Downtown Burlington is a vibrant, close-knit small city that has won awards for livability, greenness, healthfulness, and family-friendliness. Across the street from the Vermont House is City Hall Park, which on Saturday mornings in the summertime is home to a farmers’ market, offering locally grown produce, meats, and artisanal cheeses, accompanied by music and crafts.

Only steps from the Historic Vermont House are fine restaurants, a visual arts center, an outdoor pedestrian mall, and banks and government buildings.  The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts is a few doors down the block. A little farther on are the University of Vermont, Champlain College, and the Fletcher Allen medical center.

A short walk downhill brings you to the Lake Champlain waterfront, with stunning vistas of New York’s Adirondack Mountains on the far shore. A recreational and cultural jewel, the Burlington lakefront offers sailboat, kayak, and bike rentals, a marina, a ferry, boat excursions, and a community boathouse. Nearby grassy fields host communitywide festivals each summer. A bike path extends ten miles along the lake.

The Green Mountains are nearby, offering excellent trails for hiking. Skiing, both downhill and Nordic, are a regular winter pastime.