Southern Vermont's Frog Meadow Farm – a perfect getaway

(updated Mar 2023)

As I've said many times before, I'm not a big hotel person – I'd rather be out seeing the sights and meeting up with people than ensconced in the stylishly-bland, comfortable nowhere of a posh urban hotel. There are exceptions, though. Visiting a traditional Japanese ryokan inn immediately comes to mind. While they're often located in beautiful settings, the hotel itself is the primary destination. Beautiful seasonal food, soaking tubs and onsen baths, and lots of quiet time for just chilling out for a couple of days. For experiences like these, I'm very much a hotel snob.

Wood-fired hot tub bliss

Our first-ever trip to Vermont back in 2010 was specifically to visit Frog Meadow Farm in Newfane. A friend in San Francisco was describing it to us and it sounded a lot like an American ryokan for gay men: seasonal breakfasts, a wood-fired soaking tub, a massage studio, miles of private hiking and cross-country skiing trails, orchards and honeybees, a big roaring fireplace to sit in front of, and a beautiful hilltop setting near the legendary Rock River gay recreation area.

The main house in October

Dave and Scott, the innkeepers

Over the past 11 years we've been to Frog Meadow in all four seasons. Scott and Dave, the innkeepers, are like extended family. We came here for our honeymoon. We came here to heal and recuperate after a painful death in the family. And we were some of the firsts guests to return after their long Covid closure. 

As a gay man, there's something powerful about having a place to go where I don't have to have my guard up. Many of us have gotten so used to having it up we don't even notice that it's there until we get a chance to take it down and experience what that feels like. You'll never need to censor or otherwise repackage yourself to make sure you don't ruffle the feathers of fellow guests who might not approve of your "lifestyle" or who object to it being visible "in front of the children." It's liberating.

The inn is clothing-optional. In practice that generally means that people are only nude in the tub or the pond, or when an adventurous type goes for a nude hike on one of the private trails. One of my favorite things about Frog Meadow is that it perfectly walks the line between cozy/romantic and flirty/playful – you can have whatever kind of time you want to have there. There are guests of all ages and sizes, most visiting from Boston, New York, Montreal, or elsewhere in the Northeast.  

It's a place for all types

Chief of Staff Jay is a big sweetheart who keeps the whole place running like a well-oiled machine!

Some tips for visiting

Their website does a great job of laying out the details, so I'll just throw in a few tips we've learned over the past 8 years.

• Indigenous Peoples Day weekend (née Columbus Day) is generally the high holy days of leaf viewing (aka "Leaf Peeper Weekend"). Book as early as possible if you'd like to be here then, and know that there's a 3-day minimum. The state's foliage tracker is great for keeping track of when the leaves will actually change.
  

  

  VT State Motto: We don't need no stinkin' Instagram filter!
  

  
  
• The two cottage rooms (Brook and Bee) are both 100 meters or so from the main house and not near each other. They're amazing for having complete quiet and solitude. Neither have bathrooms, so you'll be peeing in the bushes and coming back up to the house for anything more serious than that.

  

  The Brook Cottage
  
  

• The Frog Meadow Suite has its own bathroom, while the North and South rooms share a bath and shower in the hall. Personally, we both prefer the outdoor shower.

  

  Showering alfresco is the best!
  
  

  
  

• Breakfast is fresh fruit and yogurt, followed by sausage or bacon, and either pancakes, waffles, omelette, or french toast depending on the day. There's a never-ending carafe of drip coffee from a local roaster and a Keurig machine with various kinds of pods. They're good about accommodating special dietary needs but don't get crazy.

  

  Breakfast!
  
  

• The ryokan similarities stop when it comes to lunch and dinner. You'll be heading into town for both of those meals, not sitting on the floor in your room wearing a Yukata. Luckily the surrounding area has a good range of places to eat. People eat early here, and restaurants are often closed by 9.
• A couple of favorites: Fat Crow for wood-fired pizzas, Top of the Hill for amazing barbecue. Elliot Street Fish and Chips has great fish tacos. Whetstone Station has good pub grub and a great view of the river. Many of our old favorites shuttered during Covid (3 Stones, Williamsville Eatery, and Amy's are dearly missed).

Wood-fired pizza at Fat Crow!

• There's no access to the kitchen in the main house for cooking your own lunch or dinner.
• There are some great farm stands in the area so maybe bring along some rigid containers to help you schlep home your loot in your bag without it getting bruised.
• Don't forget to stop at a store in town on your way up to grab some beer/wine and midnight snacks to put into the guest fridge. Shops close early and it's a 15 minute drive to the nearest store. And trust me, a 15 minute drive seems like an eternity when it means getting out of the hot tub.
  

  

  One of our favorite local ciders to keep by the hot tub
  

  
  
• T-Mobile's service is terrible all over southern Vermont, so maybe plan a digital detox for your visit? Many of the local businesses (including Frog Meadow) have free Wi-Fi. Another option is to add a roaming eSim onto your phone so it can roam onto AT&T's network when T-Mobile's drops out. We've done this with GigSky (using their North America plan) and it worked great.
  
  
  
• The rest of the day, you can easily do all of the Vermont things you imagined you do: see covered bridges, visit a cheese factory, do a tasting at a distillery, buy maple syrup at a roadside stand, ski, bike, and stroll through a cute small town looking at antiques and bakeries and coffee shops.

  

  Yep, it really does look like you imagined
  
  

• Check out their various retreats (yoga, tantra, work camp, etc) and nearby events – the Vermont Bear Film Festival is supposed to be a lot of fun.
• Several friends have gone for their shoulder season work camps and all of them have had a blast. 
• Winter is gorgeous here, but bring adequate gear if you plan on snowshoeing or cross-country skiing as wind-chills can be fierce when you're not in the tub.

  

  Best place to be on a winter day
  
  

• In Autumn, pick apples and make cider

  

  At Frog Meadow's own orchard
  
  

• If you're coming during warm weather, make sure you've got a backpack, some Tevas (or a second pair of sneakers that can get wet), sunscreen, bug spray, towels, a garbage bag to haul out your mess, and general beach gear. The trek out to the Rock River is a fairly obstacle-laden path and you have to cross a sometimes-waist-deep river with foot protection to get there. There's a Facebook group if you want to dive in.
  

  

  Summon your inner Indiana Jones to reach the Rock River gay beach

  
  
• The low light pollution makes the hot tub a great place to look at stars or watch a meteor shower with a friend or two 

Watching the Geminid meteor shower on a clear night

Arriving

If you don't have a car, there are several options for getting there from the city:

• Rent a car in the city and drive the whole way. Door-to-door it's about 5 hours from NYC if you do a little planning to avoid traffic. 
• Take the train to Albany, then rent a car. Albany is our preferred option because the trains are frequent and fast on this line, and then it's a calm 75 mile drive on country highways. Enterprise has a satellite location in the Albany Amtrak station parking lot, but make sure they have availability before you book your train ticket! Also, make sure you book at least 24 hours in advance. Since Covid, it's been really hard to find rental cars here (or anywhere for that matter). TIP: plan a lunch stop at the delicious Ali Baba in Troy.
• Take Metro North (MNR) to New Haven and then rent a car. This option is nice because you can take an express Metro North train and save some money on the train travel, but it requires 140 miles of driving, with both Hartford and Springfield's traffic to look forward to.
• Take Metro North +The Hartford Line to Hartford or Springfield and rent a car. We've done this option with Turo and arranged to have the host leave the car right next to the train station (see below). The tracks between New Haven and Springfield are brand new and the train is quite fast.  
• Amtrak's Vermonter line to Brattleboro only runs once a day and is quite slow, but this option involves the least amount of driving (12 miles). You will absolutely need a car, even with this option. We use the Enterprise "pick me up" option when we've done this. 

Red dots for the main train options, Frog Meadow is the purple star (click to enlarge)

Given how difficult it's been finding rental cars during the Covid era, we've switched to using Turo for our car rental needs (it's like AirBnB for cars). We've picked up a Tesla model Y from an owner near the Springfield (MA) train station and a Tesla Model X from an owner near the Hartford (CT) train station. Given that Uber and Lyft are intermittently unreliable outside of big cities these days, I HIGHLY recommend choosing the "Pickup at Train station" option if the Turo owner offers it. 

One other quick thing to mention while I'm talking about electric cars – there's a Supercharger just south of Brattleboro and several of the public parking garages offer free charging. Even closer to Frog Meadow, the Fat Crow restaurant has two charging stations as well (free if you're eating there).