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Thank you, is Norwalk a nice town? I have not seen a lot of discussions on it.
Good idea. Sometimes you just think of the larger area as an extension of the tri-state.
One of CTs largest and best. Located in the esteemed Stub portion of CT. A wonderful array of neighborhoods. Nice folks. Stunning sound views. A boaters and kayakers dream with accessible islands for both.
It's home to the highly vaunted Rowayton who some here like to think its its own town, its not.
I almost pulled the trigger on a home in an absolute gem of a neighborhood we discovered by chance down in East Norwalk. Probably one of the Stub's best kept secrets. Who knew.
The Maritime Center offers boat cruises which are really great. The Sheffield Island cruise and lighthouse tour was a real treat. A wonderful time, then you can dine over at one of the many fine restaurants around the corner.
Enjoy the trip wherever you decide. Home hunting can be a lot of fun. You're going to love it.
Hi, we would like to take a little road trip from NYC to CT to check out some towns for a potential move.
Active posters here have suggested checking out the coastal towns, so while we want to take a look at a few houses, we also want to make this our summer vacation, so taking about 10 days to do this end of August and beginning of Sept.
I am not sure how to structure our itinerary - i.e. how much time to leave for the different towns/areas.
and spend some time in Mystic as we will be with a young child.
So please help me on how to approach this - stay in one place and do day trips? stay in a couple places for 3-4 nights each, or move from town to town and beach to beach?
Also, should we drive around the town, or concentrated in the centers to get the feel/vibe of the town?
ALSO, how do I confirm that the Surf Club in Madison is open to non-residents on the weekend? I read that on the town website, but it is not really clear - it says residents only on Fri-Sun, but they are also not selling Day Passes, sooo...We really want to spend one morning at the Surf Club since everyone seems to like it very much.
Great ideas! I suggested that earlier in the thread. He looked into it and it’s booked
My internet has been out so I am just reading the first post and making a comment. Good choice. Madison is one of the towns we are looking for retirement because of the great beaches so we went to all of them. The beach club hotel is beautiful. I think it is near a little beach and not the big Surf Club. I just looked it up. It is near the West Wharf beach in Madison but I seem to remember the beach for the hotel was really nice.
We stayed in Waterford, 1 min walk from Pleasure Beach. That was a wonderful little community, we enjoyed it a lot. But the rest of Waterford did not seem nice.
From there, we went to Mystic (through New London, which reminded me of the Bronx). Mystic seaport was nice, nice water views.
We also went to Niantic on a rainy day, to the Book Barn bookstore, which was so great! Niantic also seems like a laid back town, are the schools good (elementary and middle).
We spend another day in Essex, and visited the downtown, the River Museum (so great!), had lunch in the little waterfront park. I was smitten with that town! I can see us moving there, even though it does not have access to the beaches. But the beaches seem close by... How are the schools in Essex?
We also drove through Old Saybrook, went to Harvey's beach (so tiny!), but the downtown seems kind of run down, not welcoming. Is that a fair assessment?
From there, we moved to a Guilford hotel, and saw a few houses in Guilford and Madison. I liked both towns, but Madison a bit better - spend a few hours at the Surf Club (paid $40 for the privilege) but that whole area with the park and the beach is nice. Madison looked flashier (nicer cars, better landscaping of yards in the town center), with nice public spaces (East Warf Beach parking had landscaping with flowers provided by the Garden Club of Madison). Went to RJ Julia Bookstore - it was nice, with a little cafe in the back.
Guilford Green was nice, but did not "grab "me. We saw too many political signs in Guilford, which I didn't like and probably tainted my view of the town. Overheard a group of people who seems to be Yale professors talk about science, which my husband liked, since he is an academic himself. Guilford's beach seemed very small, and nothing really by the water except a couple of what looked like food shacks. We looked at a house in the woods, seemed good. Realtor said there are newcomers clubs in both towns, and a Facebook group. We went to shop at Bishops' Orchard, and were a bit concerned about the food prices (a lb of local tomatoes were $4, which is Manhattan prices!)
From there we went to Stony Creek in Branford, which was great! Happened on a small cove, with a wonderful beach and spend the day there. Branford coastline is wonderful, but I gather from this forum the schools are not great, unfortunately. That is what the realtor also said.
Next day we stayed in Norwalk and went to Rowayton. No public beaches there that we could find, we tried to go to Bell Island and were shocked to see that community - it was out of a Hollywood movie - everything looking the same, a little Stepford Wives vibe. And had many many private roads. Looked overbuild, no yards to speak of. But yes, it looks nice.
From there, we went to New Canaan (nice downtown, but had a dose of snooty glances at the Vineyard Vines store while looking at the sales rack and trying to ask about sale prices which were advertised in front!), then through Wilton (too many political signs everywhere), and then to Ridgefiled, which we liked, very nicely and a nice downtown.
So all in all, a huge road trip and saw a lot of town to get an initial feel for them.
We did not get to Chester/Deep River/Haddam, which I would like to do. But for now, Essex is my favorite town, and I wonder what is the reputation - does it skew older, is it a family town, it is too quiet, what if you don't have a boat, still OK? Meaning, we are middle/upper middle class folks, but not flashy. How will that town "fit" to a family like ours (parents plus a 4 year old).
We stayed in Waterford, 1 min walk from Pleasure Beach. That was a wonderful little community, we enjoyed it a lot. But the rest of Waterford did not seem nice.
From there, we went to Mystic (through New London, which reminded me of the Bronx). Mystic seaport was nice, nice water views.
We also went to Niantic on a rainy day, to the Book Barn bookstore, which was so great! Niantic also seems like a laid back town, are the schools good (elementary and middle).
We spend another day in Essex, and visited the downtown, the River Museum (so great!), had lunch in the little waterfront park. I was smitten with that town! I can see us moving there, even though it does not have access to the beaches. But the beaches seem close by... How are the schools in Essex?
We also drove through Old Saybrook, went to Harvey's beach (so tiny!), but the downtown seems kind of run down, not welcoming. Is that a fair assessment?
From there, we moved to a Guilford hotel, and saw a few houses in Guilford and Madison. I liked both towns, but Madison a bit better - spend a few hours at the Surf Club (paid $40 for the privilege) but that whole area with the park and the beach is nice. Madison looked flashier (nicer cars, better landscaping of yards in the town center), with nice public spaces (East Warf Beach parking had landscaping with flowers provided by the Garden Club of Madison). Went to RJ Julia Bookstore - it was nice, with a little cafe in the back.
Guilford Green was nice, but did not "grab "me. We saw too many political signs in Guilford, which I didn't like and probably tainted my view of the town. Overheard a group of people who seems to be Yale professors talk about science, which my husband liked, since he is an academic himself. Guilford's beach seemed very small, and nothing really by the water except a couple of what looked like food shacks. We looked at a house in the woods, seemed good. Realtor said there are newcomers clubs in both towns, and a Facebook group. We went to shop at Bishops' Orchard, and were a bit concerned about the food prices (a lb of local tomatoes were $4, which is Manhattan prices!)
From there we went to Stony Creek in Branford, which was great! Happened on a small cove, with a wonderful beach and spend the day there. Branford coastline is wonderful, but I gather from this forum the schools are not great, unfortunately. That is what the realtor also said.
Next day we stayed in Norwalk and went to Rowayton. No public beaches there that we could find, we tried to go to Bell Island and were shocked to see that community - it was out of a Hollywood movie - everything looking the same, a little Stepford Wives vibe. And had many many private roads. Looked overbuild, no yards to speak of. But yes, it looks nice.
From there, we went to New Canaan (nice downtown, but had a dose of snooty glances at the Vineyard Vines store while looking at the sales rack and trying to ask about sale prices which were advertised in front!), then through Wilton (too many political signs everywhere), and then to Ridgefiled, which we liked, very nicely and a nice do
So all in all, a huge road trip and saw a lot of town to get an initial feel for them.
We did not get to Chester/Deep River/Haddam, which I would like to do. But for now, Essex is my favorite town, and I wonder what is the reputation - does it skew older, is it a family town, it is too quiet, what if you don't have a boat, still OK? Meaning, we are middle/upper middle class folks, but not flashy. How will that town "fit" to a family like ours (parents plus a 4 year old).
Thanks!
New London reminded you of the Bronx? Old Saybrook run down and has tiny beaches? Guilford too political? Branford has bad schools? Im not sure these are quite right impressions.
New London is a small port city. It is older and more densely populated but it is hardly anything like the Bronx. It is more typical New England city if anything.
I have never heard anyone say Old Saybrook is rundown. It may not be shiny new upscale but it is hardly rundown. Remember it is a beach town so it is more casual than anything. I think that gives it its charm. Also Old Saybrook has many many beaches. The one you were at may have been small but there are many others to consider. In case you have not noticed it but Connecticut beaches are not particularly large to begin with.
I don’t think that Guilford is particularly political than any other town (or even Wilton for that matter). I’m not saying your impression is wrong but I have not seen it. At least not noticeably more than other towns. Your observation of people talking science there though does not surprise me. A lot of Yale staff live there so that is expect I also agree with your observations of Madison verses Guilford. Madison is more affluent and thus a bit more flashy.
Branford schools are considered to be very good. Students there perform well above the state averages on standardized test. It does perform lower than Guilford and Madison but they are among the very best in the state so that is understandable.
To answer a few of your other questions, Essex schools are considered to be good. I would not be concerned but remember they are not big so they don’t offer quite as much as large communities or suburbs.
You don’t need to own a boat to be accepted in the lower Connecticut River Valley but it could help you meet people.
I will say you did cover a lot of ground while here. I hope you were able to enjoy it and it helped you to start making decisions. Again good luck. Jay
Essex has excellent schools. It is a bit more “old money” but a very relaxed vibe. You might like nearby Chester too. You’re very close to beaches too. If you come up again, you may want to try a few other places: Chester (similar vibe to Essex but a bit more down to earth), Old Lyme (kind of like Essex plus beaches, though doesn’t have the same sort of center), and west of New Haven you should really check out Fairfield and Milford. It sounded like you liked the vibe of places that are coastal but thought Rowayton was too dense. Both towns have the historic areas near the water and a good vibe, with strong communities and family vibe, and a lot less expensive.
JayCT, let me clarify. Maybe I was too harsh on Old Saybrook, but we visited after Essex and the contrast was great in the downtown. It did not seem inviting. The businesses on Main St we saw were a nail salon, a barber shop, Ace Hardware, not as many coffee shops or restaurants, and the Main St. is the local road so hard to cross from one side to the other. Most of the other town centers we saw were better looking and organized, on smaller streets so more manageable for walking. As for the beaches, I am sure you are right, and yes, we noticed the beaches in CT are small, but that is also their charm. We definitely did not see the other Old S. beaches.
On the way to Mystic we went through New London, and maybe those were not the nice parts of it, but it looked very run down. We did not go to the downtown, just passing through it, the neighborhood we went through looked really poor, here is a link to the intersection we took to get on I95.
Maybe it is because it is election year, but we saw many yard signs in Guilford and Wilton (supporting state senate, president, recent activist protestors, etc) like you would see one every other block. Not so in Madison or Branford or Ridgefield or Norwalk. So to me that says some towns are more active politically (whether it is the local party office, or something else, it tells me people are upfront with their politics in those towns). In Guilford, all the churches on the Green had BLM supporting signs. I am not saying good or bad, just saying it some towns seems more upfront with it than others.
As for Branford schools, they are not up to par with neighboring Guilford, Madison, East Lyme.
Thank you for the note about Essex schools - it is a good reminder that smaller schools/districts do not offer the same number of activities outside of academics, and maybe not have the resources to offer very diverse classes, as larger districts have.
We did cover a lot of ground, we did enjoy ourselves and enjoyed getting to know Coastal CT. We will definitely visit again, as we are looking for town to get a house in. We want to visit Chester/Deep River, and then Glastonbury (your town), Avon, and the Litchfield Hills (although those may be too rural for us).
Every town had it charm, so we need to visit several times to see if first impressions stick!
Essex has excellent schools. It is a bit more “old money” but a very relaxed vibe. You might like nearby Chester too. You’re very close to beaches too. If you come up again, you may want to try a few other places: Chester (similar vibe to Essex but a bit more down to earth), Old Lyme (kind of like Essex plus beaches, though doesn’t have the same sort of center), and west of New Haven you should really check out Fairfield and Milford. It sounded like you liked the vibe of places that are coastal but thought Rowayton was too dense. Both towns have the historic areas near the water and a good vibe, with strong communities and family vibe, and a lot less expensive.
Thanks Stylo. We actually visited Milford's downtown, but was not grabbed by it, as it seemed too "urban". I am sure the rest of the town is lovely. Maybe on our next trip!
Fairfield is out as we don't want a big town (we are in Manhattan now, and want to get away from density).
Thanks Stylo. We actually visited Milford's downtown, but was not grabbed by it, as it seemed too "urban". I am sure the rest of the town is lovely. Maybe on our next trip!
Fairfield is out as we don't want a big town (we are in Manhattan now, and want to get away from density).
That’s the first time I’ve heard it described that way! It’s pretty quaint with the green and all, but I guess compared to Essex it’s less small town.
I’d stick to Essex area if you’re liking that vibe and want minimal density.
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