Shoreham is predominately an agricultural area, producing dairy products and other farm-fresh goods in abundance. The upcoming “Le Tour de Farms,” is a popular event which the town holds annually. Bicyclists choose their tour; 10, 24 or 30 miles, and sample products at farms along the way. The event, held in conjunction with Shoreham’s annual “Apple Fest,” will be held on Sunday, September 19th.

Another shouldn’t-be-missed attraction in Shoreham, is the Shoreham Inn & Pub. Nearly as old as the town itself, Shoreham Inn & Pub was built in the later part of the 1700′s. Since that time it has changed in many ways, most recently being renovated into an inn by Dominic and Molly Francis in 2003. The “Gastropub,” located on the premises serves comfort food in a cozy setting. Mentioned in both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, the pub is a must-visit if you’re in the area.

Also, be sure to leave time to visit one of the great apple orchards in the area. Shoreham provides plenty of entertainment, friendly conversation, and delicious food, all in one place.

Shelburne Orchards located on Orchard Road in Shelburne, knows how to keep visitors happy. With 80 acres of apple trees, 10 of those organic, the orchard is well-known in the area for providing a little something for everyone. From the Small Farms Food Fest on September 12th to the Cider House Run and Pie Fest on September 26th and a plethora of fun activities scheduled for October, Shelburne Orchards offers up a little bit of everything apple-themed this fall.

Champlain Orchards, located in Shoreham, grows over 25 varieties of apples in its orchard, as well as pressing its own cider and growing a wide variety of vegetables on its organic farm. At the farm market, visitors can indulge in cider donuts, apple pie, and other locally made products. The online market is also a popular feature, for customers who can’t make it to the orchard. Local musicians can be heard at the orchard on September 19th and 26th, and the annual Cider Fest is scheduled for October 2nd.

Traveling in Middlebury? Allow an extra hour or two to spend at Happy Valley Orchard, located on Quarry Road. With apples, fresh baked goods, straight-off-the farm and other local produce, Happy Valley Orchard is a great place to spend an hour or afternoon. Likewise, Sunrise Orchards in Cornwall is a place that shouldn’t be missed.

Adams Apple Orchard and Farm Market  in Williston is a great place to spend a Saturday morning. And  Chapin Orchard in Essex is a must-visit orchard offering ”antique” apple varieties, along with more traditional types like Macintosh and Red Delicious.

If one really wants to experience the full autumn experience in New England though, there is no better choice than a cozy stay in a local bed and breakfast or inn.

If you’re looking for something a bit further from the hustle and bustle of the greater Burlington area,  Cornwall Orchards Bed & Breakfast offers a relaxing atmosphere in the country, elegant but simple rooms, and is only two miles from Middlebury College.

More interested in running a bed and breakfast (that revered Vermont career!)? Be sure to check out the listing for The Heart of the Village Inn, in Shelburne. The inn is the perfect spot for anyone desiring the true “Vermont experience.”  Tucked into the center of the village, this elegant inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wherever one’s autumn adventure’s begin this fall, putting  one of these inns or orchards on the itinerary will make for an enjoyable and memorable visit.

Susan Breslow Sardone is the Honeymoon and Romantic Travel Guide for About.com and she shares some useful information on how to use TripAdvisor.

• Trip Advisor is a unique, timely, populist travel resource
• Trip Advisor enables a variety of opinions to be voiced
• Trip Advisor’s Quick Check is a well-integrated search engine for online booking

• Widely diverse opinions (“Loved it!”…”Hated it!”) make it hard to objectively evaluate a place
• Dissatisfied guests use Trip Advisor as a venue to broadcast bad experiences
• Trip Advisor has many poorly written trip reviews
• Bogus positive reviews posted along with honest ones can confuse users

• Some 490,000 hotels and attractions and 22,000 cities are in the Trip Advisor database.
• Trip Advisor’s Hotel Popularity Index provides a ranking of the top hotels in a city.
• Trip Advisor also links to travel guidebooks and Web articles.
• Got a question? Nearly 2/3 of Trip Advisor forum posts get an answer within 24 hours.
• Candid photos by Trip Advisor members provide fresh perspectives.
• Free Trip Advisor emails include Trip Watch, a personalized newsletter, and Weekend Getaway Guide.
• Smart Deals on Trip Advisor indicate highly rated hotels with good prices.

Trip Advisor features some 25 million reviews, including both rants and raves about destinations, hotels, attractions, and restaurants.

If you’re like most travelers, when planning a trip you appreciate hearing or reading others’ opinions before you choose a place. Yet a surfeit of (often conflicting) voices can create cacophony and confusion. I recently received an email that said:

I am so happy I came across your info on About.com. I am trying to plan a destination wedding, but get so discouraged after reading negative reviews on Trip Advisor about every place I look in to. (Except for Four Seasons and the Ritz, which are too expensive for me).

Here’s my advice to get the most from Trip Advisor:

• Take what you read on Trip Advisor with a grain of salt. If you see a scathing one-star review but no other writers complain about the same problem(s), it’s safe to write it off as an isolated incident.
• However, if you encounter the same complaint about a hotel repeatedly on Trip Advisor (e.g. “terrible service,” “dirty bathroom”), I’d trust it.
• Conversely, a glowing, this-place-couldn’t-be-better report on Trip Advisor — especially when it’s surrounded by others’ complaints — could have been written by a ringer.
• Use Trip Advisor as one — but not your only — resource for travel information. You can get a balanced picture by speaking with trusted friends and acquaintances, talking to a travel agent, and visiting other travel sites in addition to a property’s own Web site.

Original Source: Should You Trust Trip Advisor at About.com

Tourterelle is a newly owned restaurant and inn in New Haven, VT, just 8 miles north of Middlebury and 35 miles south of Burlington. The inn has three tastefully decorated rooms (a stay includes a gourmet breakfast) and the restaurant, part of the Vermont Fresh Network, has been earning rave reviews. Here is Christine’s review:

Dinner at Tourterelle is sheer delight. The new owners, Christine and William Snell, who have come to New Haven, Vermont by way of Brittany and Maplewood, New Jersey, have done wonders to update and renew the venue on Route 7 in New Haven, formerly Roland’s Place. The bar is lightly romantic and lively – an intimate and sophisticated new place to meet up with friends before dinner, and the dining rooms feel country fresh, with a stove and a cozy new fireplace. Last Saturday evening at 7:00 the softly lit rooms were filled with both familiar and new faces and voices, creating a lovely, not-too-noisy atmosphere humming with gustatory satisfaction.

The current number of properties on the market in Middlebury is 50. The Middlebury median listing price is $243,167.

For ADDISON county real estate the total listings are 339 and a median listing price of $273,733. This compares to Vermont real estate data, which this week shows a total number of listing properties as 7,090 with a median listing price of $258,050. To see a breakdown of Middlebury real estate listings by bedroom, scroll down.

Middlebury Real Estate Listings by Bedroom (updated weekly)

ADDISON county homes for sale by bedroom (updated weekly)

Vermont real estate homes for sale by bedroom (updated weekly)