Frommer’s EasyGuide to Vermont

By William Scheller and Kim Know Beckius

Frommer’s comprehensive guide to Vermont fans across this quintessentially American state to show readers how to explore idyllic nature areas, quaint villages, historic sites dating to the country’s earliest days, and laid-back, uncrowded cities. In this region nature decked out in four seasons of finery, from ravishing autumn leaves and wintry ski slopes to glittering lakes in summer. And with Frommer’s, you can count on the sort of honest talk and useful insider tips that have been the brand’s hallmark for more than 60 years. Whether your budget is large or small, Frommer’s equips you with everything you need to discover Vermont like a local.

• Helpful maps
• Accurate, up-to-date info on transportation, useful websites, costs, telephone numbers, and more
• Budget-planning help with the lowdown on prices and ways to save money, whether you’re traveling on a shoestring or in the lap of luxury
• Insightful context about Vermont's history and culture for a deeper understanding of this fascinating area
• Actionable info on how to get out into nature, with reviews of the best trails for hiking and mountain biking, plus info on golf, fishing, climbing, and other outdoor adventures

• Language: English
• Publisher: FrommerMedia
• Release date: Jun 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781628875416

Book preview

Frommer’s Star Ratings System

Every hotel, restaurant, and attraction listed in this guide has been ranked for quality and value. Here’s what the stars mean:

AN IMPORTANT NOTE

The world is a dynamic place. Hotels change ownership, restaurants hike their prices, museums alter their opening hours, and buses and trains change their routings. And all of this can occur in the several months after our authors have visited, inspected, and written about, these hotels, restaurants, museums, and transportation services. Though we have made valiant efforts to keep all our information fresh and up-to-date, some few changes can inevitably occur in the periods before a revised edition of this guidebook is published. So please bear with us if a tiny number of the details in this book have changed. Please also note that we have no responsibility or liability for any inaccuracy or errors or omissions, or for inconvenience, loss, damage, or expenses suffered by anyone as a result of assertions in this guide.

9781628873962_toc_page.tif

On the western bluffs of Newport, Rhode Island, Castle Hill Lighthouse guards the entrance to Narragansett Bay.

CONTENTS

About the Authors

1Vermont

Bennington, Manchester & Environs

Brattleboro & the Southern Green Mountains

Woodstock

Killington & Rutland

Middlebury

The Mad River Valley

Montpelier, Barre & Waterbury

Stowe

Burlington

The Northeast Kingdom

2New England in Context

3Planning Your Trip to New England

9781628874129_fm_toc_fmt.tif

Ready for an Atlantic sunrise over Tenants Harbor, Maine.

ABOUT THE AUTHORs

Kim Knox Beckius is a Connecticut-based travel writer who has hugged a baby moose, tasted 38 different whoopie pies in one sitting, and sent hundreds of free fall leaves in the mail to autumn lovers around the world. She is a Yankee Magazine Contributing Editor, owner of EverythingNewEngland.com, New England Expert for TripSavvy.com (formerly About.com) and the author of seven books including Backroads of New England and New England’s Historic Homes & Gardens. She lives in the Hartford area.

Leslie Brokaw has worked on more than a dozen Frommer’s Guides to Québec and New England. She is an editor for MIT Sloan Management Review and teaches at Emerson College. She and her family live outside of Boston.

Brian Kevin is the editor in chief of Down East magazine and has written for Outside, Travel + Leisure, The New York Times, Audubon and other magazines. His work has been recognized or anthologized in Best Food Writing, Best American Essays and Best American Sports Writing and he’s the author of The Footloose American: Following the Hunter S. Thompson Trail Across South America. He lives in Hope, Maine.

Herbert Bailey Livesey has written about food and travel for over 40 years, authoring or contributing to Frommer’s Montreal & Quebec City, Frommer’s Europe, and Frommer’s New England. In addition, he wrote and revised five guidebooks in the earlier American Express series, which were translated into 11 languages. Scores of his articles have been published in Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Playboy, New York, and Yankee.

Laura Reckford has been exploring and writing about Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as other parts of New England, for more than 20 years. She is the founder and CEO of Cape Cod Wave, an online magazine covering the culture and character of Cape Cod. She is also the executive director of the Falmouth Art Center. She resides in Falmouth, MA.

Barbara Radcliffe Rogers is co-author of seven guidebooks to Italy, three to Spain, and several others covering Europe, Atlantic Canada, and New England. She writes regularly for Global Traveler Magazine and other magazines, newspapers, and websites. Her taste for travel began when she moved to Verona, Italy, soon after graduating from Boston University, and she has since visited every country in Western Europe, and much of Eastern Europe and Latin America. Barbara currently lives in New Hampshire. Wherever she is, she’s likely to be skiing in the winter and kayaking in the summer and discovering new flavors for her blog, Worldbite.

Award-winning travel writer Bill Scheller is a 30-year Vermont resident. His books include America: A History in Art; Colonial New England on Five Shillings a Day; and, with his wife Kay, Best Vermont Drives. Among his more than 300 published articles are numerous features in Yankee magazine on his adopted state. He lives in Randolph, Vermont.

Stillman Rogers is a travel writer and photographer, co-author of guidebooks to Portugal, Italy, and Spain’s Canary Islands, as well as the eastern U.S. and Canada. His photographs have been published in books, magazines, and regularly on Global Traveler’s family travel website, WhereverFamily. He writes about destinations and skiing and has a monthly newspaper travel column. His first foreign travel was after graduating from Harvard, when he was stationed in Italy for 3 years; Italy still remains one of his favorite subjects for photography.

Erin Trahan is an arts journalist who specializes in film, TV, and travel. She is a regular contributor to WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station, and she teaches at Emerson College. She has written extensively for Frommer’s Travel Guides. Erin lives in Marblehead, MA.

1

Vermont

By William Scheller

Vermont’s rolling hills, shaggy peaks, grazing cows, sugar maples, spectacular fall foliage, and quaint towns give it a distinct sense of place. This state is filled with the dairy farms, dirt roads, and small-scale enterprises that bring joy to the hearts of back-road travelers. And the towns are home to an intriguing mix of old-time Vermonters, back-to-the-landers who showed up in VW buses in the 1960s and never left (many got involved with municipal affairs or put down business roots—think Ben & Jerry); and newer, moneyed arrivals from New York or Boston who came to ski or stay at B&Bs and ended up buying second homes—more than a few of which ended up becoming first homes.

The place captures a sense of America as it once was—because here it still is. Vermonters share a sense of community, and they still respect the ideals of thrift and parsimony above those of commercialism. (It took years for Walmart to get approval to build its first big-box store in Vermont, and Montpelier is America’s only state capital without a McDonald’s.) Locals prize their villages, and understand what makes them special. That counts for a lot in an age when so many other small towns have been swallowed up by suburban sprawl or otherwise faded away with changing times.

Vermont remains a superb destination of country drives, mountain rambles, and overnights at country inns. A good map opens the door to back-road adventures, and it’s not hard to get a taste of Vermont’s way of life. The state’s total population is just a shade over 600,000, making it one of only seven states with more senators (two) than representatives (one) in Congress. It does sometimes feel like the cows still outnumber the humans here, although that hasn’t been true since the early 1960s.

Southern Vermont has mostly resisted the encroachments of progress (except at ski resorts on winter weekends), and remains a great introduction to the state. You’ll find plenty of antiques shops, handsome inns, fast-flowing streams (with fish!), and inviting restaurants.

Vermont

2596.jpg

Northern Vermont is different. On the region’s western edge, along the shores of Lake Champlain, Burlington—the state’s largest, liveliest city—is ringed by fast-growing suburban communities and industrial parks of the non-smokestack variety. But drive an hour east and you’re deep in the Northeast Kingdom, the state’s least developed, most lost-in-time region.

There are remnants of older industries here—marble quarries in Danby, converging train tracks at White River Junction, a GE plant in Rutland that makes jet engine parts—but mostly it’s still rural living: cow pastures high in the hills, clapboard farmhouses under spreading trees, maple-sugaring operations, and the distant sound of timber being cut in woodlots. New and old co-exist here peaceably, and there are few better places to be on a summer or fall afternoon—winter, too, if you love the season’s sports. (April mud season? Not so much . . . )

Bennington, Manchester & Environs

Bennington: 143 miles NW of Boston; 126 miles S of Burlington. Arlington: 15 miles N of Bennington. Manchester: 24 miles N of Bennington.

Bennington (motto: Where Vermont Begins) owes its significance to a handful of eponymous moments, places, and things. There’s the Battle of Bennington, fought in 1777 during the American War of Independence (although the battle actually occurred across the border in New York State); Bennington College, a small, prestigious liberal-arts school just outside town; and Bennington pottery, which traces its ancestry back to the original factory in 1793 and is still prized by collectors for its superb quality.

North of Bennington, a string of closely spaced villages—Arlington, Manchester, and Dorset—presents Vermont at its most Vermont, making the area an ideal destination for a romantic getaway, antiquing trip, or even a serious outlet-shopping trip. This corner of the state is also renowned among anglers because of a winding tributary of the Hudson River called the Battenkill, home of wily populations of brook and brown trout.

Each of the towns has its own unique charm; you can even visit all of them in a single day if you sleep locally and get up early. That would be a pity, though—even a week’s travel would reveal only a portion of the superb lodging and dining possibilities in an area that offers sophisticated hospitality along with bucolic beauty.

Essentials

Arriving

Bennington is at the intersection of Vermont state routes 9 and 7. If you’re coming from the south, the nearest interstate access is via the New York State Thruway at Albany, about 35 miles away. (But you have to drive through the city of Troy first, which takes time; figure 45 min. or more from the Thruway to downtown Bennington.) From the east, I-91 is about 40 miles away at Brattleboro via Route 9 (the Molly Stark Trail). Arlington and Manchester lie north of Bennington on Historic Route 7A, which runs parallel to and west of Route 7 (it’s 15 miles to Arlington, 24 miles to Manchester). Dorset is 7 miles north of Manchester Center on Route 30.

Visitor Information

The Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, 100 Veterans Memorial Dr. (www.bennington.com; Black-Phone_bphone.jpg

 

802/447-3311

), maintains a visitor center on Route 7 about 1 mile north of downtown, near the veterans’ complex. This office is open weekdays 9am to 5pm year-round, and also on Saturdays until 1pm mid-May through mid-October. There’s also a downtown welcome center

(

Black-Phone_bphone.jpg

 

802/442-5758

) in a former blacksmith shop at South and Elm streets; look for the big blue flag. Operated by the other BBC—the Better Bennington Corporation, of course—it’s open Monday through Friday year-round, and has a big map of the area to orient you.

There’s a Manchester Visitors Center at 4802 Main St. in Manchester Center; information on the town is also available at www.manchestervermont.com or www.manchesterdesigneroutlets.com. Arlington maintains its own small, self-serve visitor information center at the Stewart’s gas station on Route 7A. Just take what you need.

For information on outdoor recreation, the Green Mountain National Forest maintains a district ranger office

(

Black-Phone_bphone.jpg

 

802/362-2307

) in Manchester Center at 2538 Depot St. It’s open Monday through Friday from 8am to 4:30pm.

Exploring Bennington Red-Star1_redstar1.jpg

Today visitors will find a Bennington of two faces. Historic Bennington (more commonly known as Old Bennington Black-Star2_bstar2.jpg ), with its handsome white clapboard homes and magnificently steepled Old First Church, sits atop a hill west of town off Route 9. Downtown Bennington, on the other hand, is a pleasant commercial center where practical shops mix with a brew pub, a craft shop in an old bank, and a diner that harks back to the ’50s. The downtown boasts a fair number of architecturally striking buildings. In particular, don’t miss the stern marble Federal building (formerly the post office) with six fluted columns at 118 South St., and the massive granite Sacred Heart-St. Francis DeSales church.

Turn off Route 9 in Old Bennington’s little traffic circle to visit the Bennington Battle Monument Black-Star2_bstar2.jpg

(

Black-Phone_bphone.jpg

 

802/447-0550

). Dedicated in 1891, this 306-foot obelisk of blue limestone resembles a shorter, paunchier Washington Monument. (This is not the battle site—that’s about 6 miles northwest of here in New York State—but the monument marks the spot where American munitions were stored.) The monument’s viewing platform, which is reached by elevator, is open daily from 9am to 5pm from mid-April through October, and affords wonderful views that extend into New York and Massachusetts. A diorama depicting the battle is on view at ground level. A small fee ($5 adults, $1 kids ages 6–14) is charged. On holidays and during the last 2 weeks of each year, the monument is lit up.

Near the monument, you’ll find distinguished old homes lushly overarched with ancient trees. Be sure to spend a minute exploring the old burying ground Black-Star1_bstar1.jpg behind the First Congregational Church, where the great poet Robert Frost and several Vermont governors are buried (see I Had a Lover’s Quarrel with the World box, left). The chamber of commerce provides a walking-tour brochure that helps you make sense of this neighborhood’s formerly vibrant past.

Bennington College Black-Star1_bstar1.jpg , just northwest of downtown Bennington, was founded in the 1930s as an experimental women’s college. It later went co-ed and garnered a national reputation as a liberal-arts school with a special reputation for teaching writing: Pulitzer Prize–winning poet W. H. Auden, novelist Bernard Malamud (The Natural), and novelist John Gardner (Grendel) all taught here. In the 1980s, Bennington produced a fresh wave of prominent young authors, including Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, and Jill Eisenstadt. The pleasant campus north of town is worth wandering; to get there, take the North Bennington Road (Route 67A) turnoff north of downtown (near the Bennington Square Shopping Center) and follow it about 2 miles north. There are also three attractive covered bridges near the college.

The Bennington Museum Red-Star2_redstar2.jpg MUSEUM   This eclectic and intriguing collection is one of the best small museums in northern New England. The museum traces its roots back to the 1850s, although it has occupied its current stone-and-column home overlooking the valley since only 1928. Expansive galleries feature a range of exhibits on local arts and industry, including early Vermont furniture, glass, paintings, and Bennington pottery. Of special interest are the many colorful primitive landscapes by Grandma Moses (1860–1961), who lived much of her life nearby. (This museum has the largest collection of Moses paintings in the world.) There’s also lots of American glass; a globe by Vermonter James Wilson, the nation’s first globe maker; the Bennington flag, the oldest surviving stars–and–stripes flag; and a 1925 Martin Wasp luxury car. (Only 16 were ever made, handcrafted in Bennington by Karl Martin between 1920 and 1925.) Surprisingly—given the museum’s antiquarian character—substantial space has recently been given to 20th-century artists such as Rockwell Kent and Helen Frankenthaler. Rotating special exhibits bring in serious art that’s sometimes unrelated to local history, such as a show of rarely shown works by Renoir, Monet, and Degas or a show of Haitian quilts. This is a great find.

75 W. Main St. (Rte. 9 btw. Old Bennington and downtown). www.benningtonmuseum.org. Red-Phone_redphone.jpg

 

802/447-1571.

$10 adults, $9 seniors and students, free for kids 17 and under, $19 family. June–Oct daily 10am–5pm; Feb–May and Nov–Dec Thurs–Tues 10am–5pm; closed Jan.

Exploring Arlington, Manchester & Dorset Red-Star3_redstar3.jpg

Driving north from Bennington on Route 7A, you’ll come first to the tiny town center of Arlington Black-Star2_bstar2.jpg . With its auto-body shop, hub-of-town gas station/convenience store, ice-cream shop, and redemption center (all remnants of a time when the main highway passed right through town), this is a real, functioning Vermont village. It also has a great riverside campground (Camping on the Battenkill; www.campingonthebattenkill.com), an unusual number of good farmhouses-converted-into-inns on the surrounding roads, and an enduring connection with Norman Rockwell, who lived in Arlington from 1939 to 1953. There’s a Rockwell Exhibition at a maple products shop called the Sugar Shack (Route 7A; Black-Phone_bphone.jpg

 

802/375-6747

), with reproductions of paintings and magazine covers for which he used local folks as models; several still live in the area.

Some 8 miles north of Arlington on 7A, Manchester (also sometimes called Manchester Village) and Manchester Center share a blurred town line and proximity, but maintain very different characters. The more southerly