The Hotel Vervana at Bennington

The Hotel Vervana in Bennington offers lodging with wellness facilities in Vermont’s southwestern corner.

Bennington has more history than its size suggests. The Battle of Bennington in 1777 was a turning point in the Saratoga campaign, and the 306-foot obelisk commemorating it is the tallest structure in the state. Robert Frost is buried in the Old First Church cemetery. Bennington College has an outsized reputation in writing and the arts, and the Bennington Museum holds the largest public collection of Grandma Moses paintings.

Boutique hotels with thermal facilities occupy useful middle ground — better equipped than a standalone day spa, smaller and more considered than a resort, and generally open to non-residents as well as guests.

Vermont’s winters make the practice meaningful rather than decorative. The southwestern corner sits in the Taconic range with the Green Mountains to the east, and the season runs cold from November well into April.

Bennington sits at the junction of routes 7 and 9, roughly an hour from Albany. Confirm whether facilities are available to non-guests.

The Green Mountain National Forest begins a few miles east, and the Long Trail — the oldest long-distance hiking path in the country, running the length of the state — passes nearby.