Best family vacation ever? 10 ways this Vermont resort fits the bill

As a busy mom with two young children, I always approach summer-vacation planning with enthusiasm and joy, only to return from our trip a bit deflated and exhausted.

It's a lot of work finding the right mix of destination, activity, accommodation and pricing to suit me, my somewhat-finicky husband and our kids, who are 5 and 3. And because it's a lot of work, the need for it to be perfect quickly becomes overwhelming.

I want the kids to LOVE every minute of whatever we are doing. I want my husband and I to be able to eat at a restaurant that serves something beyond chicken nuggets. I want enough activities to keep my always-on-the-go spouse and son entertained, while giving my youngest a chance to nap in the afternoon.

And I want us to make memories as a family — which means my husband and I need to be engaged enough in our vacation to put down our smartphones and stop checking work email.

I rarely achieve all, or even most, of those goals.

Until this year, when I found The Tyler Place Family Resort.

A family-run operation since 1933, Tyler Place is on 165 acres of rolling green hills and lakefront property in far northern Vermont, just south of Lake Champlain and Montreal, Canada.

The resort's website, filled with pictures of smiling children and adults playing lawn games, kayaking, riding bicycles and jumping on trampolines, practically screams nostalgia.

Looking at the brochures, I was transported back to my 1970s childhood in Illinois. Running through my neighborhood, riding bikes from house to house, playing Red Rover and Capture the Flag, fishing with my grandfather, roasting marshmallows and making s'mores at dusk in front of an open campfire.

Did such a simple time really still exist? And could I give my kids a taste of that long-ago freedom?

It turns out the answers are yes and yes.

It took some cajoling, but I convinced my husband to give Tyler Place a try. We spent five days there in late May/early June, and it was the best vacation we've ever taken as a family.

Here are 10 reasons I plan on returning next year:

1. Robust children's programs

Tyler Place has nine different camp groups that run simultaneously, with activities catered to each age. Infant programs include a Parents' Helper with a one-counselor-per-two-children ratio during the day, and one-on-one babysitting in the evening so you can enjoy a leisurely dinner with your spouse. Got teens? Eighth-, ninth- and 10th-graders are on the go from morning until sundown. Activities include archery, kayaking, scaling a towering rock wall or testing their teamwork on a ropes course.

Our kids were were in the Junior Moppets and Senior Moppets groups. Their activities were similar, but just different enough to accommodate the attention spans and agility levels of a 3-year-old vs. a 5-year-old. Activities included gardening, barnyard tours, pony rides, arts and crafts, scavenger hunts, lawn games and cookouts, plus sprinkler and bubble play for my daughter and tennis lessons and fishing for my son.

Don't get me started on the silly camp songs they learned, which include lyrics about a moose covered in juice, baby bumblebees and beaver jives. They are still singing them.

Kids' camp is from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. daily. Afternoons are family free time. You can sign up for a group activity like frog catching or fishing, or you can do your own thing, whether that's jumping on water trampolines, taking a nap or playing in the pool.

And while some parents may balk at the idea of separating from their children for more than half the day (or worry that their kids might be anxious at the thought of being away from Mom and Dad) our experience was the opposite. Our little ones eagerly dragged us out of the cottage in the morning and evening, excited to see their new friends (and counselors) in the clubhouses.

2. Adults-only dinner and cocktail hour

This is the hallmark of the Tyler Place experience. Families can eat breakfast together before 8:30 in certain sections of the main inn's dining areas. But evenings are mandatory, adults-only events. Kids go back into camp at 5:30. Grown-ups retreat to the lodge for cocktails with the other adult guests, and then move on to dinner (adults only!) at 6:30.

The result? I ate 15 straight meals in utter peace. I didn't have to cut up anyone's food, remind anyone to use their inside voice, to sit still or to eat their vegetables. I had actual conversations with my husband and other adults. And because Tyler Place only has a couple hundred guests at a time (many of whom return year after year) you can make friends easily.

We met two couples during our first cocktail hour whom we ate with on multiple occasions during the week.

3. Lack of crowds

For the past three years, my husband and I have done the theme-park circuit. All of them. Some of them twice. Don't get me wrong: I am a huge fan of all things Disney and Lego. But we were tired of trips that seemed to go hand-in-hand with overpriced souvenirs, costumed characters, standing in line and wall-to-wall crowds.

Tyler Place, by contrast, has just 72 rooms and cottages. The resort is open from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day and houses about 300 adults and children who typically stay from Saturday to Saturday.

4. Free-range parenting — to a point

There's a lot of debate in the mommy blogosphere and on social-media networks about how much latitude we should give our kids. Is it safe to let them walk home from the park alone? What's too protective and what's not protective enough?

When I was a kid, I stayed out until the streetlight came on, and I am not sure my parents even knew where I was.

Being at Tyler Place allows parents to give their kids appropriate freedom in a pretty safe environment. 

I watched older kids knock on their friends' cabin doors, witnessed a couple tell their folks, "I'm headed to the trampolines!" and then re-appear a couple of hours later. There's a tacit understanding that you keep an eye on the kids in your general vicinity without getting in the way of their playtime.

Thanks to a slightly older (age 7) camper who was staying next door to us, our kids discovered that a tree a couple hundred feet down the road had caterpillars on it. The caterpillar tree soon became a prime point of fascination, and I had no qualms about letting the kids wander down the road for a few minutes at a stretch to hang out with the caterpillars and our neighbors.

5. Customizable schedules

My husband and I work full-time, and usually more than 40 hours a week. As a result, we often live via our synced iPhone calendars. A text message here or there to coordinate arrival time, or who can pick up milk after work. But on this vacation, we were completely free. No plan. No place to be. And it was amazing.

In fact, I overheard another guest say, "It's kind of crazy how everyone makes Tyler Place fit what they want to do."

It's true. You can do as much or as little as you want, knowing that your kids are busy and well-taken care of. Most days I wanted to try something new, so I spent one morning getting super-friendly with my teammates on the ropes course, or conquering my klutziness on the rock wall. Another day I did nothing but lay in a hammock and read a book. For three hours.

Everyone gets a daily schedule of activities upon check-in. From there, the choice is yours. You can go on a kayak trip that ends at a winery, get a massage, do yoga or water aerobics, attend a cooking demonstration, challenge fellow guests at the Hobie Regatta, go skeet shooting or golfing. A group of adults organized their own beach volleyball game; others participated in a mini-triathalon. My husband signed up for the staff vs. guests softball game. On our last day, we requested a picnic lunch that we ate by the lake.

6. TV- and telephone-free lodging

Like most parents, I fight the battle of screen time. I don't deny my children their favorite Disney Jr. shows, and I've got educational apps and kid-friendly games on my tablet. But I don't want them inside watching television all day.

Tyler Place forces you to unplug because there are no TVs in the accommodations. There aren't even telephones.

It really is like living in a pleasant bubble. I checked email maybe three times during the entire trip, for at most five minutes at a stretch.

But here's a word to the wise: Manage your expectations. These are not 5-star resort hotel rooms with marble counter tops, stainless-steel fixtures and glass walk-in showers. They are cottages and cabins — simple, clean and perhaps a bit rustic. You will find the occasional bug. You are, after all, in the middle of the woods.

7. Free bikes

I haven't ridden a bike in years. And it showed when I promptly fell in the most ungraceful way shortly after picking up my custom-made cycle at the bike and maintenance shed.

Every guest gets a bike to use during their stay. Tyler Place encourages you to park your car and walk or bike everywhere on the property. 

Parents with younger children can get a tag-along that allows more independent-minded children to pedal behind, a baby seat or a two-wheeler with training wheels. And the baby seats aren't old, broken-down contraptions. Ours was brand new, still in the box, and mounted to our bike while we waited.

It's freeing, using non-motorized transport. Plus, its a great workout and fun for the kids.

Our son had so much fun trying to pedal like his daddy that we signed him up for two bike lessons during the week.

8. Good, plentiful food

All meals are include in your fee, which is nice, because you can put your wallet away while you're there.

But if I am being honest, if there's one area where the resort wasn't five star, it was probably the dining.

Don't get me wrong — I thought it was very good. Superb even, on some nights. Lobster night was one of those standouts. You get an entire lobster. Not just a tail, but the whole thing.

But overall, I'd put it at a 3.5- or 4-star experience.

That's because everything is served buffet-style. There's no a la carte menu, and for people like my husband, that gets old. He likes choices. He likes to customize. And he said to me more than once, "I wish I could just get a burger or a hot dog."

You also can't order food outside of the set meal times. There's no room service.

Most lunch and dinner menus have a theme — tacos or stir-fry, for example. There seemed to always be a vegetarian option in the evening, plus a carving station, a robust salad bar and desserts. I found enough at each meal that I enjoyed.

One night, blackened fish was bland, but the barbecue chicken was delicious.

Despite an occasional misstep, everything is fresh and prepared on site.

So while it's not perfect, the mere idea that you can sit among adults and enjoy a leisurely meal that you neither have to cook or clean up makes dining a selling point in my book.

9. Customer service and fellow guests

Remember the 1980s television show "Cheers," where everybody knows your name? This is a little like that. From the first email I sent until the day we checked out, staff and owners went out of their way to be helpful and accommodating.

In an impersonal world where we often feel like a number, this was like staying with your best friend's mom. They put us in a cottage that met our budget and was far enough away from the bluff overlooking Lake Champlain to alleviate any potential safety issues for our children.

At the opening-night cocktail hour, entertainment director Chad Tyler (son of the resort's co-owners) pulled us and other first-timers into conversations with fellow guests, making us feel welcome from the moment we arrived.

In any week, 50 percent to 90 percent of the guests are repeat visitors. We met a couple who had been coming for six years. Many previous guests considered themselves as sort of ambassadors for the new folks, answering questions and pointing out the don't-miss activities.

If you are an introvert, this might not be super comfortable, and it might even be a little overwhelming. But I didn't have a single unpleasant encounter. Everyone was nice, nice, nice.

10. Value and pricing

Is Tyler Place cheap? No. It's the kind of vacation that most would deem a splurge, and one that you definitely save up for. But I found it to be a great value. Activities and camp sessions are included, as is all your food. There is no individual tipping. You pay a flat 10 percent service charge at the end of your stay.

What's not included? Drinks (including soft drinks) are extra, as is in-cabin babysitting.

You'll also pay for individual instruction, such as the bike lessons we got our son ($20 for 30 minutes) and if you buy any of the professional photographs taken of your family during the week.

But there are ways to minimize costs. Tyler Place offers cheaper rates and shorter stays early in the season and in early fall, and we took advantage of that.

Your lodging choice also may save you a few dollars. Cabins and cottages typically have two to five bedrooms. Most have a screened porch. Those by the pool and overlooking the lake cost more.

Ours was a smallish, two-bedroom cottage with a king-size bed in one room and twin bunk beds in the other, with a tiny kitchenette/sitting area, bath and screened porch in a prime location adjacent to the pool and a three-minute walk to the boat docks.

We paid $3,750 for five nights, and that included tax, service charges and our bar bill.

Tyler Place Family Resort

Where: 175 Tyler Place, Swanton, Vermont. 802-868-4000, www.tylerplace.com.

Getting there: Burlington International Airport is 42 miles away. Others within driving distance: Boston Logan International (256 miles), Albany International (198 miles) and Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (65 miles).

Rates: $124-$422 daily for adults, depending on week and accommodation. Children's rates (2½ years to 10th grade) start at $94 per day.

What's included: Room, meals, activities and daily housekeeping.

What's not included: Beverages, including alcohol and soda; in-room babysitting; bike and swim lessons.

When: Open from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend.

Pro tips

Pro tip 1: Most cottages have a full-size refrigerator, so stop in Swanton, about 10 minutes away and buy groceries and snacks for your room.

Pro tip 2: If your schedule is flexible, go early or late in the season for significant savings on rates. Mid-July and August are the most expensive months, and rates can double during those weeks.

Pro tip 3: Tyler Place typically is at 100 percent capacity. Put a reservation request in early by emailing tyler@tylerplace.com.

Pro tip 4: Bring sunscreen and bug spray. You'll need both.