Lake Champlain & The Islands

5-Day / 5-Night Tour

POMG's Lake Champlain & The Islands Tour offers spectacular cycling, great inns, localvore dining, and a vivid change of scenery each day! This tour offers something for everyone including some of the easier riding in Vermont. Hardcore cyclists will love it too as long mileage options and hill climbs are there for those looking for a challenge.

We start and finish on the Island of North Hero and cycle on each of the Champlain Islands before crossing Lake Champlain into New York state for two days of heart pumping rides. For our last night we stay in the vibrant college town of Burlington, Vermont's biggest little city. The shores of Lake Champlain (sixth largest lake in the US) serve as home for the first two nights at the North Hero House. Cyclists have been pampered here for years before and after rides. The grounds are grand with sweeping views of the lake and the Green Mountains. You will not be able to resist a refreshing post-ride dip in the lake.

On our first day of cycling, we will explore the islands of North Hero and Grand Isle, enjoying the stunning vistas of mainland Vermont and the foothills of New York's Adirondack Park. Depending on the season, we will have the delicious chance to pick fresh berries, corn or apples at one of the many island farms. Oenophiles can stop at Snow Farm Winery for a tasting. If you are up to it, the longest option of the day takes us off island to the Vermont towns of Milton, Georgia and Swanton before returning to the island via the peninsula of Alburg. Others take the shoreline loop back to the inn.

Day two we head for the northeast corner of New York, but before we do, there is time to cycle the most peaceful of the Champlain Islands, Isle La Motte. We will ride by Saint Anne's Shrine where you may stop to walk the grounds that are considered Vermont's first French outposts in 1666. Next we pedal north within a mile of the Canadian border before turning west and over Rousse's Point Bridge into New York State. Cycling along the lake, we are going south to our destination, the Point Au Roche Lodge. We will be welcomed by Innkeepers Creston and Karen Billings to their Post and Beam Lodge, where you may relax in the great room or stroll the grounds bordering Point Au Roche State Park. Dinner tonight is take-out from a local Thai Restaurant. You will want to get a good night's sleep for day three, and the most challenging hills of the week!

After a home cooked breakfast at the Lodge, we head south, skirting the bustling city of Plattsburgh and enjoying gentle back roads. A third of our way into today's ride, we start to experience our first rolling hills of the tour. A great benefit of the hills are the unparalleled views that cause involuntary oohs and ahs as we make our way to the Inn in Westport where our gracious hosts Anthony and Alexandra Wheeler await. The Inn is the centerpiece of the coastal resort village of Westport. This stately Victorian era B&B was built in 1875. Huge bay windows overlook the lake and the Green Mountains beyond. Tonight we have dinner out at the lively Westport Hotel and Tavern.

By the fourth day of cycling, you will be feeling strong as we cycle south and inland among the foothills and river valleys of the Adirondacks. Westport New York, another lakeside village, is our southern terminus of the tour. Here we turn north for more lakeshore travel before boarding the ferry to cross Lake Champlain to Charlotte, Vermont. For those looking for bonus miles, you can extend your biking in New York and cycle the "surrounded by water loop" on Willsboro Point before ferrying to Vermont. Once in Vermont, you have earned lunch at the Old Brick Store, a gourmet deli specializing in locally sourced, farm fresh organic produce, meats and baked goods. So good! After lunch we pedal north to Burlington, Vermont's largest little city and home to the University of Vermont.

Our last overnight is at the stylish Hotel Vermont. Located in downtown Burlington near the shores of Lake Champlain, Hotel Vermont (independent and locally owned) is “rustic and modern, local and global, natural and sophisticated, hand wrought and high tech…food fresh from the farm to your plate, with glorious sunsets across the lake.” We'll have dinner together in one of Burlington's many outstanding restaurants and stroll The Church Street Marketplace and the waterfront's boardwalk. Dessert? How about some Ben & Jerry's ice cream in the city where their legend began? You have earned it!

Our final day we pedal north on the Burlington Bike Path, taking in spectacular views of Lake Champlain and New York's Adirondack Mountains. The path leads us around Mallet's Bay, onto a causeway and finally back to the Islands, where we return to North Hero House Inn to say our farewells and savor our memories.