Stowe
A Vermont village under Mount Mansfield, where the von Trapp family settled after leaving Austria and opened a lodge.
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Mount Mansfield is the highest point in Vermont at 1,340 metres and skiing here dates from the 1930s, which makes Stowe among the oldest ski areas in the east - a single chairlift went up in 1940. The village below is white clapboard round a church spire, four miles from the mountain along a road with a paved recreation path beside it. The von Trapp family, whose escape from Austria became The Sound of Music, settled here in the 1940s because the landscape resembled what they had left, and their lodge still operates as a family business with a brewery. The Smugglers' Notch road above the resort is a narrow pass between boulders, closed by snow all winter.
What you actually see
- Mount Mansfield - the highest point in Vermont.
- A ski area from the 1930s - among the oldest in the east.
- The von Trapp lodge - still run by the family.
- Smugglers' Notch - a boulder-narrowed pass, closed in winter.
When to go
December to March for skiing; September to October for foliage. A full day.
Honest expectations
Foliage weekends and holiday weeks fill the valley and prices rise sharply. Smugglers' Notch closes from roughly October to May. Mud season in April is genuinely unpleasant. Lift tickets are expensive.
Nearby
Waterbury and the Ben and Jerry's factory are south; Burlington is west.
What to pack for Stowe
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.