VERMONT comes closer than any New England state to realising the quintessential image of small-town Yankee America, with its white churches and red barns, covered bridges and clapboard houses, snowy woods and maple syrup. No city manages a population of more than forty thousand (only Burlington comes close) and the chief tourist attraction is Ben and Jerry's ice-cream factory in Waterbury. Though rural, the landscape is not all that agricultural, as much is covered by mountainous forests (the state's name comes from the French vert mont , or green mountain). The people who choose to live here are a mix of hippies and diehard conservatives working together to preserve their environment and lamenting the arrival of yet more ski resorts. One striking feature of Vermont is the absence of billboards, but the cutesy "country stores" which seem to grace every other crossroads can become tedious.

This was the last area of New England to be settled, early in the eighteenth century, with French explorers working their way down from Canada, and American colonists beginning to spread north. Even as that rivalry died down, another developed between settlers from New Hampshire and those from New York. The wealthy New York merchants who built fine homes along the Connecticut River valley thought of themselves as the "River Gods," but the hardy settlers of the lakes and mountains to the west had little time for their patrician ways. Their leader, the now-legendary Ethan Allen , formed his Green Mountain Boys in 1770, proclaiming that "the gods of the hills are not the gods of the valley." During the Revolutionary War, this all-but-autonomous force captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British and helped to win the decisive Battle of Bennington. By 1777, Vermont was an independent republic, with the first constitution in the world explicitly forbidding slavery and granting universal (male) suffrage, but once its boundaries with New York were agreed on, it joined the Union in 1791.

With the occasional exception, such as the extraordinary assortment of Americana at the Shelburne Museum near Burlington, there are few specific goals for tourists. Visitors come in great numbers during two well-defined seasons: to see the fall foliage in the first two weeks of October, and to ski in the depths of winter, when the resorts of Killington , and Stowe further north (home of The Sound of Music 's Trapp family), spring into life. For the rest of the year, you might just as well explore any of the state's minor roads that take your fancy, confident that some picturesque village will be around the next corner. There are far too many to list; we've had to leave out such prime examples as Peru, Grafton and Middlebury . Further information can be picked up from the official Welcome Center on each interstate as it enters Vermont.  TOP

Lake Champlain Ferries (tel 802/864-9804, ) carries cars from Grand Isle, VT to Plattsburgh, NY; Burlington, VT to Port Kent, NY; and Charlotte, VT to Essex, NY; and a six-minute ferry journey links Larrabee's Point with Ticonderoga further south. Vermont Mountain Bike Tours (PO Box 541, Pittsfield, VT 05762; tel 802/746-8580) and Adventure Guides of Vermont (PO Box 3, North Ferrisburgh, VT 05473; tel 802/425-6211 or 1-800/425-8747) organize cycling tours.  TOP

Green Mountains
The Green Mountains that form the backbone of Vermont are not as harsh as New Hampshire's White Mountains, though the forests for which they are named are invariably buried in snow for most of the winter, and the higher roads are liable to be blocked for long periods. Here and there, denuded patches mark where trees have been shaved away to create ski-runs, but for the most part the usually peaceful Hwy-100 running up from the south offers unspoiled mountain views to either side.

In summer, hikers take up the challenge of the Long Trail along the central ridge, 264 miles from north to south. This trail predates the Appalachian Trail, which now joins its southern portion, and was constructed by the Green Mountain Club (4711 Waterbury-Stowe Rd, Waterbury Center, VT 05677; tel 802/244-7037), whose Guidebook to the Long Trail ($14.95) is invaluable.

Lake Champlain
The 150-mile-long Lake Champlain , which forms the boundary between Vermont and New York state, and just nudges its way into Canada in the north, never exceeds twelve miles in width. Across the water from the flatlands of the Champlain Valley, the imposing Adirondacks are always visible, looming in the west. The first non-native to see the lake, Samuel de Champlain in 1609, who named it after himself, was also the first to claim that it held a sinuous Loch Ness-type monster, which is referred to affectionately in the region as "Champ".

The life and soul of the valley is the French-influenced city of Burlington , whose longstanding trade connections with Montréal has filled it with elegant nineteenth-century architecture. Within just a few miles of the center, US-2 leads north onto the supremely rural Champlain Isles , covered in meadows and orchards.

Vermont is one of the few states with designated Underwater Historic Preserves (details at 802/475-2022, ), where divers can see shipwrecks on the lake floor. Several of these underwater "state parks" are close to Burlington, and the best place to learn more about them is at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Basin Harbor, seven miles west of Vergennes (May to mid-Oct daily 10am-5pm; $8). The museum is in the grounds of the Basin Harbor Club (tel 802/475-2311 or 1-800/622-4000, ), oddly part down-home family resort, part well-heeled country club with golf course, where rates include three meals a day in summer ($200-250) and breakfast only at other times ($100-130).

Lake Champlain Ferries (tel 802/864-9804, ) cross the lake from Vermont to New York from Burlington (to Port Kent; every 90min; $13.25); Charlotte (to Essex; every 30min except in winter when it leaves hourly; $7.50); and Grand Isle (to Plattsburgh; every 20min; $7.50). All these rates are one-way for a car and driver; additional passengers, cyclists and walk-ons pay $2.50-4.50.

Southern Vermont
Of the two low-key towns at either end of Vermont's southern corridor - a mere forty miles from east to west and linked by Hwy-9 - Brattleboro has the atmosphere of a college town, but no college, while Bennington has the college but not the atmosphere. The birthplace of Mormon prophet Brigham Young is marked by a monument at Whitingham , halfway between the two.   TOP