The Best Places to Stay and Do in Lebanon

A spa tucked into 300 acres of Vermont farmland and wilderness, Bridge House sits within the Twin Farms property, where seclusion is the point and the surroundings do most of the work. The setting alone, all rolling fields and forest, makes a strong case for doing very little very slowly. Twin Farms holds a Forbes Four Star and two Michelin Keys, so the spa operates at a particular altitude of calm.

Each of the 28 rooms and cottages at this all-inclusive Vermont resort is decorated in its own distinct world, from a fishing-themed rustic retreat to a full Moroccan hideaway with painted ceilings and tilework. Set on 300 acres of Southern Vermont farmland and forest, it lends itself to hiking, canoeing, fly fishing, and cross-country skiing. The resort holds a Forbes Five Star. Couples tend to find their way here, which says enough.

Laurance Rockefeller built this resort on the village green, and the place has never pretended to be rustic. A thorough renovation has freshened things up without softening the patrician bones: the Woodstock Inn carries a Michelin Key and reads more like a discreet Northeast grande dame than a ski-weekend crash pad. Woodstock, Vermont turns out to have very little in common with that other Woodstock.

A red-brick Federal building sitting directly across from the Dartmouth Green, Hanover Inn is the kind of hotel that has absorbed a few centuries of visiting academics and commencement speeches without losing its composure. Rooms fold contemporary comfort into the old architecture neatly. The on-site restaurant, PINE, runs a seasonal New England menu that earns its own following. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

A rambling 19th-century inn in the Vermont countryside where the rooms still have actual antique furnishings and Woodstock is genuinely out the window. The Michelin Guide has it in Selected Hotels. On property you'll find Ransom Tavern, doing wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and a long wine list Thursday through Sunday, plus a country store café for breakfast and lunch when you need somewhere to be slowly about coffee.