Vermont's Landgrove Inn requires you to drive several miles down a dirt road, and the bumpy ride is just one more reason you might not want to leave once you get there. In all the best ways, it's an old-fashioned inn: a rambling 1810 farmhouse, with nooks and crannies and added-on wings. People hang out in the big tavern room, shooting bumper pool, playing board games, talking around the fire, or curling up with a book; and there's an honor system at the bar. Outside you've got it all: a pool, tennis courts, big lawn for horseshoes or croquet, a pond where you can swim or canoe, and bucolic, unpaved roads to wander. The setting is a wide valley surrounded by the Green Mountains. There's no commercial establishment for miles, unless you count Karl Pfister's horse farm down the road, which offers carriage rides.

132 Landgrove Road, Land grove, Vt., 800-669-8466, 802-824-6673, landgroveinn.com, doubles $90-$250, includes full breakfast and use of canoes, tennis rackets, bicycles, and other equipment.