Manchester has become a tourist destination, especially for those from New York and Connecticut, offering visitors factory outlet stores of national chain retailers as well as many locally owned businesses and restaurants.

It was his custom to name new towns after prominent English aristocrats of the day, hoping they might adopt a patronly interest in their namesakes.

The arrival of the railroad from industrialized centers like New York City brought tourists, drawn by Manchester's historic architecture and beautiful setting among mountains.

[7] Orvis is a family-owned retail and mail-order business specializing in high-end fly fishing, hunting and sporting goods.

Founded in Manchester in 1856 by Charles F. Orvis to sell fishing tackle, it is the oldest mail-order retailer in the United States.

[8] Manchester is located in north-central Bennington County, lying between the Green Mountains to the east and the Taconic Range to the west.

The Lye Brook Falls Hiking Trail, which leads to one of the highest waterfalls in Vermont, is a popular local attraction.

VTrans and NYSDOT have shown interest in restoring passenger train service to Manchester on a new Amtrak route between Albany and Burlington via Rutland, also linking up nearby Mechanicville, New York and North Bennington, Vermont.

The new train would share much of its route with the Ethan Allen Express, likely running beyond Albany to New York City.

The permanent collection at SVAC includes the work of such regional artists as Ogden Pleissner, Jay Hall Conaway, Reginald Marsh, Guy Pene du Bois, Lorenzo Hatch, Luigi Lucioni, Arthur Gibbs Burton, and Robert Strong Woodward.

Their broadcast tower is on the summit of Equinox Mountain, from which their callsign derives, enabling their signal to reach the northern and eastern Capital Region of New York's radio market area,[22] while also being able to reach the remainder of southern Vermont, western Massachusetts, and southwestern New Hampshire.