Keep Driving North for Donuts and Creemees at The Main Stop in Alburgh, Vermont

If you’re road tripping through Vermont’s Champlain Islands, don’t turn around too early. Keep driving north through South Hero, Grand Isle and North Hero and eventually you’ll reach Alburgh, tucked into Vermont’s far northwest corner near the Canadian border. And when you get there, I have a very good reason for you to pull over: donuts.

The Main Stop Local favorite: The Main Stop is part donut shop, part creemee stand, part lunchtime sandwich stop and exactly the kind of small-town Vermont business I love finding on a road trip. It’s casual, colorful and full of personality, with a donut case that goes well beyond glazed and chocolate, plus rotating flavors that make me want to know what’s being made that day before I’ve even figured out what I’m ordering for lunch.

You could stop for a sandwich. You could stop for dessert. I’d recommend both.

Start With the Donut Case

Let’s get to the important part first.

The Main Stop makes donuts in flavors that extend considerably beyond the classics. You’ll find familiar options like maple glazed alongside donuts topped or flavored with things like Butterfinger and Froot Loops, but it’s the rotating specials that make the case particularly fun to check.

The Donut of the Day has included flavors like cherry, raspberry, pistachio, maple bacon, blueberry, orange creamsicle, mint chocolate and butter rum, among plenty of others.

This is not where I’m ordering one plain donut and calling it a day.

I’d get a few different flavors and split them so you can actually try what’s interesting that morning. And if there’s a Donut of the Day you’ve never seen anywhere else, that’s obviously making it into the box.

Part of the fun is that you don’t necessarily know exactly what you’ll find until you get there.

Don’t Skip the Creemee

Of course, this is Vermont, so donuts aren’t the only reason to stop.

The Main Stop also serves creemees, making it an especially easy addition to a summer drive through the Champlain Islands. After spending the day driving beside Lake Champlain, stopping at farmstands and exploring the islands, I’m not going to argue with finishing the trip with a creemee.

And no, the fact that you already bought donuts doesn’t mean you can’t get one.

Those are separate categories of dessert.

Stop for Lunch, Too

If you time your drive for midday, The Main Stop can also take care of lunch. The shop serves sandwiches, which makes it a particularly practical road-trip stop if you’re trying to combine food and dessert without adding several different destinations to the day.

That’s how I’d plan it. Drive north through the islands in the morning, make a few stops along the way and arrive in Alburgh around lunch. Grab a sandwich, inspect the donut case, choose more donuts than you intended and finish with a creemee if it’s warm enough.

Then find somewhere near Lake Champlain to eat the donuts you claimed were for later.

Alburgh Is Almost as Far North as You Can Go in Vermont

Part of the reason I like The Main Stop is that getting there gives you an excuse to explore a section of Vermont many visitors never reach.

Alburgh sits at the northern end of the Champlain Islands region, on a peninsula extending south from the Canadian border and surrounded by Lake Champlain. It’s considerably farther north than the stops many travelers associate with the islands, which tend to concentrate around South Hero and Grand Isle.

But I’d keep going.

The farther north you travel, the more the road trip itself becomes part of the experience. Lake Champlain keeps appearing between fields and houses, traffic thins out and the landscape starts feeling increasingly removed from Burlington even though you’ve simply continued following the same general route north.

The Main Stop becomes your reward for making it all the way up.

Make It Part of a Champlain Islands Road Trip

I wouldn’t drive through the Champlain Islands just to race directly to Alburgh. This is one of those Vermont drives where the stops along the way are the point.

Starting from the Burlington area, head toward South Hero and give yourself most of the day. In South Hero, Allenholm Farm is one of my favorite stops, particularly during apple season, and I’ve written a full guide to visiting the orchard and trying its maple creemee and apple slushee combination.

Continue north into Grand Isle and stop at the Hyde Log Cabin and Hyde Schoolhouse. The schoolhouse dates to 1814 and is one of Vermont’s oldest surviving one-room schoolhouses, while the neighboring Hyde Log Cabin Local favorite: Hyde Log Cabin is recognized as Vermont’s oldest surviving log cabin.

From there, continue through North Hero and eventually into Alburgh for The Main Stop.

That’s a much better day than simply plugging one destination into your GPS and driving straight there.

Save This Drive for Summer

You can explore the Champlain Islands throughout the year, but this particular road trip feels made for summer.

Lake Champlain is all around you, farmstands are open, orchards and local businesses are active and you can work in a beach, paddle or lakefront stop along the way. And, critically, it’s creemee season.

I’d start in the morning and leave the schedule loose enough to pull over when you see something interesting. The islands are full of the kind of small businesses and roadside stops that don’t require an hour-long visit but collectively make the drive worthwhile.

The Main Stop fits perfectly into that kind of day.

Come Back During Fall

I wouldn’t rule out fall either.

The Champlain Islands are one of my favorite parts of Vermont to explore during foliage season because they offer a completely different backdrop than the Green Mountains. Instead of mountain valleys, you get colorful farmland, orchards, Lake Champlain and views toward the Adirondacks across the water.

September also brings apple season, which makes it easy to combine an orchard visit in South Hero with a drive north through the islands. Depending on the timing of your trip and seasonal hours, The Main Stop can become your northern turnaround point before you start working your way back south.

Just check current hours and seasonal offerings before going, particularly if donuts or creemees are the primary reason you’re making the trip.

What to Order at The Main Stop

If this is your first visit, I’d make the donut case your first decision.

Get whatever Donut of the Day sounds most interesting, then add one or two of the shop’s other creative flavors. If you’re there around lunchtime, order a sandwich too. And if it’s summer, you already know what I’m going to tell you about the creemee.

Basically, arrive hungry.

This isn’t the place I’d stop if I were looking for one elaborate sit-down dining experience. It’s a small-town roadside stop where lunch, donuts and ice cream can all happen in one visit.

That’s considerably more my speed on a Vermont road trip anyway.

Keep Driving North

The Main Stop is exactly the kind of place that reminds me why I don’t like turning around too early when I’m exploring Vermont.

It would be easy to spend a day in South Hero and Grand Isle, decide you’ve seen the Champlain Islands and head back toward Burlington. But keep following the road north and there are more small towns, lake views and local businesses waiting for you.

Eventually, there’s a donut case in Alburgh. So keep going.

Order the weirdest Donut of the Day available. Grab a few more for the road. Add a creemee because you’re already this far north and it’s summer in Vermont.

Then take the long way home.