Best Classic Attractions in Vermont | 2015 Editors’ Choice Awards

Best Lakeside Resort | Basin Harbor Club, Vergennes
Credit: Carl Tremblay There’s a lot to see in do in the Green Mountain State, but some activities really stand the test of time. Read our picks for the best classic attractions in Vermont. Historic Highlight – Best Lakeside Resort Basin Harbor Club, Vergennes (1886) As timeless as a resort can be: Family owned for more than 100 years, with a matchless location on Lake Champlain, the Club offers cottage or inn accommodations, water sports ranging from paddleboarding to cruising in a vintage Chris-Craft, a private golf course, and fine formal and informal dining. There’s even a private landing strip. Rates: from $220. 4800 Basin Harbor Road. 802-475-2311; basinharbor.com Historic Highlight – Best Historic Farm Billings Farm, Woodstock (1871) What was rural Vermont like circa 1890? Find out at Billings, a model working farm, with draft horses, oxen, sheep, chickens, and Jersey cattle. Watch afternoon milking, tour the restored farm manager’s house and barn exhibits, and enjoy activities such as wagon rides and harvest-season cooking demonstrations. 69 Old River Road. 802-457-2355; billingsfarm.org Best Chamber Music Yellow Barn Concerts, Putney Students and resident artists from around the world gather here each summer to refine their mastery of the chamber-music repertoire and to perform at more than 20 intimate concerts from mid-June to early August. 63 Main St. 802-387-6637; yellowbarn.org

Historic Highlight – Best Art & Americana Shelburne Museum, Shelburne (1947) A spectacular collection of American artifacts—folk art, tools, clothing, carriages, furniture, and much more—and fine art fill historic buildings throughout this sprawling, beautifully landscaped site. Highlights include circus figures and posters, and the restored steamboat Ticonderoga, high and dry but set for a circa- 1920s Lake Champlain voyage. 6000 Shelburne Road. 802-985-3346; shelburnemuseum.org Historic Highlight – Best Small City Museum Fairbanks Museum, St. Johnsbury (1889) It’s a window on the wide world, Victorian- style. The Romanesque Revival Fairbanks boasts an astoundingly eclectic hoard of natural science, ethnology, and Vermont-history treasures—an old-style “cabinet of curiosities” writ large. Upstairs, the state’s only public planetarium offers state-of-the-art star shows. 1302 Main St. 802-748-2372; fairbanksmuseum.org

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