8 Romantic Small Towns In Vermont For A 3-Day Weekend

A romantic weekend in Vermont can mean 1,000 peony blooms in a Manchester garden, maple sap simmering on a Stowe farm, or a sunset photo by Burlington's 38-drawer filing-cabinet sculpture. None of these towns are big, and that is the point. Each one offers a slow long weekend with someone you brought along, set against covered bridges, mountain valleys, and lakes that the locals still treat as everyday backyards. Eight Vermont towns set up a different kind of getaway.

Peru

Peru sits among several peaks of the Green Mountains, including Bromley Mountain and Peru Peak, and it works for couples who measure a weekend in trail miles. The closest hike is around Hapgood Pond, in the Green Mountain National Forest, an easy loop that suits a slow morning. In winter, the same town turns into a base for skiing at Bromley Mountain Ski Resort.

Off the trail, The Trailhead serves Mexican and American food, and the Main Street Makery Art Gallery makes a quick stop on a walking afternoon. The Sun Lodge is a workable base for a three-day stay if mountain views are the priority.

Brattleboro

Brattleboro mixes historic places with cafes that work for a long date night. Just outside downtown in West Brattleboro, the Creamery Covered Bridge has stood across Whetstone Brook since 1879, an 80-foot, 19-foot-wide red lattice-truss span and the last surviving 19th-century covered bridge in town. Brattleboro was also a major center for pipe organ manufacturing, and the Estey Organ Museum tells that story in the company's old factory district.

For music, the Stone Church is a former Gothic church turned into one of the more distinctive small venues in the country, with regular touring shows. Other low-key options for a weekend include walking the trails at Retreat Farm or settling in for a long conversation at The Works Cafe. The Chesterfield Inn, in a renovated farmhouse, makes a workable home base.

Montpelier

The capital of Vermont has just over 8,000 residents, which makes it a small-town getaway that happens to come with a gold-domed State House. The current State House dates to 1859 and is one of the oldest still in active use in the country. Free guided tours run when the legislature is not in session. The Vermont History Center Museum holds collections going back to the 1600s for couples who like a slower morning indoors.

Hubbard Park rises right next to downtown, with a 54-foot stone observation tower looking over the town and the surrounding hills. The Montpelier Recreation Path runs paved along the Winooski River. Montpelier holds itself out as the only US state capital without a McDonald's, and the local restaurants reflect that, including Sarducci's, an Italian spot on the river. The Reynolds House Bed and Breakfast and the High Hill Inn both work for a two- or three-night stay.

Manchester

The Green Mountains drew their share of well-known visitors, including Abraham Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln, who built his summer home Hildene in Manchester in 1905. The 24-room Georgian Revival mansion is open for tours, with a formal garden that blooms more than 1,000 peony flowers each June and exhibits on Lincoln family life.

Manchester also has a working art and theater scene. The Weston Theater Company performs through the summer, and the Museum of the Creative Process holds a sculpture trail and the Panels of the Wizard of Oz, which read the story through the lens of conflict and creativity. The Seven Springs Garden displays sculptures made from natural materials against the Green Mountains backdrop. The Inn at Ormsby Hill and The Reluctant Panther are both within a short drive of the town's main attractions.

Stowe

Stowe sits in the shadow of Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont at 4,393 feet. The mountain is the backdrop for everything else in town, but it does not require a hard hike to access. A drive through Smuggler's Notch, the mountain pass between Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak that smugglers used during the War of 1812 and again during Prohibition, gives most of the views from the car. The Stowe Recreation Path is a paved walking and biking route that follows the Little River through meadows and woods.

Stowe is in the middle of maple country, and sugarhouses around town tap trees and run sap each spring. The town center is a tight village of family-owned restaurants like Butler's Pantry. The Bluebird Cady Hill Lodge sits within walking distance of the village.

Dorset

Dorset sits in the Vermont Valley between the Taconic Mountains and the Green Mountains, and the town leans toward couples who would rather get into the water than look at it from a porch. Emerald Lake State Park has a swimming beach and a walking loop, with non-motorized boats only, which keeps the lake quiet. The Dorset Quarry, a deep open-water swimming hole carved out of an old marble quarry, regularly turns up on lists of the best swimming holes in the country.

In the village, the Dorset Union Store has been operating since 1816 and serves sandwiches, soups, and salads alongside its general-store stock. The Dorset Exchange Consignment Gallery is good for clothes, home decor, or a small collectible. For lodging, the Barrows House sits on a six-acre garden estate, with cottages that have fireplaces and whirlpool baths.

Plymouth

Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president at his father's farmhouse in Plymouth Notch on August 3, 1923, after the death of Warren G. Harding. His father, a notary public, administered the oath by lamplight. The President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site preserves the homestead, the general store, and the small village around it. Coolidge State Park is just up the road, with trails through the Black River valley toward the Green Mountains and a chance at sightings of barred owls and the occasional black bear.

Plymouth Artisan Cheese still operates inside the village, and visitors can watch how the cheese is made or pick up a block to take home. A few minutes south, the town of Ludlow has more restaurants for an evening, including The Loft Tavern and Off The Rails. The Inn at Water's Edge sits on a small lake near Ludlow, and Coolidge State Park has campsites for couples who want to be even closer to the trails.

Burlington

Burlington has a population of about 44,000, which makes it the largest city in Vermont and still small enough to walk end to end. It regularly turns up on lists of the most walkable cities in the US, and the walks turn up odd things. Bren Alvarez's File Under So. Co., Waiting for..., a 38-drawer stack of 11 stacked filing cabinets billed locally as the "Tallest Filing Cabinet on Earth," is the kind of thing the city does well.

The walking takes in lakeside ground at Waterfront Park on Lake Champlain and Red Rocks Park, which has a swim area and overlooks. For evenings, the Vermont Comedy Club runs local stand-up, and the Fleming Museum of Art holds more than 24,000 works. Lodging options include the Blind Tiger, an 1881 brick mansion run as a B&B, and the Lang House on Main Street.

Romantic Vermont

Vermont's small towns work for a long weekend because they were not built around tourism in the first place. The covered bridge in Brattleboro, the working sugarhouses around Stowe, the State House dome in Montpelier, and the village around Coolidge's homestead in Plymouth all kept their original purposes, and a couple visiting from out of state slips into the same scene the locals are already in. Pick the town that matches the kind of weekend you want, mountains, water, history, or city walking, and the rest of the trip tends to fall into place around it.