Woodstock Inn & Resort, Vermont

Location 

Woodstock is one of the most quintessential of the quintessentially quaint Vermont towns. The Woodstock Inn & Resort was built on the village green by Laurence Rockefeller in 1969 – incorporating a 17th century tavern in its build – and remains one of the top choices for visitors to New England looking to take advantage of the area’s top skiing and golf options. Woodstock, for example, is the site of one of America’s oldest ski resorts – misleadingly named Suicide Six – and the inn still runs its own full-service ski centre. Both the inn and the green are flanked by shops, restaurants and art galleries, all within an easy stroll of the front door.

Accommodation 

The sense of being close to nature that Rockefeller first intended for the inn is as evident today as it ever was. Rooms feature hand-crafted bed frames and furniture made by talented local artisans. Several – especially those in the Tavern wing – come with wood-burning fireplaces. Higher categories also feature private sunrooms or parlour rooms, or in the case of the Executive Suite, a separate bedroom, living room and dining room. Several of the beautiful, locally made items used to decorate the rooms can also be bought in the gift shop.

Dining 

Lunch at the inn’s Red Rooster restaurant features upmarket comfort food like gourmet burgers and lobster mac and cheese. Dinner is a more refined affair, with a lot of effort made to source the best ingredients from local farms and producers. Even the more casual Richardson Tavern has joined the march to support local suppliers, pledging to source 90% of its ingredients from the state of Vermont. To this end, the resort also operates its own large organic garden, and offers gardening classes and garden tours to guests. Another acquisition has been a cabin on nearby Mt Tom, a popular park and hiking spot. In winter, they run a weekly snowshoe dinner where up to 16 guests can snowshoe the mile and a half up to the cabin with a resort chef, who’ll then cook them dinner before everyone descends by torchlight. Tea and homemade cookies are also served free of charge in the afternoons.

Facilities 

Aside from having its own ski resort, Suicide Six, the resort offers extensive hiking and mountain biking trails, a full-service spa as good as any in Vermont, a large fitness and sports centre (complete with gym, studios for classes, indoor and outdoor tennis courts and even a croquet lawn), and a golf course designed by fabled course designer Robert Trent Jones Sr., a lifelong friend of Rockefeller.