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Vermont

Vermont is an entire state of hidden treasures. Sprawl has no place here. The pristine countryside is dotted with farms and tiny towns with church steeples, village greens, and clapboard colonial-era houses. Highways are devoid of billboards by law, and on some roads, cows still stop traffic twice a day, en route to and from the pasture. In spring, sap boils in sugarhouses, some built generations ago, and up the road, a chef trained at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier might use the maple syrup to glaze a pork tenderloin.

It's the landscape, for the most part, that attracts people to Vermont. The rolling hills belie the rugged terrain underneath the green canopy of forest growth. In summer, clear lakes and streams provide ample opportunities for swimming, boating, and fishing; the hills attract hikers and mountain bikers. The more than 14,000 mi of roads, many of them only intermittently traveled by cars, are great for road biking. In fall, the leaves have their last hurrah, painting the mountainsides a stunning array of yellow, gold, red, and orange. In winter, Vermont's ski resorts are the prime enticement. Here you'll find the best ski resorts in the eastern U.S., centered along the spine of the Green Mountains north to south. The traditional heart of skiing is the town of Stowe.

Vermont may, in many ways, seem locked in time, but technological sophistication appears where you least expect it: wireless Internet access in a 19th-century farmhouse-turned-inn and cell phone coverage from the state's highest peaks. Luckily, these 21st-century perks have been able to infiltrate without many visual cues. Like an old farmhouse under renovation, Vermont's historic exterior is still the main attraction.

Central Vermont

Central Vermont's economy once centered on marble quarrying and mills. But today, as in much of the rest of the state, tourism... (more)

Northern Vermont

Vermont's northernmost region reveals the state's greatest contrasts. To the west, Burlington and its suburbs have grown so rapidly... (more)

Southern Vermont

Cross into the Green Mountain State from Massachusetts on Interstate 91, and you might feel as if you've entered a new country... (more)