Vermont in the fall is not overhyped. I know that sounds like something a tourism board would say, but I mean it. The colors genuinely look like someone turned up the saturation on real life. The reds are almost aggressive. The oranges glow. And then there’s this yellow that only exists in Vermont in October and nowhere else on earth.
We’ve driven through peak foliage twice now and it still stops you every single time. You round a corner and just go oh. Out loud. To nobody. Like a person who has lost all composure over some trees.
Here’s the road trip we’d do again, with everything we learned along the way.
When to Go (Timing Is Everything)
Peak foliage in Vermont runs from late September through mid-October, and the window is tighter than you think. We’re talking about 2-3 weeks where the colors are at their absolute best. Miss it by a week in either direction and you’ll either be staring at green leaves wondering what the fuss is about, or driving through bare branches feeling like you showed up to a party that ended an hour ago.
Northern Vermont peaks first, usually the last week of September. Southern Vermont follows about a week later. So if you’re driving north to south like we recommend, you can actually chase the peak the whole way down. The Vermont foliage forecaster is genuinely useful for planning your dates.
One thing nobody tells you until it’s too late. Weekends during peak foliage are packed. Like, Route 100 turns into a parking lot packed. If you can swing midweek travel, do it. You’ll have the roads and the views mostly to yourself. And book your accommodation months ahead. I’m not being dramatic. The good places sell out by July for peak weekends.
The Route (North to South)
Start in Stowe and work your way south through the Green Mountains. The route goes Stowe to Waterbury to Woodstock to Killington to Manchester to Bennington. It’s about 200 miles total, but you will stop constantly. Budget way more time than Google Maps tells you because every other turn reveals something that makes you pull over and stand there with your mouth open.
Route 100 is the backbone of this trip and it’s one of the best fall drives in America. That’s not hyperbole. It runs right through the spine of the Green Mountains and during peak foliage it feels like driving through a painting that someone keeps making more beautiful every mile. If you only have one day in Vermont, drive Route 100 and call it a win.
Stowe
Stowe is the kind of town that looks like it was designed specifically for a fall road trip. The white church steeple rising against a backdrop of mountains covered in orange and red is probably the most photographed scene in Vermont, and honestly it earns it every time.
Drive through Smugglers’ Notch while you’re here. It’s this narrow, dramatic mountain pass where massive boulders crowd in on both sides of the road. The gap is so tight that it closes in winter because they literally can’t plow it. During fall the trees above you form a tunnel of color that’s hard to describe without sounding ridiculous.
The drive up Route 108 to the Notch is only about 7 miles from Stowe village, but it takes way longer than you’d think. The road narrows to barely one lane near the top, with 1,000-ton boulders sitting right at the edge of the pavement. There are pulloffs along the way where you can park and just stand there looking at the valley below you. We stood at one for ten minutes and didn’t say a word. Just trees on fire with color for miles in every direction.
If you want to stretch your legs, the short hike to Bingham Falls is right off Route 108 before you hit the Notch. It’s maybe a 15-minute walk through the woods to a waterfall pouring into a gorge. In October the pool reflects all the orange and red above it. We almost skipped it because it was getting late. Would have been a huge mistake.
The Stowe Recreation Path is a 5.3-mile paved trail that runs along the West Branch River. It’s flat, easy, and during peak foliage it’s one of the prettiest walks you’ll ever take. Rent bikes if walking feels too slow. We did it on foot and regretted nothing, but we also stopped approximately 400 times to take photos.
Yes, the Von Trapp Family Lodge is here. Yes, those von Trapps. The Sound of Music family settled in Stowe after leaving Austria and their lodge is still operating. The beer hall has mountain views that are frankly unfair combined with Austrian-style lagers. It’s touristy and it’s also genuinely great. I contain multitudes.
Before you leave the area, stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury for cider donuts. They make them fresh and warm and they are the reason I would drive to Vermont even if the trees were ugly. Which they never are.
Woodstock (The Prettiest Town)
I don’t hand out superlatives easily, but Woodstock might be the prettiest small town in America during fall. There’s a covered bridge right in the center of town. The village green is surrounded by historic buildings that all look like they’ve been there since before your country was a country. Because they have.
Billings Farm is a working dairy farm and museum that’s been operating since 1871. It’s more interesting than it sounds, I promise. They still do daily milking and butter churning, and in October they run a pumpkin festival that’s so charming it borders on suspicious. Like, is this town even real? The heritage breed cows are very calm and very photogenic. I took more photos of cows than I’m willing to admit publicly.
Right next door is the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, which has hiking trails through some of the best fall color you’ll find on this trip. The carriage roads through the forest are spectacular during peak foliage. The Pogue loop is about 3.5 miles and takes you past a pond that reflects the surrounding hills so perfectly it looks like a screensaver. Except it’s real and you’re standing in it.
Quechee Gorge is about 10 minutes from Woodstock and it’s 165 feet deep. You can see it from a bridge above, which is the easy way, or hike down to the bottom, which is the better way. The gorge walls covered in fall color are something else entirely.
Simon Pearce is a glassblowing studio and restaurant right on the river in Quechee. Watch them blow glass downstairs (it’s free and genuinely fascinating), then eat lunch overlooking the Ottauquechee River waterfall. The restaurant is powered by the hydroelectric turbine under the building, which is the most Vermont sentence I’ve ever written. Get the shepherd’s pie. I don’t know why a glassblowing studio makes perfect shepherd’s pie, but they do and I’m not going to question it.
The Covered Bridges
Vermont has over 100 covered bridges, which is a wild number for a state you can drive across in about three hours. They’re everywhere. Some of them are one-lane roads that you genuinely have to drive through, which is both terrifying and delightful.
The best ones on this route are Stowe Hollow (just outside Stowe, very photogenic, sits over Gold Brook with mountains behind it), Lincoln Covered Bridge in Woodstock (the oldest covered bridge in Vermont, built in 1877, and still carrying actual traffic), the Silk Road Covered Bridge in Bennington, and the bridge in West Arlington where Norman Rockwell used to paint.
The Lincoln Covered Bridge is worth extra time. It’s a single-lane wooden bridge that cars still drive through, and there’s something about sitting by the river next to a 147-year-old bridge while leaves drift down around you that makes your whole brain quiet down. We sat there for half an hour watching the water. Nobody rushed us. Nobody was even there. That’s the Vermont nobody puts on Instagram.
They look best with fall colors behind them, obviously. Something about a red covered bridge with orange and yellow trees behind it makes your brain short-circuit a little. In a good way.
Don’t skip the detours to find them. The bridges are often down dirt roads and those dirt roads are frequently more beautiful than the main routes. Some of our favorite moments on this whole trip were on random back roads we took just to find a bridge. If you want more things to do in Vermont in fall, we have a whole separate guide.
The Food
Cider donuts. I need to talk about cider donuts. Every orchard and cider mill in Vermont makes them fresh and warm and coated in cinnamon sugar. They taste like fall feels. I have eaten an embarrassing number of them across two trips and I have zero regrets about any of it.
Vermont cheddar is famous for a reason. Cabot is the big name and it’s good, but Grafton Village Cheese Company is better. I will die on this hill. Their cave-aged cheddar is sharp enough to make you close your eyes involuntarily.
Maple creemees are soft serve ice cream made with real Vermont maple syrup. They’re sold at roadside stands and they are unreasonably good. Look for the hand-painted signs on the side of the road. The sketchier the sign, the better the creemee. This is a rule that has never failed me.
The farm-to-table restaurants in Vermont genuinely mean it. Like, the farm is right there. You can see it from your table. That’s the farm. Hen of the Wood in Waterbury is the one everyone talks about and it earns every word. The mushroom toast alone would justify the drive from wherever you are. Prohibition Pig, also in Waterbury, does smoked meats that made me briefly reconsider my entire life. Get the brisket.
If you’re into craft beer, Hill Farmstead in Greensboro is consistently ranked among the best breweries in the world. The Alchemist in Stowe makes Heady Topper, which is one of those beers that people drive hours for. Apple picking is also peak season during fall and most orchards let you eat as many as you want while you pick, which is a dangerous policy for someone like me.
The Drives
Route 100 through the Green Mountains is the main event and it deserves that status. But there are other drives worth knowing about. Route 108 through Smugglers’ Notch has hairpin turns squeezed between massive boulders. It’s slow, it’s dramatic, and the views from the top are worth every white-knuckle moment.
If you have an extra day, the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire is about 2 hours east and it’s one of the best fall drives in America. It’s 34.5 miles through the White Mountains with no commercial development. Just road, trees, mountains, and your jaw on the floor. We have a full guide to fall in New Hampshire if you want to extend the trip.
My honest best advice for the drives is this. Get lost on random dirt roads on purpose. Vermont’s back roads are where the real magic is. No traffic. No crowds. Just you and trees that are doing something unreasonable with color. Some of our all-time favorite photos came from roads we can’t even find on a map anymore.
Practical Tips
Book your accommodation 2-3 months ahead for peak foliage weekends. This is not optional advice. This is survival information. The good inns and Airbnbs sell out fast and what’s left will cost you double.
Layers are non-negotiable. Mornings are 30-40°F and afternoons climb to 55-65°F. You’ll start the day in a jacket and a hat and end it in a t-shirt wondering if it’s actually summer. The temperature swings are real.
Best photo light is early morning and golden hour, which you probably already knew. But in Vermont during fall, the golden hour light hitting those colors is on another level entirely. Get up early. It’s worth the lost sleep.
Gas up before mountain drives. Stations get sparse in the Green Mountains and running low on gas while driving a narrow mountain pass is not the adventure you want. We learned this one the hard way on Route 108. The gas light came on somewhere near the top of Smugglers’ Notch and I aged about fifteen years in twenty minutes.
Cell service is spotty at best in the mountains, so download offline maps before you go. Google Maps offline works great, just download the whole state of Vermont. It’s a small state. Your phone can handle it.
And if you can, go midweek. The leaf peeper traffic on weekends is real and it will test your patience in ways that Vermont’s beauty should not have to compensate for. One more thing. Bring binoculars if you have them. The distant mountain views during peak foliage have so much detail that your eyes can’t process it all. Binoculars let you pick out individual trees on a ridge five miles away that are doing something extraordinary with color.
If you have extra time, Portland, Maine is worth a day trip or overnight stop on your way back south. Great food city with a completely different vibe from Vermont.
