The view of Lake Champlain is amazing and the house itself is wonderful. But there are a few drawbacks. First the good. It’s hard to imagine a better unobstructed view of the water and you’re only 45 mins or so from Montreal if you want to venture into Canada. The property is newer and the appliances are modern, plus there is plenty of space for a family of 6 or two couples. The neighbors and folks in town were always very nice and there are many wonderful walking and bike trails within a 30 min car ride. You can even get to Burlington VT or Stowe VT in about an hour if you are in the mood for good restaurants and cultural activities.
We did find some downsides though. First, the house needs a good cleaning. The refrigerator still had food left in it from the previous renters and there was even a dirty pan in the oven. The fabric of the couch smelled like sweat and the rug in the living room needed to be vacuumed. And, though the surrounding area was nice, the immediate surroundings were, well - interesting, especially the dilapidated house in back and to the side of the property. But the worst of all for us were the spider webs and live spiders everywhere. There was an active spider web covering part of the outside of the front door when we entered but we just cleaned it off and kept moving. Little did we know once we entered we would see tons of spiders hanging out in the arches of the living room ceiling. I vacuumed up the spiders and webs I could reach in all of the chandeliers and in the wells of the sliding glass doors, but I still had a spider slide down from the ceiling and onto the kitchen island as I was cooking. I had another run up the arm of the chair my husband was sitting on, and watched several try to shimmy down the wall and onto the floor in front of us (but I was quicker than they and got to vacuum them up before they got to me). This is no joke – when packing a tote bag so we could head out for the day, a big hairy spider almost crawled up my hand. It had been hiding out in the tote and wasn’t happy that I was disturbing its rest. I’m not fearful of spiders but I also don’t like them trying to cozy up with me while I’m chilling out on vacation.
All in all, our vacation in VT was a good one, but I would have chosen a different property if I had known everything in advance.