we feasted on ice cream we hung out at the playground for quite some time and even saw in the distance there is a “flavor graveyard” that looked fun.

Explore downtown Waterbury: After our Ben & Jerry’s town we ventured over to Waterbury for a fun lunch and a little exploring. This is another cute little downtown with an amazing Bridgeside Bookstore.

Cold Hollow Cider Mill – Check out the cider mill when you’re passing by and make sure to buy some doughnuts and drink cider outside on the porch. A perfect bite-sized activity that ends in treats and any tchotchkes that you might need.

Visit (or stay) in Woodstock – It’s only an hour-ish drive from Stowe and it has a totally charming downtown complete with covered bridges and a town square! Several years ago we stayed at The Woodstock Inn and absolutely loved it. This year we took a dayt rip out that way and revisited the Billing’s Farm with little one in tow. She loved walking around the farm, seeing the animals and generally sitting down in rolling fields with giant pumpkins. Afterwards we hit up downtown, had a delicious meal at the café and then of course made a stop in the bookstore.

EAT:

The Bench - This recommendation is really for the atmosphere and the major family-friendliness. You might not remember this meal for the rest of your days but it’s a very easy place to eat with kids or large groups and they have plenty of gluten free options.

Plate – This was our favorite meal of the trip. The food is delicious, the restaurant is chic (and right on the main stretch downtown) and they brought Magna Tiles to our table for my daughter to play with. I was so blown away when they delivered a big bucket of tiles that it made me love this place even more than I already did.

Green Goddess Café – This cute little café is on the far end of town and it’s the perfect spot for a quick order at the counter type meal. They have tons of super healthy options (soups, salads, sandwiches, etc.) and a lovely, chill vibe.

Idletyme Brewing Company – We took a long scenic drive around Stowe (using this amazing guide) and ended up at Idletyme. We were there on a beautiful, unseasonably warm afternoon so we took advantage of the massive outdoor space to dine and drink (and make sure you get the massive beer tasting flight for the whole table to share). After we finished our meal we made our way down to the lower patio where there is a little veggie garden, hula-hoops for the kids (or drunk adults lol) to play with, corn hole games and the cutest little bike parking section for people who arrive by bike from the local recreation path.