Vermont clearly is my go-to backyard road trip destination outside of my own backyard(s) of Massachusetts and Connecticut. For all the times visiting Stowe, Norwich, or Woodstock I had yet to make it to St. Albans. This all changed recently, so we will explore what to do in St. Albans, Vermont.
For this St. Albans-style backyard road trip, we are heading downtown, enjoying a coffee, browsing a bookstore, sipping a flight at a brewery, and then it’s off to ice cream for dessert.
St. Albans City
St. Albans is an interesting place, comprising both a city and a town. Although I do not quite fully understand the geopolitical structure of it, where we are heading first is the city of St. Albans. It’s basically that the town fully surrounds the downtown city. St. Albans was built around the railroad which at its peak had roughly 200 trains pass through daily! The architecture on the wide Main Street is stunning, with storefronts that are once again populated with restaurants, boutiques, and businesses.
Across from the brick facades is Taylor Park, a lovely city park with a fountain and plenty of benches. On the park’s west side are stately buildings including churches and the St. Albans Museum.
We spent a while in Taylor Park, sipping coffee from The Traveled Cup, perusing the kitchen and gift store As the Crow Flies, and purchasing a few books (and packs of Pokemon cards) at The Eloquent Page.
St. Albans Municipality?
St. Albans has so much to do for recreation areas including Hard’Ack Recreation Area and Kill Kare State Park. It also has breweries and restaurants such as 14th Star Brewing and The Drake. With only one afternoon in the city/town (municipality?) we chose lunch and brews at Mill River Brewing, BBQ and Smokehouse. For this cool spot, with indoor and outdoor seating options, we chose outside. We split wings and brisket along with a flight of beer. All were enjoyable, but we saved room for dessert.
An Ice Cream in Town
Finally, we made it to St. Albans, the town! Saint Albans Bay is part of the much larger Lake Champlain. At the water’s edge, we didn’t see Champ the Lake Monster but we did have an excellent creemee. This is an ice cream window at a gas station! But it’s ever so popular; expect the line to be many people deep. The creemee was delish as we enjoyed it at the waterside park across the street.
To answer the question, of what to do in St. Albans, the answer is a lot! From coffee shops to breweries, ice cream to shopping, there is much to do in St. Albans city and town!
