Lakeside independent inns

A 19th-century inn standing beside the water in Ludlow, Echo Lake Inn keeps the rhythms of an older Vermont: canoes and row boats waiting at the lake, a tavern and pub for the hours between, and a dining room serious enough to draw guests who aren't staying the night. Weddings and gatherings fill the place in season, but the scale stays intimate, and the 4.7 rating across nearly two hundred reviews suggests the welcome is consistent. It's the kind of address where the lake sets the agenda and dinner is the evening's event.