[joe moving]

Hi guys... me again.

Can anyone tell us a bit about Bristol. We have not spent much time there, just passed through and stopped at the cafe once. Seems like a nice town. Not too small or too large. Nice main street and not a lot of chains.

Aside from the disconnect from the ski areas, how would you compare or contrast this to the Waitsfield/Warren area?

Or would it be better to compare/contrast vs Middlebury ?
FWIW, Middlebury although pleasant was not quite our cup of tea. Love the co-op though.

We are a small growing family and like to spend a lot of time outdoors (you know, gardening, walking, hiking and biking...) and I currently work from home.

Would you consider one of these more family geared than others?

Can we find the same enthusiasm (and availability) for local/organic foods on the other side of the gap

A quick look yields no condos and some decent looking homes in the low 200s, not sure what the taxes would be like on those. 4k?

[vter]

Bristol is a GREAT town.
It's got a different vibe than the Mad River Valley. The Mad River Valley is all about tourism. I personally like Bristol better. It feels more "real" to me.
Yes, same attitude toward local & organic foods. You'll find that throughout the state. Great farmer's market in Bristol on Saturday mornings otherwise you can get great local/organic foods at Mountain Greens Market.
Most folks in Bristol commute to either the Burlington area or Middlebury for work. There are some small service businesses in town such as banks, health clinics, etc.
Schools in Bristol right now are not the greatest, but getting better. The high school has a new principal that is enthusiastic about turning things around.
Lots of great outdoor activities. You can hike to Deer Leap right from town. The New Haven River flows through town which has great fishing. Mad River Glen is 20 minutes away for skiing, Sugarbush 10 minutes further (in good weather).
Some nice small shops in town and a couple GREAT restaurants with the Bobcat Cafe being on the top of the list. My other favorite places to grab a place to eat are the Bristol Bakery, Almost Home Market, and Rockydale Pizza.
I'm in Bristol quite often and in fact I'll be there this morning and plan to grab a cup of joe at the bakery!

[vter]

Housing-no condos in town that I can think of. Mostly older housing stock.

Local paper:
http://www.addisonindependent.com/

[VermontLori]

If public schools are an issue for you, Warren is very highly regarded, Waitsfield not too far behind. But Bristol.....eh.....a friend of mine works at the state public defender's office and she used to remark how high a proportion of the kids she would see in the juvenile justice system came from Bristol and went to Mount Abe. That was several years ago, though, so perhaps it's changed. There is a great private school there, Red Cedar: Red Cedar School
Super charming town with lots of great people and a very strong community of spiritual folks due to the Sunray Meditation Center just up the hill in Lincoln. They blend Tibetan Buddhism with Native American principles. Sunray Meditation Society Home
Someone affiliated with Sunray once told me she had traveled the world and there were more fairies in Bristol, Vermont than anywhere else in the world, due to the great vibes there!!! So go figure!

[MRVphotog]

Originally Posted by vter

Bristol is a GREAT town.
It's got a different vibe than the Mad River Valley. The Mad River Valley is all about tourism. I personally like Bristol better. It feels more "real" to me.
Yes, same attitude toward local & organic foods. You'll find that throughout the state. Great farmer's market in Bristol on Saturday mornings otherwise you can get great local/organic foods at Mountain Greens Market.
Most folks in Bristol commute to either the Burlington area or Middlebury for work. There are some small service businesses in town such as banks, health clinics, etc.
Schools in Bristol right now are not the greatest, but getting better. The high school has a new principal that is enthusiastic about turning things around.
Lots of great outdoor activities. You can hike to Deer Leap right from town. The New Haven River flows through town which has great fishing. Mad River Glen is 20 minutes away for skiing, Sugarbush 10 minutes further (in good weather).
Some nice small shops in town and a couple GREAT restaurants with the Bobcat Cafe being on the top of the list. My other favorite places to grab a place to eat are the Bristol Bakery, Almost Home Market, and Rockydale Pizza.
I'm in Bristol quite often and in fact I'll be there this morning and plan to grab a cup of joe at the bakery!

I really like Bristol too although I prefer Cubbers for pizza. I miss the Squirrels Nest diner, haven't checked it out since it changed hands.

One unique thing is that during the summer they show a free movie every Thursday night on the town green. A couple of years ago the family was having pizza and they were showing Citizens Kane. I wanted to stay but the kids wanted to know where the color went.

Know/work with lots of people from the Bristol/Starksboro area and they say Mt Abe is a good school. I don't know the stats or school rankings but for the individual student I think it depends on the student/family as much as the school as far as the quality of the education the child gets.

On a hot summer day many awesome swimming holes along the river in Lincoln plus booknuts from away driving around aimlessly trying to find the famous author who lives there.

[quickdraw]

We lived in Bristol for a few months in 2004 while getting ready to move into our house.

It's a different crowd than Middlebury, not as many blue-blood out of towners. A totally different feel than the whole Burlington area too, Bristol has many native Vermonters, a real mix of people from artsy to moderately shady (remember Ernest T. Bass from Andy Griffith?)

We found the houses to be quite dumpy when we lived there but many of the homes have been fixed up since then.

Surprisingly, Northern Vermont doesn't have many of the functioning main street, village green type towns one would picture in New England. Bristol's downtown is really nice since there is a large cool bakery that serves as a town meeting place. The Bobcat cafe is a great place with great food and crafted beer, a place I'd like to call my regular drinking hole.

There is a small Shaws grocery store and behind it is one of those natural
food type stores you'd probably like.

Outside of town there is a really cool swimming hole and rapids area that is perfect for sunny days. Great scenery there too. We make the 40 minute drive to get there.

We also go to Bristol for the area's best 4th of July celebration.

If you are a slightly hippy/artsy/organic family that likes the outdoors and
doesn't need to live in an area with immaculately maintained homes, you'd probably do nicely in Bristol. If you are looking for more postcard and tidiness, Middlebury would be better.

Of the three towns you mentioned, I really like Waitsfield and the Mad River Valley, but that's really far from everything we need.

My wife and I loved Bristol, we'd have moved there but didn't want to make the drive to Burlington.

If I recall correctly, the high school in Bristol was put on "watch" for not meeting state achievement requirements.

[vter]

Totally forgot about Bartlett Falls. Great swimming area. It was RAGING today due to the rain from last night/this morning. Beautiful.
Yes, Mt. Abe was put on the under performing schools list....but I agree with MRV. If you're a good student and have good parent involvement in your education you'll do fine. Like i said, I see the schools getting better-lots of young families in town now due to the more affordable housing costs.

[joe moving]

Thanks for the responses. we really fell in love with the MRV but it is fairly touristy. doesn't mean that we cannot live there but I wanted to explore nearby options. this also doesn't necessarily mean that there there are not plenty families out there. we seem to run into families with children everywhere when we are there and everyone is so nice! obviously there are enough that each town has their own elementary school.

for ratings, If it means anything school digger for elementary says Warren is 2/280 and Waitsfield is 50/280, Bristol 232/280. Then for Harwood high = 11/64 and Mt Abe = 32/64, Not sure what these mean per se but clearly they are suggesting the warren waitsfield schools are "better" than bristol.

the school sounds like its getting a pretty bad rap. not sure what exactly to think of that.

Private school is probably out unless they are going to give us some of that funding!!!

we'll be up in the a little while and will check out bristol a bit. and warren and waitsfield again...

Of the three towns you mentioned, I really like Waitsfield and the Mad River Valley, but that's really far from everything we need.

i would be curious to know what sort of things you feel like you need and cant find in the MRV (aside from a job!!!!) . Are we talking about medical care , items you cannot purchase locally or something else?



cant wait to try a bobcat brickwall DIPA (ok probably a LIL brick for me), pizza sounds good too.

[vter]

I'd check out Vergennes too when you are up. Another up and coming town with a great vibe. Black Sheep Bistro (restaurant) and Antidote (bar w/pub food) are great. Addison Outfitters, Linda's, Footworks and Everywear take care of your clothing needs. 1/2 hour north to Burlington, 15 minutes south to Middlebury and 10 minutes from the Lake.
I guess it depends what you are looking for...if you don't mind lots of tourists and a more transient population (lots of second homes, seasonal residents etc) then you might like the Mad River Valley. If you'd rather live in a town where 95% of the residents live and work here year round I'd check out Bristol (or Vergennes, Middlebury).
I personally would prefer Bristol over the MRV but thats just me. Opinions may vary

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by joe moving

Bristol 232/280.

I would have never guessed this- it makes no sense to me.


When I said MRV was away from everything we need I meant our jobs, church friends. It may be touristy, but it's a good touristy if that makes sense. With Stowe being not as good as a touristy - if that makes sense.

More of an organic tourist in MRV.