Vermont Farm Country & Woodstock Village

The Woodstock Green is the architectural standard by which all New England village greens are measured — the 1807 Congregational Church, the 1832 Unitarian Church, and the 1825 Norman Williams Public Library surround the oval green, with no building taller than three stories and no national chain visible from the green's perimeter. Laurence Rockefeller and his wife Mary French worked to preserve the village's character for 50 years.

Vermont's only National Park — the 1807 Charles Marsh house, expanded by Frederick Billings in 1869 into a model working dairy farm, and given to the National Park Service in 1992 by Laurance Rockefeller and Mary French. The Billings Farm museum in the working farm buildings demonstrates 19th-century agricultural practice; the carriage roads through the working forest above the farm are open to walking. The collection of Hudson River School paintings in the mansion is significant.

A Woodstock restaurant in a 1790 brick cottage on Elm Street, serving contemporary New England cuisine since 1981. The prix-fixe dinner menu changes seasonally; the wine list of 350 bottles is the finest in central Vermont. The bistro menu in the bar room is less formal and less expensive.

A working Jersey dairy farm on the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller property, producing farmstead cheddar and butter from a herd that has been managed on the same principles since Frederick Billings introduced scientific farming methods in 1871. The museum demonstrates 19th-century farming practice in the original 1890 farm buildings; the creamery produces the cheese on-site.

The most celebrated country inn in New England, in a 1793 building on the Woodstock Green, with a dining room serving Vermont ingredients — Cabot cheddar, Vermont-raised Angus beef, maple-glazed root vegetables — in a room with original wide-plank floors and a center fireplace.

Vermont's Little Grand Canyon — a 165-foot deep gorge carved by the Ottauquechee River through the bedrock of the Quechee Gorge State Park, visible from the 1875 highway bridge above and accessible by a 1.5-mile trail that descends to the river level. The Vermont Institute of Natural Science's raptor center is adjacent, housing non-releasable raptors including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and great horned owls.

A restaurant in the 1800s Quechee Mill, above the falls of the Ottauquechee River, where Simon Pearce's glassblowing studio has operated since 1981. The restaurant serves Irish-influenced New England cuisine on the house's own handblown glassware and earthenware pottery; the dining room windows face the millpond and waterfall. The studio is open for observation during the day.

An 1836 multiple kingpost truss bridge over the Ottauquechee River — one of the oldest covered bridges in Vermont and among the finest surviving examples of the form. The bridge is open to single-lane vehicle traffic; the adjacent swimming hole under the bridge is active from June through September. The covered bridge circuit through Windsor County includes 15 bridges within 20 miles.

A working maple and cheese farm on a hilltop above Woodstock, producing 10 varieties of waxed farmstead cheese and maple products from a sugarhouse that taps 4,000 trees each March. The farm store is open year-round; in sugaring season (February-April) the sugarhouse is in operation and the maple cream is made fresh. The view from the hilltop covers the entire Woodstock valley.

A popular Woodstock gastropub in a converted farmhouse on US-4, serving local Vermont burgers, craft beers, and seasonal comfort food to the covered bridge crowd. The Worthy Kitchen's rotating tap list covers the best of Vermont's craft brewery scene; the house-ground burger and the Vermont cheddar soup are crowd favorites before the drive south.