Christmas in Vermont

Estimated Tour Pricing Inclusions: Roundtrip transportation, 4 nights’ accommodation, 4 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners, admissions, entrance, and guide fees as stated in the itinerary, including taxes, and gratuity (excluding gratuity for guides and driver, unless requested).

• Yankee Candle Flagship Store
• Robert Frost Stone House & Museum
• Merck's Forest and Farmhouse Center
• Shelburne Farms
• Vermont Teddy Bear Factory
• Country Christmas Loft
• Church Street Marketplace
• Trapp Family Lodge
• Von Trapp History Tour
• Von Trapp Brewing Tour
• Hayride through Stowe Village
• Laughing Moon Chocolates
• Cold Hollow Cider
• Ben & Jerry's Factory
• Vermont State House
• Danforth Metal Flagship Store
• Vermont Country Store

• The tour starts in Deerfield, MA.
• Visit the Yankee Candle Flagship Store. See a Yankee Candle Demonstration. The store is decked out for Christmas with Santa's Workshop, model trains chugging through the store, a 25-foot tall Christmas tree, and a 6-foot tall nutcracker. Optional at additional cost: Dip your own Christmas Candle.
• Depart with a boxed lunch.
• Explore the Robert Frost Stone House & Museum. The Robert Frost Stone House Museum is a literary landmark located only minutes away from Frost's gravesite in Old Bennington. Frost resided in the house from 1920 to 1929, during which time he composed many of the pieces that became part of New Hampshire, his first Pulitzer Prize winning volume which included "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Frost wrote the poem on a hot June morning in 1922 at the dining room table. The entire room is devoted to this American classic.
• Arrive at Merck's Forest and Farmhouse Center. Make your own Christmas ornament to take home with you. A great souvenir or gift!
• Depart for Shelburne, Vermont.
• Enjoy dinner included at a local restaurant.
• Check in to your hotel.

• Prior to checking out, enjoy breakfast at your hotel.
• Visit Shelburne Farms. Attend a cheese-making demonstration and class and take a horse drawn sleigh ride through the snow (weather and conditions permitting). While visiting, enjoy an included farm to table lunch.
• Tour the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. You’ll take a tour of the factory, with one of the Bear Ambassadors who will guide you through a fun, informative tour where you’ll watch a small group of craftspeople creating Bears by hand, one-by-one. You’ll even see the Bear Hospital, where you'll get to meet the Bear Doctor, Dr. Nancy. If your Bear ever needs repair, Dr. Nancy will take care of everything.
• Explore the Country Christmas Loft. Shop the 14 Rooms, each with a theme ranging from Nutcrackers, Lighting, and Toys to Villages and more. All these rooms surround a 2000 Square Foot Walking Village. Peek in the windows of the village and see the Barbershop and Bakery in action. Each building is a replica of a Historic New England Shop or Church.
• Shop at and discover Church Street Marketplace. The Marketplace feels like a scene of your favorite Hallmark movie during the holidays! All month long the street is full of holiday cheer with street-wide decorations including the 30+ foot Christmas tree, children's games, visits with Santa, and holiday sales. Time to shop over 100 stores.
• Have dinner on your own at the Marketplace.
• Arrive at the Trapp Family Lodge. Check in and enjoy a hot chocolate and cookie reception. In the early 1940s, the von Trapp family toured the United States as the Trapp Family Singers before eventually settling in Stowe, Vermont, on an enchanted farm with sweeping mountain vistas reminiscent of their beloved Austria.  

• Enjoy breakfast at the lodge.
• Take the Von Trapp History Tour. This hour and a half experience gives you insight to the truth's and imagined story lines in the Sound of Music and gives you an in depth look at how the von Trapps escaped Austria and ended up in beautiful Stowe, Vermont. Watch a 20-minute documentary about Maria's last trip to Salzburg and if you are lucky, you will even get to meet a family member and hear what their experience was like growing up with Maria.
• Visit the Trapp Family Lodge Sugarhouse and take the Maple Sugar Tour. Every March, when the days become longer and warmer, the process of maple sugaring starts.  At the Trapp Family Lodge, they still sugar the "old-fashioned" way, using buckets to collect sap. Then, they boil the sap down to syrup in the sugarhouse in a very large, wood-fired evaporator. The sap and the sugaring process are completely organic; they do not use any chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides. The Maple Sugar Tour is a casual, 1-mile hike around the property where you learn about the process and enjoy a tasty maple treat. (Weather permitting).
• Enjoy lunch at the Lodge Lounge.
• Take the Von Trapp Brewing Tour. Johannes von Trapp wondered why lagers were so under-represented in the states. Discover how his dream for Austrian-inspired crisp, clean, traditional lagers came to life in a world of IPA’s right here on our 2,600-acre property. Learn the process and taste the result.
• Enjoy free time to explore the Lodge and all it has to offer during the holidays. There will be a holiday bazaar, a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus, live music, ornament, and cookie decorating, and shopping.
• Enjoy dinner in the Lodge Dining Room.
• Take part in a gift exchange over desert. Everyone brings a wrapped gift for a man or woman with a value of $10.  There will be an exchange of gifts at the table during desert.
• Return to your room to get ready for the evening.
• Depart for a hayride through Stowe Village.
• Return to the Lodge.

• Enjoy breakfast at the lodge before checking out.
• Visit Laughing Moon Chocolates. See a Candy Cane Making Demonstration.  Laughing Moon Chocolates’ Homemade Candy Cane demonstrations have become a holiday tradition. The public is invited to watch as candy makers boil, pull, turn, roll, and twist these special Candy Canes into works of art which are both beautiful and delicious.
• Enjoy a self-guided tour at Cold Hollow Cider. Everybody has a little Vermonter in them. Independent. Capable. Authentic. When you visit this working cider mill, you will find your inner Vermonter. Your self-guided tour offers an engaging rural experience that is unrushed. Come learn how apples, bees, maple trees, and Vermont all get along well together,  Time to shop and taste some hot cider before your are on your way.
• Tour Ben & Jerry's Factory. The guided portion of your Factory Experience will lead you to a short MOO-vie viewing of the company’s history followed by an explanation of how they make their pints, all the while overlooking the production room floor and enjoying a sample of chunks. The tour ends in the Flavor Room with a tasting of one of their euphoric flavors and a cow joke, or two!
• Arrive Montpelier, the capital of Vermont. Enjoy free time to have lunch on your own and shop in the downtown area.
• Visit the Vermont State House. The Vermont State House is one of the oldest and best preserved of our nation's state capitols. After nearly 160 years it remains an icon in Montpelier, the smallest capital city in America. Its House and Senate chambers are the oldest active legislative halls in the United States that have preserved their original interiors.
• Visit the Danforth Metal Flagship Store. When you visit the Flagship store, you get a one-on-one experience to see and learn how their products are made. They have large viewing windows to observe the artists at work. One window looks into the workshop to view ladles of hot melted pewter being poured into molds. On the opposite side of the workshop, visitors get to see pewter discs being spun, on a 100-year-old lathe, to become oil lamps, drinkware, and bowls. You can even ask to purchase the items that you are watching being made at that very moment! A truly unique experience. The Danforth history wall shows the Danforth Family tree, going back to the 1700's with the Connecticut Branch of Danforths. You will also see some antique pewter pieces from the Danforth family. Danforth also held the exclusive license from Disney to create classic Winnie-the-Pooh products in pewter, as well as licenses for Dr. Seuss and Beatrix Potter. Some of these items are still on display in the workshop store. Take a home a souvenir ornament.
• Check-in to your hotel.
• Enjoy a farewell dinner.
• Join a group for caroling with keepsake songbooks.

• Prior to checking out, enjoy breakfast at your hotel.
• Explore Vermont Country Store. In 1946, Vrest and Mildred Ellen Orton opened The Vermont Country Store in the quaint village of Weston, Vermont. Vrest was inspired by childhood memories of his father's general store in North Calais, Vermont. The Weston store became the first restored rural general store in the nation. Vrest Orton said: "I can still recall my father's store, where most of the men came in the evenings to wait for the horse-drawn stage that brought the mail from Montpelier, 13 miles away."
• Depart for home.

*Base rate does not include motor coach transportation, airfare, airport transfers, driver gratuity, guide gratuity, (student groups exempt) or any upgrades or add-ons unlisted from itinerary as stated. Pricing may vary based on day of arrival or other conditions. Personalized itineraries with custom pricing and/or additional transportation can be created and added based on client needs and upon client’s request. MARS will customize quotes or personalize itineraries for FREE.