Oakledge Park — Attraction in Burlington

The park itself is nice enough - you can hop on the island trail, go to Blanchard Beach, which is small but has great views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains, or see the Burlington Earth Clock. But parking costs a lot ($3 per hour now), and they ticket you within a couple of minutes of parking!! So, if you have to wait in line at the parking kiosk behind one or two people, you can get a ticket while you wait to pay. I appealed my $20 ticket and got it dismissed, but it took 10 days and was annoying to have to do it, given that I paid for my parking within a few minutes of arriving. The appeal website was very difficult to use. It would not let me upload a picture of my credit card statement to prove I paid no matter what I did. So make sure you get a receipt when you pay to park or note the time you arrived, the time you paid, and the time you left. Because of the expensive parking and unfair enforcement of the parking rules, I won’t be going back to this park. You can park at Leddy Beach for free instead and pick up the island trail from there. Or go to North Beach Park which is a flat $5 rate for the whole day (or free if you walk to it from Leddy Beach) and is a much nicer beach in my opinion. They didn’t even apologize for their mistake and for my inconvenience when they dismissed my ticket. I travel a lot, and this has never happened to me before. Do better, city of Burlington!! Don’t ticket someone two minutes after they park, while they are waiting in a line to pay...

This is the Southernmost start point of the Burlington rail trail. There are several well maintained restrooms. The park itself has a children's playground and excellent views of the lake. There is plenty of open space.

The rail trail is about 12 miles long and runs mostly along the shore of Lake Champlain and then onto a causeway. It is a very pretty trail. It is mostly tarmac though the causeway is hard packed gravel. The road surface is good to excellent. There are a couple of short bumpy patches but these are of minor concern. There is a short section on quiet neighborhood streets so some care might be needed if accompanied by children. Midweek in the mid morning it was not crowded, but it is probably much more so later and on the weekend. By the time we left at about 1pm the parking at Oakledge Park had filled up and people were circling for spaces. Parking costs $2 per...

I love oakledge because it is a very large park with lots of different things you can do for outdoor fun with the whole family. They have many different sports courts, 2 different beaches, a small play structure with 2 swing sets, 2 large pavilions that can be reserved for group parties, several grills and picnic tables for people to use and of course the must see giant treehouse that anyone (even in a wheelchair) can just walk (or roll) right on (my personal favorite feature of this park). There are also paddleboard and rollerblade rentals available. Part of the bike path runs all the way through the park from one end to the other. There are also tons of small trails that lead to rocks along the water if you want to find a more private quiet place to relax, sunbathe, paint etc. There is so much to do, you have to see it to get the...