Outstanding Stays: Twin Farms, Vermont

We could all do with a strong dose of escapism right now, so each week we'll be highlighting a banging boutique to bookmark for when the world presses play again
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Travel is off the cards, for now.

But when restrictions lift, and it's safe to do so, the longing for a trip away from our own postcodes will be strong. More importantly, there will be hundreds upon hundreds of hotels around the world, particularly independently-owned boutiques, that will need your help.

They'll need you to check in, lie on their Egyptian cotton sheets and soak up their charm. That's why we've teamed up with Mr & Mrs Smith for a new weekly series that takes a tantalising peak inside some of the world's finest properties.

For this instalment, travel and wellness writer Harriet Charnock-Bates embraces the great outdoors at a pine-dotted idyll in Vermont.

The Look

Arriving at Twin Farms, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped into a Fairfield Porter painting. Enveloped in frilly foliage, just north of Woodstock, it’s an irresistible good-for-the-soul escape with a resident beekeeper and New England charm by the bucketful.

In the main house - a whimsy of lantern-hung verandas, creaky wooden floors and plump couches in ditsy floral prints - brass floor lamps mingle beside sizeable Hockneys, jam-packed bookshelves provide the backdrop for whiskey-fuelled checkers games, and floor-to-ceiling windows frame timeless vignettes of the surrounding pines.

Step outside and the view is pure magic, from Copper Pond’s glistening expanse, to the meadows of waist-high wildflowers, and the suites and cottages, dotted across the leafy, sun-warmed acres, couldn’t be lovelier.

(Louis A. W. Sheridan/Mr & Mrs Smith)
Louis A. W. Sheridan/Mr & Mrs Smith

The Feel

Nature steals the show on this impossibly serene estate. Red-winged blackbirds flit between rushes, bullfrogs sound out raspy, resonant choruses that echo across the fields, and the woodland - a silky swathe of exuberant green - appears to go on forever. It feels well and truly cut off, and that’s the goal, though there’s a surfeit of warmth to the place; a pervading sense of comfort that’s tricky to put into words.

The team’s fondness for the surrounding landscapes is clear as day, and everyone has their own read on what makes Twin Farms such a winner. It’s an unfakeable badge of pride that, when paired with the sincere anything-you-want, whenever-you-want-it ethos, makes for the most spoiling of stays - one that’s genuinely memorable.

(Louis A. W. Sheridan/Mr & Mrs Smith)
Louis A. W. Sheridan/Mr & Mrs Smith

The Experience

Here you can be just as intrepid or downright bone idle as you please. Hours can be whiled away hiking and biking along the rugged, pine-flanked trails, getting to grips with angling, or dozing on the striped porch chairs as red squirrels scramble about the branches.

Should you find the resolve to leave, achingly winsome Woodstock - with its old-school ice cream parlour and smattering of brilliant bookshops - is well worth a wander. Back at Twin Farms, chef Rich’s menus make a strong case for pasture-to-plate feasting, and there’s no shortage of nooks to curl up in with a good paperback afterwards.

Once you’ve had your fill of exploring, catch the last light of the day down beside the lupin-fringed pond, toasting s'mores on the fire and revelling in the outdoorsy thrill of it all.

(Louis A. W. Sheridan/Mr & Mrs Smith)
Louis A. W. Sheridan/Mr & Mrs Smith

Insider info

Join Dave, the beekeeper, as he tends to the estate’s high-perched hives. Along with the lowdown on the way things work and a taste or two of the sweet nectar, you can expect tales of sticky-pawed bear cubs scaling the fence to make midnight honey raids.

Getting There

Fly to JFK from London Heathrow with British Airways before flying on to Burlington International Airport with JetBlue. From there it’s an hour and a half by car to Twin Farms.

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