Best Scenic Drives in Vermont

How We Picked These Drives

Vermont has hundreds of miles of scenic roads, and the Vermont Travel Guide covers them by region and season. For this list, we chose drives that hold up across at least two seasons, reward you with something specific that you cannot find anywhere else in New England, and connect towns or landscapes you would want to stop and explore. We left out drives that are worth visiting only in fall foliage season, since those get their own treatment on our Best Fall Foliage Drives in Vermont page.

We also weighed practicality: paved roads with reliable surfaces, clear starting points from the main corridors into the state, and drives that make sense whether you fly into Burlington International (BTV) or drive in from Boston, New York, or Montreal. Most of these routes are within two hours of Burlington, though the Northeast Kingdom loop requires a longer commitment and earns it.

Route 100: The Green Mountain Spine

Route 100 runs roughly 216 miles from Wilmington in the south to Newport on Lake Memphremagog near the Canadian border, tracing the eastern flank of the Green Mountains the entire way. It passes through West Dover, Jamaica, Weston, Ludlow, Rochester, the Granville Gulf, Waitsfield, Stowe, Morrisville, Hyde Park, Hardwick, and Newport, with ski resort access at Mount Snow, Okemo, Sugarbush, and Stowe along the route. The segment between Ludlow and Stowe is the most concentrated run of postcard Vermont scenery: the road climbs through the Granville Gulf State Reservation, where Moss Glen Falls drops about 35 feet into a roadside pool you can see without leaving your car. That same stretch also connects most of the best ski resorts in Vermont, so it works as a winter corridor if you time the mountain stops right.

Driving all of Route 100 end to end takes about six hours without stops. Most people break it into two or three days, using Stowe or Waitsfield as a midpoint base. If you are starting from Burlington (about 45 minutes west of Stowe on I-89), pick up Route 100 in Morrisville and head south. That puts you into the most dramatic section, through the Granville Gulf and past Sugarbush and Mad River Glen, in the first 40 miles.

Route 108 Through Smugglers Notch

This 10-mile stretch of Route 108 between Stowe village and Jeffersonville is one of the most dramatic short drives in New England. The road squeezes through a glacier-carved gap in the Green Mountains, with cliffs rising nearly 1,000 feet on both sides and boulders the size of houses shoved up against the guardrails. The pass earned its name from Prohibition-era smugglers who used it to move goods across the Canadian border when the legal route was less convenient. Vermont closes Route 108 through the notch from roughly mid-October through Memorial Day weekend each year, so this drive is strictly a summer and early fall option. If you want to base yourself in Stowe for both the notch drive and ski season access, The Lodge at Spruce Peak on Mountain Road is ski-in access in winter and an easy morning start for the notch run in summer.

One practical warning: Vermont posts signs before the notch approach advising oversized vehicles to turn around. Every year, Class A RVs and some truck-camper combinations get wedged into the tight hairpin bends and require towing. If you are driving anything over about 20 feet or towing a trailer, take Route 15 through Johnson instead. For standard passenger vehicles, budget 30 to 40 minutes to drive through properly, with stops at the boulder fields and the notch overlook.

The Molly Stark Byway (Route 9)

Route 9 runs 48 miles east to west from Brattleboro on the Connecticut River to Bennington near the New York border, crossing the southern Green Mountains at the Hogback Mountain area near Wilmington, where the road tops out around 2,415 feet before descending into the Deerfield River valley. Brattleboro is one of Vermont's more genuinely interesting small cities, with independent bookshops, a good food scene, and a working-town feel that predates tourism. At the Bennington end, the 306-foot Bennington Battle Monument is the tallest battle monument in the United States, commemorating the 1777 Battle of Bennington when General John Stark routed Hessian forces during the Revolutionary War. The drive is open year-round, though winter ice on the summit grade between January and March can be serious; check conditions before a cold-weather crossing.

Wilmington sits roughly in the middle and serves as a natural lunch stop. The town also sits at the junction of Route 100 south toward West Dover and Mount Snow, so you can combine the Molly Stark Byway with a Route 100 leg if you have two days and want to cover the southern quadrant of the state from two directions. The whole drive takes about an hour without stops, so it works as a half-day add-on rather than a standalone destination.

The Champlain Islands (Routes 2 and 78)

The Champlain Islands are a chain of flat, agricultural islands in Lake Champlain extending roughly 20 miles north from South Hero to Alburg, with open water on both sides and apple orchards running right up to the road. Take Exit 17 off I-89, about 30 miles north of Burlington, onto Route 2 and follow it across the South Hero causeway. Grand Isle and North Hero are farming communities with a few inns, farm stands, and a decidedly non-resort atmosphere. Isle La Motte, reached via a short bridge off Route 2, holds the Fisk Quarry Conservation Area, where the exposed bedrock is part of a 480-million-year-old coral reef system, the oldest in the world. The town of Alburg sits against the Quebec border, and crossing into Canada on Route 78 is straightforward if you carry a passport and want to extend the drive north. The Essex Resort & Spa in Essex Junction, about 10 miles northeast of Burlington on Route 15, is a natural base for reaching the islands without backtracking through city traffic.

The islands work best in late September through mid-October and in May and early June, when the open water views are unobstructed and the summer boat-launch crowds have not yet arrived. The causeway approach on Route 2 gives you a long unbroken view across the lake toward the Adirondacks to the west and the main Green Mountain ridge to the east. On a clear afternoon in October, that stretch of road is hard to improve on.

The Appalachian Gap (Route 17)

Route 17 crosses the Green Mountain spine between Waitsfield in the Mad River Valley and Bristol in the Champlain Valley, covering about 18 miles and climbing to the Appalachian Gap at 2,356 feet, one of the highest paved road summits in Vermont. The climb from Waitsfield is gradual, rising past the Mad River Glen ski area (which sits 3 miles east of the summit on Route 17) through hardwood forest before the road flattens briefly at the top. The descent into Bristol drops fast on steep switchbacks, with views opening west toward the Champlain Valley and the Adirondacks on clear days. The road closes periodically in deep winter during heavy snowfall events and typically reopens by mid-May, though the timing varies year to year.

Waitsfield village on the eastern side is the natural base. The Mad River Valley around Waitsfield and Warren has a concentration of small inns, farm-to-table restaurants, and the Warren Store (a local institution with a good deli counter and porch seating on the Mad River). The full drive takes under an hour end to end, making it a practical addition to a longer Route 100 day rather than a standalone trip. Drive it west to east in the morning to get the sun behind you and the Champlain Valley views in front.

The Northeast Kingdom Loop

Vermont's northeast corner, broadly called the Northeast Kingdom, rewards drivers who are willing to put serious miles on without a well-known landmark waiting at the end. A solid loop runs roughly 90 miles from East Burke north on Route 114 to Island Pond, west on Route 105 to Newport, then south on Route 5 through Lyndonville back to Burke. Island Pond is one of Vermont's most remote incorporated villages, historically a railroad division point for the Grand Trunk Railway and still anchored by a brick commercial block that looks mostly unchanged from the early 1900s. Newport sits on the southern shore of Lake Memphremagog, a lake that extends 30 miles north into Quebec, and in clear weather the view from the Newport waterfront toward Canada is as open and north-feeling as Vermont gets.

Foliage in the Northeast Kingdom peaks earlier than anywhere else in the state, typically in the last week of September, while most of southern Vermont is still green. Burke Mountain (3,267 feet) is visible along much of the Route 114 corridor, and the Kingdom Trails mountain bike network in East Burke draws riders from across the Northeast in summer and fall. Roads through the Kingdom are a mix of paved state highways and maintained dirt; before exploring any route labeled Class 3 on a Vermont map, confirm conditions with the town road commissioner, especially in spring mud season.

Route 12: Woodstock to Barre

Route 12 connects Woodstock in the Upper Valley to Barre in the central highlands, covering about 45 miles through the Second Branch White River valley and the farming towns of Bethel, Randolph Center, and Northfield. It is one of the quieter routes in central Vermont because I-89 pulls most through traffic to the west, leaving Route 12 to locals, cyclists, and drivers who want to see what Vermont looks like between the tourist stops. Northfield is home to Norwich University, founded in 1819 and the oldest private military college in the United States, with a compact campus on a hill above the Second Branch worth a short stop. If you are coming north from Woodstock, the Woodstock Inn & Resort on the village green is a reliable dinner stop before heading out the next morning. Browse the full range of lodging across central Vermont in our Vermont inns and hotels directory.

Barre is the other end of the drive and the granite capital of the United States. The Rock of Ages quarry on Graniteville Road, about 3 miles southeast of downtown, has been pulling stone from a pit now approaching 600 feet deep since the late 1800s, and the visitor center (open late May through October, free admission to the overlook) lets you watch active quarrying from above. From Barre, Montpelier is a 10-minute drive north on Route 302, and from Montpelier, I-89 reconnects you to Burlington or the Upper Valley in under an hour.

Quick Comparison

None of these drives requires a reservation or entry fee. What they do require is time. Vermont roads are two-lane and posted at 25 mph through villages, and actual driving speeds between towns rarely match what a GPS estimates. Build in at least 50 percent more time than the app projects, especially if you plan to stop.