The drawbridge in the middle of Mystic. It goes up every forty minutes in summer and the whole town stops to watch, which tells you most of what you need to know about the pace here
Connecticut With Kids Family Travel Guide
“Connecticut is the state everybody drives through. That is exactly why it works.”
Why families hire me for Connecticut
Nobody writes Connecticut for visitors. Every guide you will find is a list of things to do, written for people who already live here. This one is written for a family deciding where to go.
I have planned and priced more than three hundred trips, and a surprising number of them have been the New England week where somebody wants coast, history and a drive that does not break the children. Connecticut keeps coming up as the answer and almost never gets picked, because it is the state between New York and Boston that everybody passes on the way to somewhere else.
That is the whole opportunity. Connecticut has a whaling museum with real ships you climb aboard, an aquarium with belugas in the same small town, coal fired pizza that people fly in for, a free natural history museum at Yale, a steam train, a castle built by the man who played Sherlock Holmes, and a hundred miles of shoreline on water that is warm enough to actually swim in.
And it is small. You can cross the whole state in about two hours. That means one hotel, one unpacking, and day trips in every direction instead of a week of moving.
I taught social studies for eight years, and this corner of the country is where a lot of what I taught actually happened. Standing on the deck of a wooden whaleship does more in ten minutes than I could do in a week with a textbook.
What I do for families is the part that is hard from the outside. Which town to sleep in. Which day to do Mystic so you are not in the aquarium at the same time as four school groups. Shoreline or hills, and which one your kids will actually like. Where the free things are, because there are more of them here than anywhere else in New England.
Beyond the Bookshelf
A shelf of Connecticut books, whaling stories and seaside films to get everyone in the mood before the drive.
We read into a place before we go, and Connecticut gives you a lot to work with. Whaling, which is the real history of this coast and is grim and gripping in equal measure. Mark Twain, who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a house in Hartford you can walk through. Sherlock Holmes, because the actor who made him famous on stage built himself a stone castle above the Connecticut River and filled it with puzzles.
For younger kids, anything with ships and knots. For readers around ten and up, a children’s version of the whaling story is worth it before Mystic, because the scale of what those crews did lands much harder when they already know a little.
We pair it with a film night and something from the kitchen. Clam chowder, or a flatbread pizza the kids build themselves, which is a reasonable rehearsal for New Haven.
Why Connecticut works with kids
Three reasons, and the first one surprises people.
The water is warm. Connecticut does not sit on the open Atlantic. It sits on Long Island Sound, which is a sheltered body of water with Long Island lying across the front of it like a breakwater. Calm, shallow at the edges, and warm by late July in a way the Maine coast simply never is. If you have a four year old who wants to stand in the sea rather than scream at it, this is the New England coast to pick.
The driving is short. The state is about a hundred miles across and roughly two hours end to end. Every day trip on this page is an hour or less from a central base. After a week in Maine or Vermont, where everything is a two hour drive through trees, that feels like a different holiday.
And a lot of it is free or nearly free. The Yale Peabody Museum is free. The state park beaches charge for parking rather than per person. The best hour in Mystic is standing on the bridge watching it open. Connecticut is an expensive state to live in and a cheap one to visit, which is an unusual combination.
Two hours end to end. The whole state fits inside a morning’s drive, so you can base once and still see the shoreline, the river valley and the hills.
The Sound swims warm. Sheltered water behind Long Island, shallow at the edges, and swimmable by late July. Not the case anywhere further up the coast.
Two big attractions in one small town. Mystic Seaport Museum and Mystic Aquarium are minutes apart. That is two full days without moving the car, which is rare.
A free museum worth a morning. Admission to the Yale Peabody Museum is free, which no family page in the state leads with. Closed Mondays.
Food worth planning around. New Haven apizza is a real regional food with a real argument attached, and kids eat pizza. That is a free win.
It is on the way to everything. New York and Boston are both close. Connecticut works as a destination and as the smart middle of a bigger Northeast trip.
Connecticut Place by Place
Eight places worth your time, in the order I would put them on a first trip.
Mystic
New Haven
Hartford
Essex and the River Valley
Madison and the Shoreline
Litchfield Hills
New London and Groton
Bristol
Connecticut Is Whaling Ships, Pizza Arguments and Insurance
Three things made this state and two of them are still on the menu.
Whaling came first. New London and Mystic sent ships around the world for years at a time, and the money built the houses you drive past on the shoreline. The last wooden whaleship left in the world sits in the water at Mystic Seaport and you can go aboard it. Your kids will want to know how long the voyages were and how many people slept in that space, and the answers are startling.
Then came the pizza, which sounds like a joke until you are standing in the queue. Italian families settled around Wooster Street in New Haven and started baking in coal ovens, and the result is its own thing with its own name. People argue about which of the three originals is best the way people elsewhere argue about sports teams.
And then insurance, which is why Hartford exists in the shape it does and is the least interesting of the three to a nine year old. Mention it once and move on. What Hartford actually has for a family is Mark Twain’s house, which is a strange and wonderful building, and a good science centre.
The thread running through all of it is that Connecticut is a working place rather than a resort. Nobody is performing New England at you here. That is either the appeal or the drawback, depending on what you came for.
The Charles W. Morgan at Mystic. Gavin would have asked how they got the barrels on and off, and the answer takes about twenty minutes
Apizza, Ordered The Way New Haven Orders It
Connecticut’s one unmissable food, and the small amount of vocabulary that stops you looking lost.
It is spelled pizza and it is said ah-BEETS. Coal fired, blistered, thin and uneven, cooked fast and hot so the bottom is charred in patches. If you expect a neat round pie you will be surprised, and then you will order another one.
Three places on and around Wooster Street in New Haven are the originals, and locals have a favourite and will tell you about it. Frank Pepe has been there since 1925. Sally’s is the other half of the argument. Modern is the third and the one some people quietly think is best. All three have queues and none of them take the queue very seriously, so go early or go late with kids.
Order the white clam if you are feeling brave, because it is the dish the city is actually famous for. Order a plain tomato pie with mozzarella on the side for the children, which is how it comes unless you ask. And know that mozzarella is an extra here, which catches people out every single time.
The rest of Connecticut food is seafood shack cooking, and it is good. Lobster rolls come warm with butter in this state rather than cold with mayonnaise, which is a Connecticut thing and worth knowing if you have a preference. Fried clams, steamers, and a lot of soft serve.
White clam apizza Clams, garlic, oregano, oil, no tomato. The dish New Haven is known for and the one your kids will be suspicious of.
A hot buttered lobster roll Warm lobster, melted butter, toasted bun. The Connecticut style, and a different thing from the cold Maine version.
Fried whole belly clams Not strips. Whole clams, fried, with tartar sauce, eaten at a picnic table near the water.
Steamed cheeseburger A central Connecticut oddity. The burger is steamed rather than grilled and the cheese melts into a pool. Strange, local, and the kids will want to try it.
Apple cider doughnuts Autumn only, from a farm stand or an orchard, eaten warm in the car park. Non negotiable in October.
Soft serve from a roadside stand Twist, dipped, sprinkles. Connecticut takes its roadside ice cream stands seriously and most of them are seasonal.
One practical warning about the pizza. These places are small, cash heavy in places, and the queue outside the famous one on a Saturday evening in summer is long enough to break a toddler. Go at opening, or go at four in the afternoon, or pick the third most famous one and have a better evening. The difference between them is much smaller than the difference between queueing for ninety minutes and not.
The Sound Is Warm. The Atlantic Is Not.
This is the single most useful thing on this page and nobody says it.
Connecticut’s coast is not ocean. It faces Long Island Sound, a long sheltered channel with Long Island sitting across the front of it. The water comes in warm, the waves are small, and the shallow edges heat up through the summer. By late July you can walk a small child into it without the gasping.
Go a hundred miles north east to the open Atlantic in Maine and the same child is ankle deep and furious. That coast is beautiful and the water is cold enough that most families never actually swim. Here they swim.
So if your trip hinges on children in the sea rather than looking at it, this shoreline is the one to pick, and it is the reason I send families with little kids here rather than further up.
The trade off is honest. There are no dramatic granite headlands, no crashing surf, no lighthouse on a cliff. The Connecticut shoreline is gentle, low, and in places suburban. It is a swimming coast, not a scenery coast.
Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison is the biggest shoreline state park in the state and the one to aim for. Long sand, shallow entry, a boardwalk, a nature centre and a campground. You pay to park rather than per person, which for a family of five is a meaningful difference. Go on a weekday if you can, because the car park fills on hot weekends and then closes.
Two things to pack because of the Sound rather than in spite of it. Water shoes, because some stretches are stony and there are shells. And more sunscreen than you think, because calm water reflects and nobody feels like they are burning when the breeze is coming off the sea.
Getting There From New York or Boston, Because Almost Everybody Drives Through
Connecticut sits in the gap between two of the busiest cities in America, and that shapes every arrival.
Most families arrive by car, usually on Interstate 95 along the shoreline. That road is the spine of the state and it is also the one everybody warns you about, because the stretch through the south west corner towards New York backs up badly at commuting times and on summer Friday afternoons. The fix is simple. Do not drive that section between about three and seven on a weekday, and do not drive it at all on a Friday in July if you can start on a Thursday.
If you are flying, you have three sensible choices and they are not the obvious one. Hartford’s airport is in the middle of the state and often the cheapest and easiest with a family. Providence is close to the eastern end. Boston and New York both work and both mean a longer drive and worse traffic.
The train is a real option here, which it is not in most of New England. The commuter line runs from New Haven down the shoreline into Grand Central, and the main Northeast corridor trains stop at New Haven, New London and Stamford. If your trip is New York plus Connecticut, you can do the whole thing without a car, which with young children is worth considering.
Hartford airport is the quiet win. Central, small, usually cheaper, and no city traffic on either side of it. Worth pricing before you default to Boston.
Avoid the south west corner at rush hour. Interstate 95 towards New York is the worst traffic in New England. Plan your driving around it rather than through it.
The train actually works. Commuter trains run New Haven into Grand Central, and the corridor trains stop along the shoreline. A car free Connecticut and New York trip is realistic.
You do want a car for the rest. Once you are here, the beaches, the river valley and the hills all need one. Short drives, but drives.
Everything is close. No leg of a Connecticut trip needs to be more than an hour. Base once and stop packing.
The Sound at Madison. The water goes out shallow for a long way, which is the whole reason I send families with little ones here
Mystic, and Why Two Attractions In One Town Matters
Mystic is the reason most families come, and the thing that makes it work is geography rather than any one attraction.
The Mystic Seaport Museum is a recreated nineteenth century seafaring village on the river, with real ships in the water. The centrepiece is the last wooden whaleship in the world, and you go aboard and below. There are working shops with people making barrels and rope, boats to climb on, and a children’s area for the ones too small for the history. It is a half day minimum and a full day if your kids take to it.
Mystic Aquarium is a few minutes away and is the other half of the town. Belugas, seals, sea lions, a ray touch pool. Smaller than the big city aquariums and much easier with young children because you can see all of it without anybody melting down.
Having both within minutes of each other is the thing. That is two solid days from one hotel with no driving, which in a family trip is worth more than either attraction on its own. Add the drawbridge going up, a walk round the shops, and ice cream, and you have filled three days in a town you can walk across.
What I would not do is try to see both in one day. People do, and they arrive at the second one at two in the afternoon with children who are finished.
Prices at both change by season and there are combination and membership options that sometimes work out cheaper for a family of four or five than two separate day tickets. I am not printing figures here because they move, and a wrong number costs you more than no number. Check both official sites when you have your dates, and look specifically at the membership option against day tickets, because for a big family it often does.
Doing It Without The Car, And Where That Breaks Down
You can do a surprising amount of Connecticut on trains, and then you hit a wall.
The shoreline towns are on a railway line. New Haven, Old Saybrook, New London and Mystic all have stations, and there is a local shoreline service linking them. That means a car free trip built on New Haven for the pizza and the museum, then Mystic for the Seaport and the aquarium, really does work. Both towns are walkable from their stations.
What you cannot reach is everything inland. Gillette Castle, the steam train, the Litchfield Hills, the state park beaches and Lake Compounce all need a car. The shoreline beaches in particular are a car problem, because they are state parks with car parks rather than places with bus stops.
So the honest answer is this. Two or three days of Connecticut work without a car. A week does not. If you are coming from New York by train for a long weekend in Mystic, leave the car at home and enjoy it. If you want the beaches and the hills, rent one.
When To Come, And Why The Shoulder Is Better Than You Think
Late June through August. Beach season, and the only time the Sound is properly warm. Everything is open, the ice cream stands are running, and the shoreline parks fill up on weekends. This is when I book families whose children want to swim.
September and early October. My favourite and the one most people miss. The water is still warm after a summer of sun, the crowds have gone back to school, the prices drop, and the leaves start in the hills at the end of it. If your kids are not in school, come now.
Mid October. Leaf season in the northwest corner, which is real and short. Connecticut is not the headline foliage state and that is the point, because you get the colour without the traffic that comes with it further north.
November through March. Quiet, cold, cheap, and a lot of the seasonal things are shut. The museums and the Twain house carry on. Not a beach trip and nobody should pretend otherwise.
April and May. Green, mild, pretty, and the water is far too cold. Good for a city and history trip, wrong for a beach one.
How Many Days & First-Trip Routing
Four nights is the number I book most, and it buys you a complete trip because nothing is far apart.
Two nights only really gives you Mystic, which is a good long weekend and the right call if you are coming from New York by train.
A week lets you split the state, which is the version I like best. Three or four nights on the shoreline near Mystic or Madison, then two or three in the river valley or the hills, and you have had two different trips with one easy transfer in the middle.
Longer than a week and I would add a second state rather than more Connecticut. Rhode Island is forty minutes from Mystic. That is a different guide and a very easy addition.
How to Route a Connecticut Week
The routing that works, and the one mistake almost everybody makes.
The mistake is basing in Hartford. It is central, it looks sensible on a map, and it puts you inland and away from the two things most families came for. Base on the shoreline instead and drive inland for the day.
Here is the week I build. Fly into Hartford. Drive straight to the shoreline, around Madison or Old Saybrook, and sleep there three nights. Beach day, a day for the river valley with the steam train and Gillette Castle, and a day for New Haven and the pizza. Then move east to Mystic for three nights. Seaport, aquarium, and a day that is just the town and the water. Out through Hartford or Providence.
One hotel change in a whole week, no drive longer than about an hour, and both halves feel different.
Do not base in Hartford. It looks central and it puts you an hour from the coast in both directions. Sleep on the shoreline and drive in for the day.
Shoreline first, Mystic second. Mystic is the strongest finish, and it is the best place to be when everyone is tired of driving.
Keep New Haven as a day trip. The pizza and the Peabody are a great day. Sleeping in the city is not necessary and costs more.
Put the beach day early. Weather is the only thing you cannot move. Hit the beach on the first good day rather than the day you planned.
Add Rhode Island if you have the time. Newport is roughly an hour from Mystic. If you have eight nights, that is the better use of the last two.
Where these places are
A map of every place named on this page, so you can see how close together they really are.
Regions at a Glance
The Shoreline
Madison, Old Saybrook, Guilford and the state park beaches. Warm shallow water on the Sound, and the right base for a family with young children.
Mystic and the East
Mystic, Stonington, New London and Groton. The Seaport, the aquarium, the whaling history and the best walkable town in the state.
The River Valley
Essex, Chester, East Haddam and the Connecticut River. The steam train, Gillette Castle, a tiny car ferry and the prettiest driving in the state.
The Northwest Hills
Litchfield, Kent and the far corner. Rolling, quiet, covered bridges and waterfalls, and where the leaves turn. The least visited part and the most like the New England in your head.
The steam train at Essex. Jake would have spent the whole ride with his head out of the window and I would have let him
Must See and Do
Mystic Seaport Museum. A whole nineteenth century seafaring village on the water, with the last wooden whaleship in the world to go aboard. Half a day minimum, and the single best thing in the state.
Mystic Aquarium. Belugas, seals and a ray touch pool, minutes from the Seaport. Small enough to finish without anybody melting down.
The Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven. Natural history, dinosaurs and Egypt, and admission is free. Open Tuesday to Friday 10 to 5 and weekends 12 to 5, closed Mondays. Plan around that Monday.
New Haven apizza. Coal fired, charred, argued over. Wooster Street and the three originals. Mozzarella is an extra, which nobody tells you.
The Essex Steam Train and Riverboat. A steam train up the river valley with the option of a boat at the far end. The easiest hour of a Connecticut trip with small children.
Gillette Castle State Park. A stone house above the river built by the actor who played Sherlock Holmes on stage, full of hidden doors and puzzle locks he designed himself. Strange and brilliant.
Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison. The biggest shoreline state park in the state. Long sand, shallow warm water, a boardwalk and a nature centre. You pay to park, not per person.
The Mark Twain House, Hartford. Where he wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Worth it from about nine up, and the house itself is odd enough to hold them.
Lake Compounce, Bristol. Opened in 1846 and claims the longest continuous run of any amusement park in North America. Old wooden coaster, water park attached, and a real day out.
The Chester to Hadlyme ferry. A tiny seasonal car ferry across the Connecticut River that takes a few minutes and costs very little. The kids will rate it above things that cost fifty times as much.
Doing Connecticut With Children
Connecticut is unusually easy with children and the reasons are all practical rather than scenic.
The drives are short. Nothing on this page is more than about an hour from a shoreline base, which means no day begins with an argument about how long it is going to take.
The water is swimmable, which changes the shape of a summer week completely. A beach afternoon is a real option here rather than a cold paddle and a retreat.
There is a lot that costs nothing. The Peabody is free. The drawbridge is free. The beaches charge for parking rather than per head. Ice cream is the main running cost.
And the state is small enough that you can change plans. If the weather turns, Mystic Seaport has indoor buildings, the Peabody is indoors, the Twain house is indoors, and all of them are inside an hour of wherever you are sleeping.
Ages two to six. The Sound, the aquarium, the steam train, the ferry and the Seaport’s children’s area. This age group does better here than on any other New England coast.
Ages seven to eleven. The sweet spot. The whaleship, the castle with the puzzle doors, the dinosaurs, Lake Compounce and the pizza argument all land at this age.
Twelve and up. Add Yale itself, the submarine history around Groton, and the Twain house. A teenager who likes history does very well in this state.
Strollers are fine. Flat towns, boardwalks and museums with lifts. Mystic Seaport is gravel and cobble in places, so real wheels beat a lightweight buggy.
Watch the Monday closures. The Peabody and several museums shut on Mondays. Make Monday your beach day or your driving day.
Who Connecticut Suits, and Who Should Skip It
It suits a family who wants a short drive, warm swimming and real history in the same week, and who would rather sleep in one place than tour.
It suits anybody already going to New York or Boston. Connecticut turns a city trip into a proper holiday with very little extra effort, and it is cheaper than either city for the nights you spend here.
It suits families with young children better than almost anywhere else in New England, because of the water and the driving.
It does not suit somebody who came for dramatic coastline. If the picture in your head is granite cliffs, crashing surf and a lighthouse in the fog, that is Maine and you should go there instead.
It does not suit a family who wants mountains. Connecticut has hills and they are lovely and they are not the White Mountains or the Greens.
And it does not suit anybody hoping for an unspoilt New England village experience across the whole state. The shoreline in particular is developed and suburban in long stretches. The pretty parts are real and they are not everywhere.
Worth the Money in Connecticut
A hotel on the shoreline rather than inland. The difference between walking to the water after dinner and driving forty minutes to it is the whole trip. This is the upgrade I push.
Two days in Mystic rather than one. Trying to do the Seaport and the aquarium in a single day is how a good trip turns into a bad afternoon.
A membership instead of tickets, sometimes. For a family of four or five, a year membership at one of the Mystic attractions can cost less than day tickets. Worth ten minutes of checking before you book.
The steam train with the riverboat added. The train alone is good. Train plus boat is the day, and the price difference is small relative to the extra hours it fills.
Parking at the state beach, not a private one. State park parking for a car full of people is one of the best value things in the state. Go early on a hot weekend because they close the gate when full.
Skipping the famous pizza queue. Spend nothing and gain ninety minutes by going to the third most famous place instead. The gap in quality is much smaller than the gap in waiting.
The Peabody in New Haven. Free to walk into, which for a family of five is the best value morning in the state
Things That Surprise First Timers
The water is warm. People arrive braced for Maine temperatures and find a shallow bath. The Sound is sheltered and it changes what a beach day means.
Mozzarella is an extra on the pizza. Order a plain tomato pie in New Haven and you get tomato. Say mozzarella out loud or be surprised.
The Peabody is free. One of the best natural history museums in the country, no admission charge, and almost no family guide mentions it.
The state is tiny. Visitors budget days for drives that take forty minutes. You will have more time than you planned for.
Interstate 95 is as bad as they say. Not the whole thing, but the south west end towards New York at the wrong hour will cost you two hours of your life.
The lobster roll is hot. Warm with butter, not cold with mayonnaise. Some people are delighted and some are offended, so now you know.
A lot closes on Mondays. Museums in particular. Build the week around it instead of discovering it.
The ferries and stands are seasonal. The little river ferry, the ice cream stands and a lot of the shoreline food shut outside summer. Lovely in August, shut in April.
Where I Would Start
If you have never been, start in Mystic and give it three nights.
It is the one place in the state where you can park the car and not touch it. The Seaport is a half day or a full one, the aquarium is another, the town is walkable, there is water and a drawbridge and ice cream, and everybody comes away with something.
Add one day trip west along the shoreline for a beach afternoon, and one inland for the steam train. That is a first Connecticut trip and it is a good one.
Then if it works, come back for the river valley and the hills, which are quieter and where I would spend the second trip.
Connecticut by the numbers
Facts to know before you go
Connecticut is not one kind of trip
There are four different Connecticut trips and they barely overlap. Pick one as your main and borrow a day from another.
The swimming trip
Shoreline base, Hammonasset and the smaller town beaches, ice cream stands, one day inland. July and August only.
The history trip
Mystic Seaport, the whaling towns, the submarine history at Groton, the Twain house and the Peabody. Works all year.
The river and hills trip
Essex, the steam train, Gillette Castle, the little ferry and the northwest corner. Best in late September and October.
The add on trip
Two or three nights bolted onto New York or Boston. Mystic by train, or the shoreline by car. The easiest version and the one most people should do first.
What families come to Connecticut for
A ship you can actually board. The last wooden whaleship in the world, in the water, with below decks open. Nothing else on this coast does that.
Water a small child will get into. The reason families with toddlers end up here instead of further north.
Two big days from one hotel. Mystic Seaport and Mystic Aquarium, minutes apart, no driving.
Pizza worth an argument. A regional food with real history and three rival originals in one street.
A free museum morning. The Peabody, at no cost, which for a family of five is the best value in New England.
Short drives. Nothing more than an hour. After a week in Vermont or Maine, that is the luxury.
Only in Connecticut
Food
New Haven apizza
Coal fired, charred and uneven, with white clam as the signature and mozzarella as an extra. Three rival originals within a few hundred yards.
History
The last wooden whaleship
The Charles W. Morgan sits in the water at Mystic Seaport and you can go aboard and below. The only one left anywhere.
Architecture
A castle built by Sherlock Holmes
The actor who made Holmes famous on stage built himself a stone castle above the Connecticut River, with hidden doors and puzzle locks of his own design.
Transport
A steam train and a riverboat
Essex runs a steam train up the valley with a boat waiting at the far end. One ticket, two kinds of transport, and a very happy five year old.
Water
A sea that is actually warm
Long Island Sound is sheltered behind Long Island, so it heats up through summer in a way the open Atlantic never does.
Amusement
The oldest park still running
Lake Compounce in Bristol opened in 1846 as picnic grounds and claims the longest continuous run of any amusement park in North America.
Oddity
The steamed cheeseburger
Central Connecticut steams its burgers instead of grilling them, and the cheese goes molten. Strange, specific and very local.
Crossing
A car ferry that takes four minutes
The Chester to Hadlyme ferry carries a handful of cars across the river for pocket change, seasonally. Rated higher by children than most paid attractions.
Combine It With
The country guide this page sits under. Driving, tipping, car seats and the practical things that apply wherever you go.
An hour and a half east. Boston, the Cape and a completely different New England week. The most natural pairing.
Further up the same coast and the opposite trip. Cold water, granite, lobster and long drives. Do Connecticut with little ones and Maine when they are older.
Tell me who is coming, and when.
Tell me the ages of your kids, roughly when you want to go, and how much driving you are willing to do, and I will tell you if Connecticut is the right call or if you want a different part of New England. I would rather point you somewhere else than sell you the wrong week.
Connecticut, Answered
The ones that come up in almost every planning call. If yours is not here, ask me.
Is Connecticut worth visiting with kids?
Yes, and it is underrated because everybody drives through it on the way to somewhere else. It has the last wooden whaleship in the world at Mystic Seaport, an aquarium minutes away, a free natural history museum at Yale, a steam train, and warm shallow swimming on Long Island Sound. The drives are short and a lot of it is free.
Is the water warm enough to swim in Connecticut?
Yes, by late July. Connecticut faces Long Island Sound rather than the open Atlantic, so the water is sheltered, calm and shallow at the edges, and it warms up through the summer. It is noticeably warmer than the Maine coast, which is the main reason to bring young children here instead.
How many days do you need in Connecticut?
Four nights for a proper first trip, or two if you are only doing Mystic as a long weekend. A week lets you split it between the shoreline and the river valley with one hotel change. Nothing in the state is more than about an hour from a central base.
Where should we stay in Connecticut with kids?
On the shoreline, around Madison or Old Saybrook, or in Mystic itself. Do not base in Hartford even though it looks central on a map, because it puts you an hour inland from the two things most families came for.
What is New Haven pizza and is it worth it?
It is coal fired, thin, charred and called apizza, said ah-BEETS. Three rival originals sit on and around Wooster Street and locals argue about which is best. It is worth it. Order the white clam if you are brave, and say mozzarella out loud, because a plain tomato pie comes without it.
Is the Yale Peabody Museum free?
Yes. Admission to the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven is free. It opens Tuesday to Friday from 10 to 5 and weekends from 12 to 5, and it is closed Mondays. Individual visitors do not need a ticket, though groups and school visits need a reservation.
Can you do Connecticut without a car?
Partly. The shoreline towns including New Haven, Old Saybrook, New London and Mystic are all on a railway line, and both New Haven and Mystic are walkable from their stations, so a two or three day car free trip works well. The state beaches, the river valley and the hills all need a car.
Connecticut or Maine with kids?
Connecticut with young children, Maine when they are older. Connecticut has warm swimmable water, short drives and two big attractions in one small town. Maine has dramatic coastline, cold water and long drives. They are different trips and I book both.
Photo credits
Connie Ma / CC BY-SA 2.0 · John Phelan / CC BY 4.0 · John Phelan / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Jonathunder / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kenneth C. Zirkel / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Krista / CC BY 2.0 · Luigi Novi / CC BY 4.0 · Missvain / CC BY 4.0 · Molly Hill / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Morrowlong / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Patrick.lynch / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Roller Coaster Philosophy / CC BY 2.0 · Sallysapizza / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Soutrikdd / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Steve Snodgrass / CC BY 2.0 · U+1F360 / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Victor-ny / CC BY-SA 3.0 · dbking / CC BY 2.0 · rickpilot_2000 / CC BY 2.0. All via Wikimedia Commons. Remaining photographs on this page are public domain.
