5 Best Hotels in Southern Vermont, Vermont

This renovated 19th-century manse, once the residence of the town's pastor, incorporates a modern boutique aesthetic into the traditional-style inn, especially in the attached gastropub, which features a long, polished metal bar and backlighted marble. Guest rooms, named after birds, maintain a nice balance of old and new in furniture and decor; the 6-acre property also includes several cottages, tennis courts, a pool, and an outdoor patio with a fire pit.

Though not lavish, the guest rooms in this 1938 art deco building have the original sinks and tiling in the bathrooms, and many overlook Main Street, with New Hampshire's mountains in the background. The lobby has original and notably colorful terrazzo floors, and downstairs you can catch a movie under the zodiac ceiling of the Latchis Theatre or walk a few blocks to most of Brattleboro's shops, restaurants, and pubs.

This 1801 classic encourages you to linger on its wraparound porches, in its authentically Colonial common rooms, or with a book by the fire in its old-fashioned library, but those who want to get outside can access the nearby Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center and its 2,000 acres of trails, forests, and fields. The main building, with two-story columns gracing its front, contains 11 guest rooms; the rest are dispersed among three other close-by buildings.

Stepping into this hilltop 1902 Tudor-style mansion, you might think you've stumbled on a lavish film set: there's a palpably cinematic quality to the richly paneled guest rooms and the common rooms, which make an ideal setting for "murder-mystery weekends," "Innkeeper's Daughter Cabaret," and more quirky events. Besides the main inn, six guest buildings are spread over the 20-acre grounds, which is also dotted with a fascinating series of sculptures called the Museum of the Creative Process.