75 years of perfecting the family vacation

By Suzanne Rowan Kelleher

updated 3:14 p.m. ET June 22, 2009

For any parent who’s ever returned from a getaway with kids more exhausted and stressed than before, here’s some welcome news: The phrase “family vacation” doesn’t have to be an oxymoron. Proof positive can be found in the northwestern corner of Vermont, where one of America’s most acclaimed family resorts is celebrating its 75^th anniversary. Every summer since 1934, the Tyler Place Family Resort has welcomed families to the shores of Lake Champlain with an understanding that parents need a vacation as much—or perhaps more—than their kids do. Along the way, the resort become the gold standard of family vacations (see WeJustGotBack.com’s review) and gained a legion of loyal guests who return year after year.

Individualism is every bit as fundamental to Vermont's personality as steepled churches, maple trees, and Ben & Jerry's. And from the beginning, the Tylers did things differently. “My mother never wanted to be in the hospitality business and she never approached this as a business. It was just a hobby that got out of hand,” says Ted Tyler, who co-directs the resort with his sister, Pixley Tyler Hill.

Their mother was Judy Tyler, affectionately remembered as “Mrs. T.,” who founded The Tyler Place with her husband and two relatives and then headed up operations until her death in 1996. Judy had a Masters in Education from Cornell and knew a thing or two about how to keep kids happy and engaged. But she also had a crazy notion that parents need their own downtime. “Most of all, my mother loved romance,” says Pixley. “She wanted to have a martini with her husband in the evenings. Making sure the kids were having fun was a way to have time to connect as a couple at the end of the day.”

It was Judy who created the resort’s acclaimed and award-winning children’s program, in which kids are separated into nine age-staggered groups. Each group has its own clubhouse and follows its own schedule of activities, doing new and exciting things every day. Kids learn to play classics like Capture the Flag and Kick the Can, swim in the lake, bounce on the giant water trampoline, catch frogs, and go fishing. There are crafts and nature hikes and silly camp songs, including one about a sticky moose and some juice. As children move up from one group to the next, more challenging activities are added to the line-up. While a 4-year-old might watch puppet shows, cool off at the Splash Pad, and enjoy pontoon boat rides, her 12-year-old brother could be kayaking, going on banana boat rides, and ziplining across the meadow.

This year, as part of the 75th anniversary celebration, new activities have been added to the roster. “We’re creating events to take you back in time,” says Ted’s son Chad, who heads up the resort’s entertainment. “For example, kids are getting to do some ice-cream making, and we’re taking kids out on homemade rafts so they can pole around the bay.”

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Guests arrive at The Tyler Place on Saturday and stay for an entire week. In the mornings, kids meet in their groups while their parents can hike, kayak, take a yoga or pottery class, or join in a dozen other workshops or activities. Families reunite in the afternoon for several hours of downtime at the pool, trips to a local farm, or watersports on the lake. And then come early evening, the kids return to their groups for movie nights and pizza parties, while their parents head up to the inn for cocktails and dinner. For Tyler Place devotees, this schedule creates the perfect balance of family time, alone time, couple time, and social time. “Parents truly get a vacation here, and I think that’s huge,” says Roberta Hefferman of Lexington, Mass., who has been coming to the Tyler Place for seven years. “You not only get some time to yourself, but you get to take amazing classes and do new things. And there’s never any parental guilt, because your kids are having way too much fun.”

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“Kids are social animals,” says Chad matter-of-factly. “So when you take away the crutches and electronic devices, they get to interact.” For their part, parents love seeing their kids enjoying the sense of freedom they remember from childhood. “My kids do not mention TV or video games for the entire week, and I just love that,” says Hefferman.

For grown-ups, a week at The Tyler Place means experiencing a genuine slice of Vermont. Guests stay at the inn or in charmingly rustic cottages, enjoy meals elevated by local farmhouse cheeses and homemade maple-balsamic salad dressing, and spend mornings in workshops run by local crafters, outdoor enthusiasts, and naturalists.

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