Jay Peak Resort located in Jay, Vermont is a popular winter destination due to its ski mountain and winter activities. In the summer it is a little different. We have been to Jay Peak in the past, once for a friends wedding and again as part of a summer vacation. The sole purpose of this visit was for the waterpark.
Jay Peak is your typical mountain resort, with a couple extras. Our stay was a little last minute and not well planned out. We left Southern New Hampshire early on a Saturday morning with the goal of getting to the waterpark that day.
In the summer the waterpark is only open certain days and times. Make sure you check their website before your trip. We arrived around noon and did not have any issues getting tickets to the waterpark, or The Pump House as it is named. It was not busy and we rarely had to wait in lines for the watersides. Unfortunately, two of the main attractions were closed, the Lazy River, which is my favorite, and La Chute. This was a little disappointing. The website did mention the Lazy River being shut down. We enjoyed the waterpark until almost 6pm and rode the waterslides several times. We got a snack from the snack bar next to the Pump House, which is your typical fried food. We did find they were out of a lot of things on the menu. There is also a large bar onsite.
In addition to the waterpark, there is an outside hot tub and pool. The pool was closed, but the hot tub was open. It was nice to sit and enjoy some outside time. The day were visited it was cold and freezing rain so we did not get a view of the mountain.
We were not able to check into our room until 7pm. From previous experience we decided not to dine at the resort as we found the food expensive and subpar. We took a drive down to The Jay Country Store. The store is only a few minutes from the resort. This is such as great country store with a wide variety of items, gifts, food and a deli counter. We ordered sandwich’s and a pizza which were delicious. When we are in the area we always make a stop at this country store.
Our first night we stayed at Stateside, which is a mile or so away from the main lodge. The room was spacious and had a microwave and fridge, which has been hard to find on our recent stays. One thing that was a little different, was in order for the lights to work you had to put your key in a key slot. That took a few minutes to figure out. Overall, we loved our room.
In the summer months it is a lot quieter and many of the attractions are closed. In mid June a couple of the restaurants were open along with the general store. The ice arena and movie theater was closed. On Sunday we had planned to ride the Tram to the top of the mountain, but it was closed due to wind. We also tried to use the pool, but that was closed. We walked to the Arcade, which also was closed. We were a little frustrated with everything being closed. Walking around it felt like a ghost town.
Since we had made last minute reservations the Stateside Hotel was only open on Friday and Saturday’s so we had to move to the Main Lodge for Sunday night. We were able to check in early and our room was beautiful. It was a room with a kitchenette and a fireplace and a beautiful view.
With everything being closed we decided to take a drive to Burlington, which was about an hour and a half away. We made a couple stops along the way. The first one was The Bridge Flowers and Light in Enosburgh.
The next stop was Fairfax Falls in Fairfax. This was an impressive falls.
We walked around Church Street in Burlington. I just love the vibe of this area, fun shops, live music, yummy food and fun people watching. There were more panhandlers than I remember seeing on previous visits with a few people coming up asking for money.
It was about an hour wait for our favorite restaurant, The Farm House Tap and Grill, so we strolled around Church street and shared an amazing crepe from the Skinny Pancake food stand.
After a delisious meal at the Farm House Tap and Grill we walked down to the waterfront to enjoy the views of Lake Champlain.
After leaving Burlington we headed back to Jay through Stowe. We stopped to enjoy the downtown area of Stowe before heading back to Jay Peak Resort.
With everything being closed we played games in our room and left early Monday morning to head home. My husband and I agreed that if we were to come back again we would only stay one night and stay another night somewhere else. With everything being closed during the summer months it is not worth it for us to stay more than one night. It is sad that the resort is not capitalizing on its beautiful area in the summer months.
