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DH has a conference in Montpelier, VT in mid April. He can get there and back in a day, but he asked whether we might want to go as a family. He'll be done by 4pm, and we could spend the night and do something fun the next day. Should we bother? Our kids are 11 months and 4 years old. The baby's easy. She lets us drag her around wherever we want to go. :) I've never been to either place, so I don't know if it would be a fun trip.
Well I live right outside Burlington. It's a great place to visit. I don't know much about Montpelior. It's a small city. I don't know what you'd do there exactly for the day. In Burlington there is the Echo Lake and Science Center that is fun for kids. There is lots of shopping and restaurants. Burlington is about 40 minutes from Montpelior.
I'd say Burlington, it's just a bigger city, more going on, more options for dining, there's Church St (a walking pedestrian street with shops and restaurants).
The Vermont Teddy Bear Co is in South Burlington.
I went to UVM so I'm not familiar with kids activities but I'd definitely choose Burlington.
Montpelier is the state capital, and all I remember is that way back in the day I had to go down there to get my US drivers license as they didn't have a place that did photo's in Burlington.
I'm not sure if it's really ice cream weather for you right now, but you could also do a tour of the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury. It's about 30 minutes from Burlington or 15 minutes from Montpelier.
We've done the Ben & Jerry's tour and the Vermont Teddy Bear tour. Both were pretty fun.
There's plenty to do in both places. Ill give some Montpelier suggestions since you already fot some good Burlington suggestions. Montpelier is a very walkable small "city". You could walk around with your kids during the day and do some shopping and most restaurants are kid friendly. The Kellogg-Hubbard library is downtown and has a great children's room. There's also Hubbard park in the center of the city which is fun and accessible for preschoolers. North Branch Nature Center is nearby and they often have things going on for young kids during the week. Morse farm is about two miles outside of town and a great!!! place to visit to learn how maple syrup is made. And it looks like sugaring season will just be wrapping up in early April this year so you might still be able to catch them boiling sap. You might also check out the historical museum. That's right downtown and sometimes has exhibits that preschoolers like to look at. The state Capitol is also fun to visit, especially if you are from a state where everyday people are not allowed into the capital buildin. Here you can just walk right in and look around all you want (assuming meetings are not in session).
PPs have covered most of it. I do want to add a couple things.
This has great calendar listings: http://www.kidsvt.com/
If you are traveling via I-89, you could break up the trip home by stopping at the Montshire Museum in Norwich, VT. http://www.montshire.org/ We did that many times while we were looking for houses up here.
April is kind of a tough month. The weather could be nice (ie warm, spring-like) or still cold and places like Shelburne Farms won't be open yet.
oh! and B&J's free cone day is April 9 if that happens to correspond with your visit. :)