• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Located a few blocks from downtown, Forty Putney Road sits next to a wildlife sanctuary.   (Photo: Courtesy of Forty Putney Road)

Retreat to the bed-and-breakfast on eleven-acre Spirit Hill Farm (from $179), where windows overlook llama pastures, breakfast eggs come from the coop, and the smell of roasting granola wafts through the house. Each of the four wood-timbered suites is distinctive: There’s a private deck in the Garden Suite and the airy Sunrise Suite, opened last year, has its own sitting room.

Spot ruby-throated hummingbirds and purple finches in the riverside gardens behind Forty Putney Road (from $159), which abuts the 3.5-acre Hogle Wildlife Sanctuary. A few blocks from the center of town, the manor-style inn features six rooms outfitted with leather furniture, hot tubs, and fireplaces, and serves a complimentary two-course breakfast featuring local Mocha Joe’s coffee and True North Granola.

Sleep in a former tavern at the Whetstone Inn, part of the cluster of buildings that make up the tiny colonial town of Marlboro, just outside of Brattleboro. Antiques and locally produced crafts decorate eleven spacious rooms (doubles from $70), which are stocked with books rather than televisions, and the forested grounds include a pond for summertime swims.

Published on Jul 12, 2012 as a web exclusive.