Woodstock

Woodstock is the shire town of Windsor County, Vermont, a town of 3,005 people whose incorporated village of about 900 is the part travellers mean. The village is a near-perfect New England composition: a green ringed by Federal and Greek Revival houses, the Ottauquechee River bending through the middle, a covered bridge in the centre of town and wooded Mount Tom rising behind. The Rockefeller family's conservation legacy shapes the place: Laurance Rockefeller married into the Billings family here, and their gifts preserved both the village and its landscape. It is regularly named among America's prettiest small towns, and the billing survives contact with the place.

Two sites anchor a visit. Billings Farm and Museum is a working Jersey-cow dairy farm and museum of Vermont rural life at the edge of the village. Across the road, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park protects the mansion, gardens and managed forest of three conservation-minded owners, with carriage roads climbing Mount Tom to a summit overlook above the village. In the centre, the Middle Covered Bridge, the Woodstock History Center and the shops and galleries of Elm and Central streets fill an afternoon. The Taftsville Covered Bridge, a few miles east, is one of Vermont's oldest.

For a village this small the food is strong: the Woodstock Inn's restaurants, farm-to-table dining rooms drawing on Champlain Valley farms, cafés, a well-stocked village grocery and ice cream on the green. The Taste of Woodstock festival each August turns the centre over to local chefs. Evenings are quiet by design: dinner, a walk over the covered bridge and perhaps a performance or film, then early bed. The nearest thing to nightlife is a tavern bar and the inn's game room. A seasonal farmers market sets up on the green in the middle of the village.

The Woodstock Inn and Resort is the grand option on the green, joined by a deep bench of bed and breakfasts and country inns in the village and along the river roads, plus motels east toward Quechee and White River Junction. Silver Lake State Park, fifteen minutes north in Barnard, provides the nearest campground. The village itself is completely walkable; you need the car for Quechee Gorge, the ski hill at Saskadena Six in South Pomfret and the wider valley. Amtrak's Vermonter stops at White River Junction, about fifteen miles east, and Lebanon Municipal Airport has scheduled flights.

Woodstock runs on three seasons. Foliage, peaking from late September into mid-October, is the peak of peaks, when the village fills and rooms book a year ahead. Summer is green and busy, with the farm, trails and swimming holes at their best. Winter brings skiing at Saskadena Six, sleigh rides at Billings Farm and the Wassail Weekend in December, with horse-drawn parades and historic-house tours. Spring mud season is the one quiet window. Two to three days covers the farm, the park and the village properly.

Woodstock sits on U.S. Route 4 in the Ottauquechee valley, the natural stop between White River Junction and I-91 to the east and Rutland and Killington to the west. Quechee Gorge, Vermont's deepest, is ten minutes east on the same road. It is the classic overnight on a Vermont foliage loop, pairing with the Green Mountain gaps to the north and the Connecticut River valley towns to the east. Hanover and Dartmouth College are forty minutes north.