If you’re looking for a Fall adventure then you came to the right place! It’s a bit of a crazy adventure I must admit, but so worth while! I have so much content on this trip that I will divide it up into sections. This article will be more of a guide while the others will concentrate on the places that we stopped by and visited.
A beautiful view of the fall foliage from Route 100, Vermont down to Catskill, New York here
A guide on Route 100 in Vermont here
Autumn, in my opinion, is the most beautiful time of the year. It’s the years last pop of color! All the vibrant reds, yellows and oranges…are breath taking! Although the leaves are technically dying, I feel as though the trees are at their most beautiful. My favorite quote says, “the trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go”. Dang, did you feel that in your heart? I think my love for the Fall season goes into a spiritual level..it goes beyond the cozy sweaters and pumpkin spice lattes..But anyway, enough about my love for the season, let’s get down to business! My point is, is that Autumn is the best and you need to take a Fall Foliage trip when you can! In this article I will talk about pre planning, expenses, hotels, the actual trip and lessons learned.
PLANNING
You can’t really plan a fall foliage trip down to the T because it’s not a “place” you visit. But I’ll give you some pointers.
You have to make sure the timing is right because leaves turn very quickly, especially if you’re on Long Island and you’re going up the east coast. You have to go during “peak” times. There are a few fall foliage forecast sites that we used to help us. We traveled on October 13th, if that helps. By late October, it’s already over.
Next, decide what your game plan is. Our game plan was to go all the way up to Vermont and then drive back down to the Catskills area and then the Albany, NY area. After you decide that, pick a route you would like to follow. We chose to follow Route 100 in Vermont, which by the way is one of the most beautiful fall foliage scenic drives on the east coast. Just an FYI, Route 100 starts at Stamford, Vermont. So what we did to get there is put directions to Stamford, Vermont on our phone. We passed by Connecticut and Massachusetts, by the way.
There’s so many to choose from in so many different states, you just have to know where you want to end up. Once you figure that out, it gets a bit easier, just a bit. We searched and searched a million times for places to stop by and visit. Every time we found a cool spot online, we would find another and another and another…it got very overwhelming! It was so hard to choose which places were important to visit. But we did it, and I believe you can too! Just prepare yourself for a lot of googling, instagram-ing and telling each other “ooh what about this place?!”
Now that you know where you want to go and which route you want to take, it’s time to research a little bit harder. Like I said earlier, it took a lot of searching to find out what was on Route 100 going up to Vermont and different cool spots in the Catskills and Albany area. This is the part where you have to be a little bit flexible. Although we did find some cool spots to pinpoint on our virtual map, most of the places we stopped at where spontaneous.
*Please check ahead of time when places will open and close, this is important*
*Pack lots of snacks because the ride is long!*
*Check the weather before hand so you know what to pack*
These were the places we jotted down for Vermont:
- Ben And Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory
- Buttermilk Falls in Okemo State Forest
These were the places we jotted down for Catskills:
- Hunter Mountain Skyride
- Peekamoose Blue Hole
These were the places we jotted down for Albany:
- Life Church
You see how little places we pinpointed? That’s because the drive IS the point of the trip. Seeing the trees, the mountains and overall nature IS what makes the Fall Foliage trip, visiting the places along the way is just the bonus.
We decided to take 3 days for this trip, we left to Vermont Friday morning around 7:30 AM and got back home to Long Island from Albany Sunday night around 10 PM. So obviously plan time accordingly.
THE ACTUAL TRIP
Okay so here’s my favorite part to talk about; the actual trip! A lot of this was completely spontaneous and just things we saw along the way. It made the trip really fun and easy because we weren’t really on a time limit.
Here are the places we stopped at and visited on Route 100 in Vermont in order:
FRIDAY
Abandoned Barn in Ghent NY (I don’t advise going here but this was just a fun little spot to take pictures at. There’s no real address though)
West Branch Deerfield River in Readsboro, Vermont
Sadawga Lake in Whitingham, Vermont
Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury, Vermont
Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, Vermont
Blackback Pub in Waterbury, Vermont (Dinner)
All of that was done in one day! One thing to mention here though is that the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory has a tour around the factory but we couldn’t do it because we arrived too late! But I still got some yummy ice cream and it was so delicious just like I expected! Make sure you plan time accordingly for this one though!
You can view more photos here
SATURDAY
Buttermilk Falls in Okemo State Forest
Hunter Mountain in Hunter, NY
Buttermilk Falls in Peekamoose Area
Ama Cocina in Albany, NY (Dinner)
You can view more photos here
SUNDAY
Life Church in Albany
New York State Capital in Albany, NY
Washington Park in Albany, NY
EXPENSES
I’m proud to say for this 3 day trip we really didn’t break the bank. We were driving in a great car that didn’t take to much gas, just FYI. And we stocked up on snacks and water so that we wouldn’t spend on eating out on the road 3 times a day. I was in the car with 2 other people, so we split things in half since 1 of them was my brother. Here’s a rough look at our expenses just to give you an idea.
Gas: We filled the tank 4 times through out the 3 days, coming to a total of $95.22 which we split between us so I really just paid $47
Hotel: We stayed at 2 hotels, approximately $150 for just me and my brothers half.
Toll: Around $15
Food: This includes snacks bought from Trader Joes, 3 fast food stops, 2 restaurants, 1 Starbucks stop, Cold Hollow Cider Mill stop, coming to a rough total of +$160 (please note this total is for 2 people, I was with my brother)
This is all a rough estimate, just wanted to give you an idea! 🙂
I really hope you found this guide helpful! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments down below!
xoxo
I’ve made a fun road trip playlist for you so you have one less thing to worry about!
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