Stowe

Stowe is a small mountain town of about 4,300 residents in north-central Vermont's Lamoille County, 60 kilometers northeast of Burlington (Vermont's largest city) at 220 meters elevation in the Green Mountains. The town sits in the Stowe Valley along the West Branch of the Little River, with Mount Mansfield (1,340 meters / 4,395 feet, Vermont's highest peak) dominating the western horizon and the surrounding Worcester Range to the east. The town was settled in 1763 and developed as a farming-and-logging community through the 19th century; the modern ski-tourism identity began in 1936 when the first ski lift was installed on Mount Mansfield. Today Stowe is widely considered the premier Vermont ski destination — the Stowe Mountain Resort (acquired by Vail Resorts in 2017, now part of the Epic Pass network) offers 116 trails across 485 acres on Mount Mansfield and the connected Spruce Peak. The 19-room luxury Stowe Mountain Lodge (now the Lodge at Spruce Peak by Hyatt) anchors the slopeside resort village; the rest of Stowe's 50+ hotels and inns are clustered along the Mountain Road (Route 108) connecting central Stowe village to the resort base, 9 km away.

Stowe's modern travel identity rests on three layers. First, the famous skiing — Stowe Mountain Resort's combination of advanced terrain (the famous 'Front Four' of expert runs: Goat, National, Liftline, and Starr) and modern resort infrastructure makes it one of the most-respected ski destinations in eastern North America. The mountain receives an average of 320 inches of snow per year (significantly more than most New England ski areas). The season runs late November through April. Second, the iconic Vermont village setting — Stowe's central village along Main Street is one of the most-photographed New England villages, with the famous 1864 Stowe Community Church (the white-clapboard, single-steeple New England village church that has become the cliché image of small-town Vermont), surviving 19th-century buildings, the famous Sugar House Mountain Stowe (the classic Vermont maple-sugar producer), the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum (in the converted 1818 Akeley Memorial Library), and the small but vibrant restaurant and shopping scene. Third, the famous Trapp Family Lodge — the Austrian-themed mountain resort owned by the von Trapp family (yes, the actual Sound of Music family — the von Trapps fled Austria in 1938 ahead of the Nazi annexation, eventually settled in Stowe in 1942 because the Vermont mountains reminded them of Salzburg, and built the Trapp Family Lodge in 1950 as a guest house). The current Trapp Family Lodge is operated by the third generation of the von Trapp family.

Beyond skiing and the cultural setting, Stowe offers significant year-round attractions. The summer-and-fall outdoor scene includes the famous Stowe Recreation Path (a 9-km paved walking-and-biking path along the West Branch of the Little River, connecting central Stowe village to the resort base), hiking the surrounding Long Trail (America's oldest long-distance hiking trail, founded 1910, running 444 km along the spine of the Green Mountains; the Mount Mansfield summit climb via the Long Trail is the canonical Stowe day-hike), the famous Smugglers' Notch (a dramatic mountain pass through the Green Mountains 10 km northwest of Stowe, with the 200-meter limestone cliffs of the surrounding boulder field), and the surrounding state forest hiking. The fall foliage season (late September through mid-October) brings Vermont's most-celebrated autumn colors — the surrounding maple-and-birch forest turns brilliant orange, red, and yellow against the backdrop of Mount Mansfield. The famous Stowe Cider, the Idletyme Brewing Company, and the von Trapp Brewing (the Austrian-style lagers brewed at the Trapp Family Lodge, the only Austrian-style brewery in the eastern United States) anchor the year-round food-and-drink scene. Most international visitors stay 4-7 nights either as a dedicated ski week (winter) or a foliage-and-hiking week (autumn).