The Inn at Shelburne Farms

The Inn at Shelburne Farms occupies the 19th-century brick Queen Anne manor house at the heart of a 1,400-acre working farm estate on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain in Shelburne, Vermont, eight miles south of Burlington. The manor was built between 1887 and 1899 as the summer residence of William Seward Webb and Lila Vanderbilt Webb, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Robert Henderson Robertson. Today, Shelburne Farms operates as a nonprofit education and conservation organization; the inn's revenues support the estate's farm stewardship, children's environmental education, and landscape preservation mission. The property is open from late May through mid-October only—a seasonal constraint that ensures an intimate and unhurried experience. The 24 guest rooms in the main inn building are furnished with Victorian antiques and period reproductions; several upper-floor rooms offer sweeping views across Lake Champlain to the Adirondacks of New York. Additional cottage rooms across the estate provide simpler, more affordable accommodation. A full country breakfast is included in main inn room rates. The inn's dining rooms—named for the estate's heritage—serve dinner using produce from the property's kitchen gardens and meat from the working farm, in a menu that changes daily. The estate's Farm Barn houses the celebrated Shelburne Farms cheddar-making program, and guided farm tours allow inn guests to observe cheese production, working draft horses, and heritage breed sheep. The Shelburne Museum, housing one of the finest collections of American folk art in the country, is 1.5 miles away.