Tavern independent inns

Set along VT-106 in the green folds of Perkinsville, this rustic-chic bed & breakfast pairs country quiet with serious cooking — a gourmet restaurant and tavern, a wine cellar beneath it all, and cookery classes that give the winter months a purpose. Guests rate it a near-perfect 4.9 across more than 200 reviews, and the inn doubles as a wedding and event venue for those who want the whole place to themselves.

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.

Set along Simonsville Road in the green folds of Andover, Vermont, The INN Between pairs guest rooms with the Which Way Tavern — a bar and restaurant where the kitchen turns out vegan and vegetarian plates alongside the usual roadhouse pours. It's the kind of place where dinner and a nightcap happen a staircase away from your bed, and where 83 guests have left it a 4.8-star reputation. A small, dual-purpose stop for travelers crossing southern Vermont's back roads.

A small roadside inn on Vermont Route 100 in Pittsfield, a village barely wider than the river it's named for. The inn shares its identity with the Clear River Tavern, so lodging and a place to eat and drink sit under one roof — handy in a stretch of the Green Mountains where the next town is a winding drive away. Guests rate it unusually highly, with a 4.8 average across more than 225 reviews.