The 1824 built Airbnb house pictured above (with Murray and the girls in the foreground setting out for a day exploring), is where we stayed in Chester, Vermont. Such a classic American beauty! I’ve always wanted to stay in a grand house like this (and yes, we had it all to ourselves). One of the highlights of the house was playing hide and seek with the kids. The house had a basement (very foreign to us in Australia), and two separate attics accessed through trapdoors and hidden staircases. Something I’ve only ever read about in Famous Five novels!
Airbnb is often a good option for our larger family, being more affordable than the two motel or hotel rooms we usually need. This was definitely the case when we were travelling in Europe, but not so much in the States as their rules allowed for us all to bunk down in the one cheap motel room (usually including breakfast). The rooms usually had two double beds and a pull out sofa bed for us all to share. We just got away with this due to the ages of our children at the time, but as they grow older, it won’t be quite as feasible. Another great thing about Airbnb is that apart from the space to spread out, and the chance to cook for yourself, it enables you to experience living like a local.
By the time we got to Chester we were a little road weary after covering some big distances in a relatively short period of time. We made the decision to park up the car and spend the day relaxing by watching a movie at the house and by exploring the cute little town of Chester on foot. There was some amazing architecture (as pictured above) to gawk at. Walking downtown from our house was a lot of fun, however our outing coincided with torrential rain. In spite of that, we were undeterred and walked about for half a day becoming completely drenched. Water was sloshing out of our shoes with every step! I’m sure the locals thought we were kind of mad and the shopkeepers probably didn’t appreciate the little puddles we left on their floors. It took several days to dry out all our shoes afterwards and I did have a niggling thought that maybe I was an irresponsible parent when my seven year old was splashed by a passing truck and fell over in a huge puddle as we were running along the pavement! Nevertheless we continued!
We found a great little “made from scratch” restaurant downtown and had a lovely lunch. The owner was kind enough to gift us with some jars of produce made by local farmers that we were able to bring home as souvenirs. There was a huge antique mall (with very reasonable prices) to browse through, as well as a pie shop where we bought a huge apple pie to eat after dinner at our Airbnb house. I’d been dying to try one of the pies the Americans are famous for and it didn’t disappoint!
There’s an interesting graveyard to poke around right in the centre of town, with some graves from the civil war and a public tomb built in 1850. This was for use when the ground was frozen solid in winter, and you had to wait for the big thaw to be buried!
It was nice to take a break from driving long distances, even if just for the day. All too soon we were back on the road again, heading this time for Maine. Before we left Vermont we made a quick pit stop at a nearby village for a maple creemee – a delicious soft serve ice cream made with locally farmed maple syrup. It was totally delectable and is something the kids still speak reverently about or try to recreate by mixing up maple syrup with their ice cream!
Do you have any fond food travel memories? Do you prefer Airbnb or hotels/motels when you travel?