Stowe vs Lake Placid: How the Two Mountain Towns Compare

Stowe Mountain Resort has about 485 acres of skiable terrain on two peaks, Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak, linked by a gondola, with a base village at Spruce Peak. Mount Mansfield, at 4,393 feet, is the highest point in Vermont. Vail Resorts owns Stowe, and it is on the Epic Pass, which brings heavy traffic on peak weekends. Mount Mansfield State Forest and the Stowe Recreation Path add cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

Whiteface Mountain, about 25 minutes from Lake Placid in Wilmington, is owned by the state and run by the Olympic Regional Development Authority. It lists a vertical drop of 3,430 feet, which it says is the largest in the East, and its expert terrain includes The Slides, opened when conditions allow. The Cloudsplitter Gondola runs to the top of Little Whiteface.

Stowe has lodging at most price points, from Stowe Motel & Snowdrift in the $ band to Edson Hill, a 25-room manor inn on 38 acres above the village, and The Lodge at Spruce Peak, ski-in/ski-out at the base of the mountain.

Lake Placid's lodging covers the main types too. Mirror Lake Inn has a private beach on Mirror Lake, a spa and a MICHELIN Key (2024), and Whiteface Lodge is an all-suite resort within walking distance of the village and the Olympic venues. Smaller inns are in the village and in nearby Keene and Keene Valley, and rooms are hard to find on peak ski weekends and the Ironman weekend in July.

Lake Placid is about 5 hours from New York City via I-87 and about 4.5 to 5 hours from Boston. Stowe is about 5.5 hours from New York City and about 3 to 3.5 hours from Boston via I-89. From New York the drives are similar, so terrain, town and lodging decide the choice; from Boston, Stowe is closer.

Most visitors drive. Amtrak's Vermonter stops in Waterbury, about 10 miles from Stowe, and Amtrak's Adirondack stops in Westport, about an hour from Lake Placid. The last stretch to Lake Placid, on Route 73 through the High Peaks, can be slow in winter weather; Stowe is reached from I-89 at Exit 10 in Waterbury.

Many Stowe properties are in the $$$ and $$$$ bands, and peak ski weeks, such as Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Presidents' Week and the holidays from Christmas to New Year's, often book six months or more ahead. The Epic Pass brings many destination skiers to Stowe, which adds to demand on those dates.

Lake Placid's top properties, Mirror Lake Inn and Whiteface Lodge, cost about the same, but the area also has more inns in the $$ band, especially in Keene and Keene Valley. January weekdays and early March are easier to book in both towns, at rates well below peak weekends.

Both towns are open year-round. In summer, Stowe draws visitors for mountain biking, the Stowe Recreation Path and the surrounding farm country, and fall color usually peaks in early October. Lake Placid's summer centers on Ironman Lake Placid in July, the lakes and the High Peaks, where many hikers work toward climbing all 46 High Peaks. Adirondack foliage peaks a little earlier than Vermont's, in late September on the higher ground, and brings heavy traffic to the Lake Placid area.