- Duration
- 3.5 hours
- Group size
- Up to 4 guests per Jeep
- Availability
- Year-round
The idea
Two towns, two very different American stories, one afternoon. Bennington gives you the Revolutionary War, the oldest surviving Vermont meeting house and a 306-foot monument you can see from three states. Manchester gives you the Gilded Age — marble sidewalks, Hildene, and the era when Lincoln money built a resort town in the mountains.
We start in Old Bennington, where the 1805 First Church and its burying ground hold Revolutionary War dead and Robert Frost, and where the Battle of Bennington monument still marks one of the turning points of the northern campaign. The stories here are older than the country and better than most people expect.
Then we drive north to Manchester, which is a completely different Vermont: sidewalks laid in local marble, the Equinox hotel, and Hildene, the estate Robert Todd Lincoln built when he decided the mountains suited him. The contrast between the two towns is the whole point of the tour, and the thirty miles of road between them is some of the prettiest driving in the state.
Highlights
- The 1805 First Church and Robert Frost's grave
- The Bennington Battle Monument
- Hildene, the Lincoln family estate
- Marble sidewalks and the Equinox hotel district
Good to know
- Comfortable walking shoes — there is real walking at four of the stops.
- We can add interior admission to Hildene or the Bennington Museum on request.
- Works beautifully in winter, when both towns empty out and the light is extraordinary.
Pairs well with
More ideas to combine
Ideas in the same vein — mix and match them into a single custom day or weekend.
