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Shelburne Farms

Top choice in Burlington


In 1886 William Seward Webb and Lila Vanderbilt Webb built themselves a magnificent country estate on the shores of Lake Champlain. The 1400-acre farm, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed New York's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace), was both a country house for the Webbs and a working farm, with stunning lakefront perspectives. The 24-bedroom English-style country manor (completed in 1899), now an inn, is surrounded by working farm buildings inspired by European romanticism.

From mid-May to mid-October, visitors can see the animals in the children's farmyard and take a guided 1½-hour tour of the entire property from a truck-pulled open wagon ($5 surcharge for adults, free for kids). The farm's Welcome Center – where you can buy some of the cheese, maple syrup, mustard and other items produced here – is open year-round, as are several miles of walking trails that thread through rolling meadows and forest down to Lake Champlain. The farm is 8 miles south of Burlington, off US 7.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

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