Stay where history was made at a Vermont historic inn or hotel

The Four Columns Inn and its restaurant in picturesque southern Vermont has played host to history and celebrities – including Mick Jagger, Sting, John Kenneth Galbraith and Henry Kissinger – since the inn opened as a guest house in 1965. Renowned for its attention to detail and peaceful setting, that tradition continues today. The inn’s 16 spacious rooms continue an eclectic collection of antique and modern pieces and artwork that celebrates the region. The tradition of farm-to-table dining excellence that began almost five decades ago is still celebrated at Artisan restaurant. And Newfane is still a quintessential New England village, with a columned courthouse on a handsome green, a fine old cemetery and a heritage festival every Columbus Day weekend.

If traveling through Vermont’s magnificent Northeast Kingdom to get to the Willough Vale Inn & Cottages reminds you of poetry, you’re in good company. In 1909, beloved poet Robert Frost camped with his family in tents on land that ultimately became inn property. He got milk and eggs from the then-Conley Farmhouse. Now you can stay in the cozy Robert Frost Cottage with its views of the mountains and Lake Willoughby, which Frost called a “fair, pretty sheet of water.” Seven other cottages plus 11 rooms at the romantic inn provide the perfect getaway every season of the year. Activities at or nearby the inn range from canoeing and kayaking in the warmer months to skiing, dog-sledding and snowmobiling in the winter.

Yes, you can stay in the house where Rudyard Kipling wrote “The Jungle Book”! Come and be surrounded by history in one of Landmark Trust USA properties: Naulakha, Kipling’s Vermont home; Kipling’s Carriage House; the 1802 farmstead Amos Brown House; the cozy Scott Farm Sugarhouse or the 1837 Dutton Farmhouse. Come for a taste of history by visiting the 1791 Scott Farm Orchard and Market. The farm grows heirloom apples as well as blueberries, peaches, nectarines, plums and quince.

Hospitality is an age-old tradition at the Rabbit Hill Inn, which began in the late 1700s as a place where traders traveling from Montreal to Boston or Portland could hoist a tankard of ale and lodge overnight. Save one period in the 1900s when it was a private home, Rabbit Hill has been an inn ever since. Today’s guests in the 19-room bed and breakfast will discover not only modern comforts (some rooms have double hydromassage tubs) but those that harken back to a relaxed age: a candlelit dining room serving exquisitely crafted American fare, crackling fireplaces, puzzles in cozy sitting rooms, lemonade in the afternoon on the porch and gazebos where you can listen to the waterfall. Rated #30 of the Top 100 Hotels Worldwide, #6 in the USA, and #2 in the Northeast by Travel & Leisure, July 2017.