🇺🇸 United States · New England
Stowe is the very image of a New England mountain town: a white-steepled church outlined against Vermont's Green Mountains, cozy inns, charming shops and, all around, a landscape of forests, farms and summits that changes color with every season. Set at the foot of Mount Mansfield, the state's highest mountain, Stowe is one of the oldest and best-loved ski and mountain destinations in the eastern United States, a place you can enjoy twelve months a year.
In winter, Stowe is a snow paradise: its resort, Stowe Mountain Resort, pioneered skiing in the east of the country and remains one of the most prestigious, with runs for every level on Mount Mansfield and neighboring Spruce Peak. But Stowe's appeal goes far beyond skiing. In fall, Vermont's forests explode into reds, oranges and golds in one of the most celebrated foliage displays in the world; in summer, the mountains invite hiking, cycling and cool fresh air; and all year round the town offers the warmth of its inns, good food and Vermont's artisanal products, from cider to cheeses and the famous ice cream.
This guide covers Stowe with a practical, warm eye: what to do on the mountain in each season, how to drive the spectacular Smugglers' Notch gap, what to see in the town, where to enjoy the foliage and the outdoors, and how to make the most of the local food and crafts. Stowe is best enjoyed unhurried, with time for the mountain, the postcard town and Vermont hospitality, in a destination that wins you over at any time of year.
The Green Mountains region of Vermont was frequented by Abenaki peoples, of the Wabanaki confederacy, before European settlers arrived. Stowe was settled by New Englanders in the late 18th century (the town was chartered around 1763) and through the 19th century it was a quiet farming and lumber town of Vermont, at the foot of Mount Mansfield. In the late 19th century it began to receive summer visitors drawn by the mountain air and the views, with hotels going up. The great transformation came in the 20th century with the skiing boom: in the 1930s and 1940s the first trails and lifts opened on Mount Mansfield, and Stowe established itself as one of the great pioneers and capitals of skiing in the eastern United States, earning the nickname 'Ski Capital of the East'. In 1942, the Von Trapp family —the Austrian singing family whose story inspired 'The Sound of Music'— settled in Stowe, drawn by a landscape that reminded them of the Alps, and opened the Trapp Family Lodge, today an emblem of the town. Since then Stowe has combined its identity as a traditional Vermont town with that of a four-season mountain destination. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The Green Mountain State: Abenaki land, briefly an independent republic and the first territory of the future nation to abolish adult slavery, home of maple syrup, blazing autumns and the ski resorts of Stowe and Killington.
Read the history of Vermont →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
In 1965, half the world was singing along to 'The Sound of Music' without knowing that the Von Trapp family's happy ending had actually happened, for real, in this small Vermont town. But Stowe's story begins long before the Alps of celluloid: with an Indigenous people, a handful of lumbering settlers and a Norwegian who dared to throw himself down a mountain with two planks on his feet. Let's start at the beginning.
Long before European settlers arrived, the Green Mountains region of present-day Vermont was the territory of the Abenaki, an Algonquian-speaking people belonging to the Wabanaki confederacy, whose name is usually associated with the idea of 'people of the dawn' because of their location in the northeast of the continent. The Abenaki lived in and moved through the valleys, rivers and forests of Vermont, living from hunting, fishing, gathering and some agriculture, in tune with the rhythm of the seasons.
The valley at the foot of Mount Mansfield, where Stowe sits today, was part of that inhabited and well-known landscape. The mountains, the maple and conifer forests and the watercourses that today draw hikers and skiers were hunting and travel territory for the Abenaki, who knew their resources well. The name of the state itself, 'Vermont', derives from the French 'verts monts' ('green mountains'), a nod to those wooded peaks.
European colonization, first with the French presence and later with the advance of English settlers from New England, brought disease, conflict and the progressive loss of Abenaki land. Even so, the Abenaki people did not disappear: they keep their identity and their presence in Vermont and the region. Acknowledging this earlier history is part of understanding that the human relationship with the Green Mountains and the Stowe valley began long before the first settlers arrived with their axes and their farms.
The European settlement of the Stowe valley belongs to the expansion of New England colonists into the mountainous interior of Vermont in the middle and late 18th century. The town of Stowe was chartered around 1763, at a time when the territory that would later become Vermont was disputed between neighboring colonies. The first settlers arrived somewhat later and began the hard work of clearing the forest, opening farms and building a settlement in that mountain environment.
Through the 19th century, Stowe was a quiet rural Vermont town, devoted above all to agriculture (with livestock, crops and the production of maple syrup from the sap of maple trees, a traditional activity of the region) and to logging its forests. Like so many New England towns, it developed its center around a white-steepled church —today's Stowe Community Church would become its symbol— and a handful of shops and houses, in an unhurried life shaped by the seasons and the harsh mountain climate.
Mount Mansfield, the highest mountain in Vermont, looming over the valley, was already a landmark and something of a draw. But the town's tourist calling had not yet fully been born. Stowe was, above all, a farming and lumbering community, with the beauty of its surroundings as the backdrop to a life of work. That identity of a traditional Vermont town, with its white church, its farms and its maple syrup, remains an essential part of Stowe's character, even after its transformation into a tourist destination.
Toward the end of the 19th century, Stowe began slowly to shift from a farming town into a tourist attraction, following a trend seen in other mountain areas of New England. The clean mountain air, the views and the imposing presence of Mount Mansfield started to draw summer visitors looking to escape the heat and bustle of the cities and enjoy nature. Vermont's highest mountain became a target for hikers and the curious.
To serve these first visitors, hotels were built and access to the mountain was improved. There was even a hotel at the top of Mount Mansfield and a road (the 'Toll Road') that allowed people to drive up toward the summit to take in the views, at a time when climbing mountains as a recreational activity was fashionable among the well-off. Stowe thus began adding a nascent summer tourism to its farming economy.
This mountain tourism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries laid the groundwork for what came next. Although it was still a seasonal and limited activity, it showed the enormous potential of Stowe and its surroundings as a nature destination. The real revolution, however, would come with a sport that would change the fate of the town and of so many mountain communities forever: skiing, which in the following decades would make Stowe a famous name.
Stowe's great transformation came with skiing, in the 1930s and 1940s. Alpine skiing, which was gaining popularity in the United States, found ideal conditions on Mount Mansfield and around Stowe: good snow, varied terrain and relative proximity to the cities of the Northeast. In those years the first trails opened and some of the country's first mechanical lifts were installed in the area, amid the pioneering enthusiasm for the new sport.
Stowe quickly became one of the great pioneers and capitals of skiing in the eastern United States, earning the nickname 'Ski Capital of the East'. The building of infrastructure —chairlifts, trails, ski schools, inns for skiers— and its growing fame drew crowds of enthusiasts, transforming the economy and the life of the old farming town. Mount Mansfield's challenging terrain, with its steep runs, added prestige among the most demanding skiers.
That founding push made skiing the heart of Stowe's tourist identity, a status it keeps to this day with the modern Stowe Mountain Resort. The town combined its traditional New England charm —the white church, the inns, the farms— with the energy of mountain sport, creating that particular mix that still draws visitors. Stowe was, to a large extent, one of the cradles of American skiing in the east, and that pioneering history is part of its pride.
One of the most celebrated and endearing chapters in Stowe's history is the arrival of the Von Trapp family. This is the Austrian singing family whose story —their musical life and their flight from an Austria annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938— inspired the famous musical and the later film 'The Sound of Music', one of the best-loved in the history of cinema. After emigrating to the United States and touring the country giving concerts, the family was looking for somewhere to settle.
In 1942, the Von Trapps chose Stowe. The reason, as tradition has it, was that the valley's mountain landscape, with Mount Mansfield and the Green Mountains, reminded them of their native Austria and the Alps they had left behind. They bought a property on a hill with magnificent views over the valley and, in time, opened an Alpine-Austrian style mountain lodging that would become today's Trapp Family Lodge, a place that combines mountain hospitality with the family's history.
The presence of the Von Trapps gave Stowe added appeal and fame, tying the town to one of the best-known stories in the world. The Trapp Family Lodge became a Stowe institution: also a pioneer of cross-country (Nordic) skiing in the United States, today it is a resort with trails, views and even an Austrian-style brewery. The story of the family that escaped the Nazis and found a new home in the mountains of Vermont is an inseparable part of Stowe's story.
Through the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, Stowe consolidated and diversified its standing as a tourist destination, evolving from purely wintry skiing fame toward four-season appeal. Skiing is still the heart of its winter high season, with the modern Stowe Mountain Resort —which over the years renewed its infrastructure and developed the Spruce Peak base area as a lively resort village— but the town also learned to shine the rest of the year.
Fall became one of Stowe's great seasons thanks to the spectacle of Vermont's foliage, considered among the most beautiful in the United States, which draws crowds of 'leaf peepers' to drive the mountains and the back roads. Summer added hiking, cycling (with the Stowe Recreation Path), waterfalls and outdoor activities in a cool, green climate. And all year round, the town offers its traditional charm, its inns, its spas and Vermont's growing fame for food and craft products —maple syrup, cheeses, ciders, craft beers and ice cream.
Today, Stowe is one of the best-loved mountain destinations in the eastern United States, able to combine its identity as a traditional Vermont town (the white church, the farms, the hospitality) with that of a modern tourist center. Stowe's history —from the Abenaki to the farming town, from the pioneering skiing boom to the Von Trapp family, and from there to the four-season destination— is reflected in that landscape of green mountains that changes color with every season and still wins over everyone who visits.