The centre of the state
Washington County sits squarely in the middle of Vermont, and it holds an outsized share of what the state is known for. The gold-domed capital at Montpelier is here, along with the granite city of Barre, the food-and-beer pilgrimage town of Waterbury, and the Mad River Valley — two ski mountains and a string of villages that have kept their character intact.
It is also the most useful base in Vermont. From Montpelier or Waterbury you are twenty minutes from Stowe, twenty-five from the Mad River Valley, forty from Burlington and an hour from the Northeast Kingdom, with I-89 running diagonally through the middle and Route 100 tracing the mountains on the western edge.
What ties it together is a particular Vermont combination: a working state government of citizen legislators, a 19th-century industrial heritage still visible in the quarries, and a modern food and drink economy — Ben & Jerry’s, Cold Hollow, The Alchemist’s neighbours, Lawson’s — that grew out of the same farms.
The towns
Civic, industrial and mountain life sit side by side.
Montpelier — the smallest state capital in America, about 8,000 people, with a gilded dome and one very walkable Main Street.
Barre — the Granite Capital of the World, three miles east, with working quarries and an astonishing cemetery.
Waterbury — the food and beer pilgrimage on Route 100, home of Ben & Jerry’s and a legendary tap list.
Waitsfield & Warren — the Mad River Valley villages beneath Sugarbush and Mad River Glen, with covered bridges and general stores.
Northfield & Berlin — Norwich University, the country’s oldest private military college, and the county’s commercial spine.
Plainfield & Cabot — hill farms, Goddard College and, just over the county line, the Cabot creamery name.
Montpelier: a capital like no other
Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the United States, with about 8,000 residents, and the only one without a McDonald’s. What it lacks in size it makes up for in walkability and character: the whole downtown is a handful of blocks between the Winooski River and the State House lawn.
The 1859 Vermont State House, its dome gilded in 23.5-karat gold leaf and topped by a statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture, is among the best-preserved 19th-century capitols in the country — and it is free to tour, with self-guided audio or volunteer-led walks Monday to Friday. Walk through Representatives Hall, the Senate Chamber and the Executive Cloakroom; the Vermont Historical Society museum next door fills in the rest.
Main and State Streets hold independent bookstores, the Three Penny Taproom, the New England Culinary Institute legacy in the town’s restaurant scene, and the Capital City Farmers' Market on Saturdays from May to October, held on the State House lawn. Hubbard Park, 194 acres of forest with a stone observation tower, rises directly behind the capitol — a genuine wild park inside a capital city.
Barre: the Granite Capital and Hope Cemetery
Three miles east of Montpelier, Barre grew rich and diverse on granite. Its deposits — some of the finest in the world — drew skilled carvers from Italy, Scotland, Spain and Scandinavia through the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the city still carries their imprint in its architecture, its politics and its food.
Rock of Ages, just south of town, remains the world’s largest deep-hole dimension granite quarry, a working pit some 600 feet deep and vast enough that the machinery at the bottom looks like toys. The visitor centre runs a seasonal shuttle tour to the observation deck, and you can watch the sawing and finishing floor where monuments are cut.
The carvers' artistry is most astonishing at Hope Cemetery, north of downtown. Generations of stonecutters made their own monuments — and their neighbours' — into sculpture, and the result is an open-air museum of over 10,000 markers in Barre grey granite: a race car, a full-size soccer ball, a bi-plane, an armchair, a cube balanced on a corner, and a husband and wife sitting up in bed holding hands. It is free, quiet and unlike any cemetery in America.
Downtown, the Vermont Granite Museum occupies a former manufacturing shed, and the Old Labor Hall — built by Italian stonecutters in 1900, and where Emma Goldman once spoke — is a National Historic Landmark of American labour history.
Waterbury: ice cream, cider and beer
Waterbury is a small town with an enormous food reputation. Straddling I-89 and Route 100 between Stowe and Montpelier, it has become a pilgrimage for ice-cream lovers and beer hunters alike, and it makes the best single food stop in Vermont.
The original Ben & Jerry’s factory sits just north of town on Route 100. Take the guided tour over the production floor and the pint-packaging line, get a scoop of a factory-only flavour, then pay your respects at the hillside Flavor Graveyard, where retired flavours receive granite headstones and rhyming epitaphs. A few minutes on, Cold Hollow Cider Mill presses fresh cider on a vintage 1920s hydraulic rack-and-cloth press and turns out thousands of hot cider donuts a day; the Cabot Farmers' Store in the same complex pours cheddar tastings.
On the beer side, Prohibition Pig on Elm Street is a smokehouse and brewery on the original site of The Alchemist’s taproom, where Heady Topper became legend — house IPAs, smoked pork shoulder and hushpuppies. Blackback Pub, across the block, keeps one of the deepest tap lists in New England, with rare pours from Hill Farmstead, Lawson’s and Foam. The Alchemist’s own retail brewery is fifteen minutes north in Stowe.
Beyond the food, the Waterbury Reservoir offers some of the best flatwater paddling in central Vermont, with quiet coves and primitive campsites, and Little River State Park on its shore is the county’s premier campground.
The Mad River Valley
The Mad River Valley — Waitsfield, Warren and Fayston — is one of Vermont’s most beloved ski destinations, defined by two very different mountains and a fierce local resistance to overdevelopment. There are no big-box stores and no high-rise resorts.
Sugarbush is the polished big-mountain resort: two peaks, Lincoln Peak and Mt. Ellen, connected by the Slide Brook Express, modern lifts, a European-style base village and the famous Castlerock zone — a wilderness area served by a slow double chair with no snowmaking and no grooming. Just up the road, Mad River Glen is its opposite: skier-owned, snowboard-free, still running its historic single chair, with a motto that says Ski It If You Can.
In the villages, the Warren Store is an 1870 general store perched over the river — order a deli sandwich and eat it on the back deck above the water. The Great Eddy Covered Bridge in Waitsfield, built in 1833, is the oldest continuously used covered bridge in Vermont; the Warren Covered Bridge spans the rocky throat of the Mad River beside a beloved swimming hole. Lawson’s Finest Liquids pours Sip of Sunshine in a handsome timber taproom, and the Pitcher Inn in Warren is a Relais & Châteaux property with the 216 Main dining room.
In summer the valley turns to golf, mountain biking, the Mad River Path, and Warren Falls — widely rated among the best natural swimming holes in New England, with three granite pool levels and natural rock slides, free parking and a hundred metres of flat trail.
Outdoors: summits, reservoir and Route 100
For all its civic and culinary fame, Washington County is ringed by mountains and laced with water. The Worcester Range rises east of the capital, the Green Mountains form the western wall, and the Winooski River cuts through the middle.
Camel’s Hump — Vermont’s wild signature peak at 4,083 feet, climbed from the Duxbury side by the Monroe Trail: no road, no lift, no buildings, and alpine tundra on top.
Hunger Mountain — a steep, rewarding scramble in the Worcester Range with open ledges and a long view over the capital.
Mount Hunger and Stowe Pinnacle — two more Worcester Range classics, both under four miles round trip with big payoffs.
Waterbury Reservoir — flatwater paddling, swimming and primitive camping, with Little River State Park on the shore.
Route 100 — the state’s great scenic drive threading the valley from Waterbury south through Waitsfield and Warren into Granville Gulf.
Granville Gulf and Moss Glen Falls — a protected six-mile pass south of Warren, with a dramatic multi-tiered cascade right at the roadside.
Millstone Trails, Barre — 70-plus miles of mountain biking and nordic trails threading abandoned granite quarries.
Where to stay and when to come
Montpelier has a handful of inns and small hotels and is the most walkable base; Waterbury and neighbouring Berlin add I-89 access and reliable mid-range rooms, plus Little River State Park for camping at 22 to 38 dollars a night. Waitsfield and Warren hold the county’s best country inns — the Inn at Round Barn Farm, an 1810 farmhouse on 245 acres, and the Pitcher Inn — plus slopeside condos at Sugarbush.
Winter is the busiest season in the Mad River Valley and the quietest in Montpelier; foliage in the first half of October fills everything, especially along Route 100. Late spring brings maple sugaring and mud, with high trails closed above 2,500 feet until Memorial Day. Summer is the sweet spot for the reservoir, Warren Falls and the farmers' market, and stick season from late October to mid-December delivers the lowest rates of the year.
Use the search below to compare live prices across the whole county, with free cancellation on most rooms.
Good to know
What is Washington County known for?+
Montpelier, the smallest state capital in America with its gold-leaf dome; Barre, the Granite Capital of the World, with the Rock of Ages quarry and Hope Cemetery; Waterbury’s Ben & Jerry’s factory and legendary beer scene; and the Mad River Valley’s Sugarbush and Mad River Glen.
Can you tour the Vermont State House?+
Yes, and it is free. The 1859 capitol in Montpelier — one of the best-preserved 19th-century state houses in the country, with a 23.5-karat gold leaf dome topped by Ceres — offers self-guided audio and volunteer-led tours Monday to Friday.
Why is Hope Cemetery in Barre famous?+
Generations of immigrant stonecutters carved their own and their neighbours' monuments into sculpture. Over 10,000 markers in Barre grey granite include a race car, a bi-plane, a soccer ball, an armchair and a couple sitting up in bed holding hands. Entry is free.
What is there to do in Waterbury?+
Tour the original Ben & Jerry’s factory and its Flavor Graveyard, watch cider pressed and eat hot donuts at Cold Hollow Cider Mill, taste cheddar at the Cabot store, eat smoked meat at Prohibition Pig and drink rare beer at Blackback Pub — then paddle the Waterbury Reservoir.
What is the difference between Sugarbush and Mad River Glen?+
Sugarbush is the polished big-mountain resort with two peaks, modern lifts and a base village. Mad River Glen, up the road, is skier-owned, bans snowboards, still runs its historic single chair, and grooms almost nothing — a deliberately old-school mountain.