97 Best Sights in Vermont, USA

Along Burlington's "new" North End a long line of beaches stretches to the Winooski River delta, beginning with North Beach, which has a grassy picnic area, a snack bar, and boat rentals. Neighboring Leddy Park offers a more secluded beach. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: partiers; swimming; walking; windsurfing.

The 399-acre North Hero has a swimming beach and nature trails. It's open to rowboats, kayaks, and canoes.

Routes 14, 5, 58, and 100 make for a scenic drive around the Northeast Kingdom, so named for the remoteness and stalwart independence that have helped preserve its rural nature. You can extend the loop and head east on Route 105 to the city of Newport on Lake Memphremagog. Some of the most unspoiled areas in all Vermont are on the drive south from Newport on either U.S. 5 or Interstate 91 (the latter is faster, but the former is prettier).

West of downtown, this National Register Historic District is well endowed with stately Colonial and Victorian mansions. The site of the Catamount Tavern, where Ethan Allen organized the Green Mountain Boys to capture Ft. Ticonderoga in 1775, is marked by a bronze statue of Vermont's indigenous mountain lion, now extinct.

The architecturally significant Park-McCullough House is a 35-room classic French Empire–style mansion, built in 1865 and furnished with period pieces. Several restored flower gardens grace the landscaped grounds, and a barn holds some antique carriages. Guided tours happen on the hour while the house is open. The grounds are open daily year-round.

Tiny Peacham, 10 miles southwest of St. Johnsbury, is on almost every tour group's list of "must-sees." With views extending to the White Mountains of New Hampshire and a white-steeple church, Peacham is perhaps the most photographed town in New England. The movie adaptation of Ethan Frome, starring Liam Neeson, was filmed here. The soups and stews are especially tasty at Peacham Café, which serves breakfast and lunch. Next door, the Peacham Corner Guild sells local handicrafts.

A once-abandoned relic of the Industrial Revolution, Pine Street is the heartbeat of Burlington's recently revamped South End Arts District, an enclave of bars, restaurants, breweries, art galleries, and eateries. Start at the intersection of Pine and Maple Street and begin walking south to find a treasure trove of all things art, music, food, and drink. Dedalus Wine Market & Bar has one of the most expansive selections of natural wine on the East Coast. Myers Bagels has been turning out wood-fired, Montréal-style bagels for over twenty years. The S.P.A.C.E Gallery and Conant Metal & Light attract artists from within state borders and far beyond, and the popular restaurant and performance venue ArtsRiot hosts weekly food truck celebrations in the warmer months. Make sure to stop by The Soda Plant, a small business incubator with over thirty local artisans, artists, and makers inside a newly refurbished 19th-century industrial soda factory, including nationally acclaimed Brio Coffeeworks.

Nine miles upriver, this town of fewer than 3,000 residents—the country cousin of bustling Brattleboro—is a haven for writers and fine-craft artists. There are many pottery studios to visit, the requisite general store, and a few orchards. Each November during the Putney Craft Tour, dozens of artisans open their studios and homes for live demonstrations and plenty of fun.

Red Clover Ale opened in Brandon's tiny town center under the reigns of two brothers and a brother-in-law. The family trio focuses on creative ales alongside skilled representations of the classics, like their pitch-perfect pilsners and stouts. Their ongoing IPA series is as special as the birds they're named after, like American Redstart and Yellow Warbler. Excellent pop-up food vendors are occasionally found on-site—otherwise, a corkboard near the entrance is covered in local takeout menus for perusing to one's liking.

Plaques along this easy 1.2-mile wooded trail bear quotations from Frost's poems. A picnic area is across the road from the trailhead.

Robert Frost came to Shaftsbury in 1920, he wrote, "to plant a new Garden of Eden with a thousand apple trees of some unforbidden variety." The museum, now part of Bennington College, tells the story of the poet's life and highlights the nine years (1920–29) he spent living in the house with his wife and four children. It was here that he penned "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and published two books of poetry. You can wander 7 of the Frost family's original 80 acres. Among the apple boughs you just might find inspiration of your own.

Attractions here range from the awe-inspiring (the quarry resembles the Grand Canyon in miniature) to the mildly ghoulish (you can consult a directory of tombstone dealers throughout the country) to the whimsical (an outdoor granite bowling alley). At the crafts center, skilled artisans sculpt monuments and blast stone, while at the quarries themselves, workers who clearly earn their pay cut 25-ton blocks of stone from the sheer 475-foot walls. (You may recognize these walls from a chase scene in the 2009 Star Trek movie.)

One of Vermont's best swimming beaches is at Sand Bar State Park, along with a snack bar, a changing room, and boat rentals.

From U.S. 7, you'll see rows and rows of organically grown vines. Visit the attractive tasting room and learn how wine is made. Also available on-site is a Shelburne Vineyard collaboration called Iaepetus, a natural wine label from notable biodynamic winemaker Ethan Joseph.

Vermont's first vineyard was started here in 1996; today, the winery specializes in nontraditional botanical hybrid grapes designed to take advantage of the island's microclimate, similar to that of Burgundy, France. Take a self-guided tour and sip some samples in the tasting room—dessert wines are the strong suit. On Thursday evening, late May–September, you can picnic and enjoy the free concerts on the lawn.

This spot marks the site where, in 1665, French soldiers and Jesuits put ashore and built a fort, creating Vermont's first European settlement. Vermont's first Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated here on July 26, 1666.

Master Sommelier David Keck moved home to Vermont in 2020 and started making wine with grapes from one of the state's oldest vineyards at Boyden Valley Winery. Now, Stella14's full lineup — from effervescent, lively pet-nats to intense, serious Frontenac Noir — is poured by the glass in the cozy tasting room or out on its large back patio and lawn. Wines from other Vermont producers such as La Garagista Farm + Winery, Ellison Estate Vineyard, and Iapetus are available for side-by-side tasting, too.

On tours of this factory co-op, you can watch workers using vintage equipment spin alpaca, mohair, wool, and organic cotton into yarn. The shop sells yarn, knitting accessories, and patterns.

In the graveyard of this church, the tombstone of the poet Robert Frost proclaims, "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."

Crowning the hilltop above Burlington is the University of Vermont, known as UVM for the abbreviation of its Latin name, Universitas Viridis Montis, meaning the University of the Green Mountains. With nearly 12,000 students, this is the state's principal institution of higher learning. The most architecturally impressive buildings face the main campus green and have gorgeous lake views, as does the statue of founder Ira Allen, Ethan's brother.

The Morgan horse, Vermont's official state animal, has an even temper, high stamina, and slightly truncated legs in proportion to its body. This farm, about 2½ miles west of Middlebury, is a breeding and training center where in summer you can tour the stables and paddocks.

The redbrick center's exhibits include photography, antiques, folk paintings, manuscripts, and other artifacts and contemporary works that examine various facets of Vermont life.

The collection here, begun in 1838, focuses on all things Vermont—from a catamount (the now-extinct local cougar) to Ethan Allen's shoe buckles. The museum store stocks fine books, prints, and gifts. A second location in Barre, the Vermont History Center, has rotating exhibits with notable photographs and artifacts.

Next to Quechee Gorge, this science center has 17 raptor exhibits, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and owls. All caged birds were found injured and are unable to survive in the wild. In summer, experience "Raptors Up Close," a 30-minute live bird program that happens three times a day.

The state's skiing and snowboarding history is documented here. Exhibits cover subjects such as the 10th Mountain Division of World War II, the national ski patrol, Winter Olympians, and the evolution of equipment. An early World Cup trophy is on loan, and one of the most memorable mobiles you'll ever see, made from a gondola and ski-lift chairs, hangs from the ceiling. One recent exhibit, Slope Style, focused on ski fashion from 1930 to 2014.