[gmdealerguy]

My wife and i enjoy walking around towns/ villages with old time charm but with shops to explore......sit down and have coffee( not in a Starbucks). We are young and not looking for any pretentious,snobby type places. We moved here from NY......there was enough of that. We live in Derby on the Orange border.
If anyone here ever heard of Sugar Loaf Village in NY, thats what we are after. An Artisan type village. Anyone know of anything like that in Ct or am I not making sense?

[CTCitizen]

Collinsville (part of Canton) sounds like it might have what you're looking for. Also, downtown New London has some artsy stuff. Northampton, MA (not too far) is also great. Real Art Ways in Hartford is an interesting artsy place. I admit I'm not familiar with Sugar Loaf Village, though, so I don't know if these places compare.

[willow wind]

There is really noting like Sugarloaf in CT. Sugarloaf has evolved over the centuries into what is now simply a commercial enterprise and shopping destination.

You can find various places in CT with walkable downtowns but they are the downtowns of actual functioning towns and nothing on the scale of Sugarloaf.

I would suggest Guilford ( around the town green ), Essex and to a lesser extent Chester.

As already suggested, if you don't mind a further drive, the State St. / Bank St area of New London has a nice artsy vibe with interesting restaurants, shops, galleries, etc. You do have to drive through the more gritty section of New London to get to it though.

Up in the northwest corner of the state, Litchfield might be interesting.

Just keep in mind, all these suggestions are much smaller in size than the NY attraction.


Good luck

[seymourct]

You've probably done it already, but downtown Seymour has a little antique center with harrula's coffee shop right in the middle of it. If you like meeting the owner chef, having a chat session, then it is your place. Just don't go to Barbara's Place with kids; the lady in there on Saturday pounced on us, told us to leave if our girl touched anything, dd was scared & we were insulted

[Cambium]

2 spots I know of... Canaan or North Canaan and ironically New Canaan... These are the towns where I noticed there looks to be a nice history to it, old shops, antique looks to them, and a relaxed atmosphere where you can sit and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.. It was really nice up there in Canaan I started looking at real estate to live in..

[renovating]

Stonington

[samantha10]

I would NOT recommend downtown New London. Although the city is working hard to revitalize the area there are still problems with gang activity in the downtown area. I would recommend Stonington Borough and Downtown Mystic.

[MikefromCT]

A few people in the past have recommended Chester. It's a tiny town of about 4,000 and I know they have a quaint Main Street area with storefronts, and I think there's a few shops like the ones you're looking for.
Ditto on looking in Guilford. I always liked that town & you would probably enjoy their town center for what they have there. Further east you have Mystic which has everything you can think of & its worth a look.

[gmdealerguy]

Awesome. Thank you so much for your suggestions. I will be looking into these places. Thanks again.

[mlassoff]

Downtown Madison is cute and walkable.