SnowshoeMag Visits the Woodstock Inn & Resort

The Woodstock Inn & Resort is one of Vermont’s true gems for travelers. It offers warm New England hospitality amidst an atmosphere of country elegance and year-round recreation. Resort facilities include the new 10,000 square-foot Spa, the Resort’s Nordic Center, Suicide Six alpine ski area, the Resort’s Golf Club, and a 41,000 square foot Woodstock Athletic Club. However, it’s theScreen Shot 2016-03-03 at 9.42.09 AM lavish details of the wood-burning fireplaces in guest rooms, luxurious terrycloth bathrobes, and locally-made furnishings, that defines the country sophistication and completes the picture of charm and comfort at the Woodstock Inn & Resort, which rises above expectations.

The Woodstock Inn & Resort is a 142-room, AAA Four Diamond Resort and a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts. The village of Woodstock is located in Vermont’s Green Mountains with antique shops, art galleries, boutiques, restaurants, and specialty food markets in the downtown area, but if you also want recreation the Woodstock Inn & Resort delivers.

In the winter months, the inn’s Woodstock Athletic Club is situated close to the inn hosting the Woodstock Nordic Center. There is a partnership between the inn and Tubbs Snowshoes. The Nordic Center maintains some 60 kilometers of trails in the area – half of which are part of the nearby Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Professional instruction, ski storage, equipment sales and rental equipment are available at the ski shop, as well as a full line of clothing and accessories for snowshoeing and cross country skiing.

Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 9.41.47 AMThe Tubbs Snowshoes Adventure Center features guided tours, group team building exercises, and family-friendly scavenger hunts. Beginners and experts alike will find the 30 kilometers of trails against the backdrop of the Resort’s expansive grounds, with flat tracks along the babbling Kedron Brook on the golf course and more challenging uphills and downhills on the adjacent Mt. Peg property. Winter adventure-themed vacation packages are built around the Tubbs Snowshoes Adventure Center. From romantic to adventurous, there are value-packed getaways with the adventure centers designed for guests to enjoy an exhilarating way to experience the peace and tranquility of Woodstock in winter.

My wife and I enjoyed part of the Tubbs Snowshoe Excursion Package including accommodations for two nights, welcome gift basket and bottle of wine, breakfast for two daily, $100 credit at the spa, and a guided snowshoe trek to lunch at the Mt. Tom Cabin in the national park. The package includes snowshoe/Nordic ski trail passes and rental equipment. We went cross country skiing on groomed ski tracks accessed from the Woodstock Athletic Club on a sunny morning followed by wonderful massages in the Spa. On the second morning, I went snowboarding at the nearby Suicide Six ski area while my wife took a yoga class at the club. Overall, we were impressed with the inn and its staff, each and every one of them. In all of our interactions, the Woodstock Inn & Resort staff was especially attentive to us, often without the need of having to ask.

On Saturday, we reached the Mt. Tom Cabin after crunching up about one and a half miles on snowshoes up a hardpacked snowy trail under a clear and cold afternoon. The guide, who was associated with the national park was a naturalist that imparted some of his knowledge about winter nature and history of the park, which is the only national park dedicated to conservation stewardship. The park’s 550-acre forest is one of the oldest professionally managed forests in the USA with 400-year old hemlocks and Norway Spruce.

The inn’s Main Lobby is comfortably furnished and features a 10-foot fieldstone fireplace at its center. Don’t miss the Game Room, which is a hoot for the kid in all of us. It has a mix of games including a 4-foot scrabble board on the wall played with magnetic tiles, three real pinball machines, billiards, foosball, six TVs, video games, and more.

The 10,000 square-foot spa has 10 treatment rooms, luxurious suite, tranquil men’s and women’s lounges, a light-filled Great Room, enclosed outdoor courtyard featuring a meditation tree and a wood sauna and a hot soaking pool. Guests can choose from a wide selection of treatments performed by licensed therapists.

The Woodstock Inn & Resort’s own Suicide Six Ski Area opened in 1937, just a few years after the first ski tow in the United States was rigged up just over the ridge at Gilbert’s Hill. Suicide Six has Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 9.41.58 AMsince evolved into a friendly and personal ski area that caters to families and local skiers. On Sunday morning when I visited, the slopes were covered with young local ski racers learning the ins and outs of skiing gates.

The Woodstock area offers other activities including day trips to nearby points of interest such as Simon Pearce Glass, Shackleton Furniture, or the Quechee Gorge. The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is Vermont’s first national park and it operates in partnership with the Woodstock Foundation, Inc, and the Billings Farm & Museum – a working dairy farm and agricultural museum that mirrors rural life in Vermont in the late 1800s.

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