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I'll be headed to New Haven for a conference in early April and I was wondering if anyone here could give me some information about the region. The conference won't take all weekend, so my girlfriend and I were hoping to do some sightseeing while we're there. We are in our 20s, and from New Jersey. Sadly I don't know much about Connecticut despite living in a nearby state.
First and foremost, we need a place to stay. I've heard New Haven has run-down areas, though I'd imagine the Yale campus itself is beautiful. Any reccomendations on hotels in New Haven, or nice nearby towns?
Second, what else to see in Connecticut? It appears Hartford is only 40 minutes away; is the state capital worth a visit? We'd love to check out any gentrified/walkable towns and neighborhoods with an interesting bar or restaurant scene. I love fancy pizza places, and have heard the Hartford area has a distinctive style, so any pizza recommendations would be great. We'd also be interested in smaller towns with quaint shops. Finally, any parks, museums, or historic sites would be great too.
Third, shopping? Any outlets or great shopping destinations?
Lastly...anything that's a can't miss for someone visiting Connecticut?
Thanks for any input...nothing beats the insights of locals.
Hartford is not known for its pizza. You might be thinking of New Haven.
If you're only there a weekend, I'd stick to the New Haven area. Lots to do and the city is great to explore.
As a place to stay, I'd highly recommend The Study. Very nice hotel in one of the best areas of New Haven. If you can get a room with a campus view on a higher floor, even better. Truly beautiful.
As for things to do in New Haven, you're within a short walk to some great things from there.
Shopping: Broadway Shopping District and Chapel Street. Lots of boutiques and also some higher end chains. The Shops at Yale. There are outlets in Clinton. Milford/Orange has a ton of shopping but nothing really unique, just strip malls and a huge indoor mall you can get anywhere. Milford downtown does have some quaint shops and a nice setting though (a harbor, duck ponds, and New England green).
Pizza: There are about 5 really good pizza places to try, with pizza that is "nationally competitive" and many times voted as the best pizza in the world. Frank Pepe, Sally's, Modern, BAR, and Da Legna seem to be the most respected right now. Da Legna and BAR are a little fancier, but Pepe's, Sally's, and Modern are the legends. Pepe's is probably the best to start with. BAR has an excellent bar scene and club too. Very cool space.
Museums: Yale Art Gallery and British Art Museum are both walking distance from the Study. Exceptional museums and both free. There's also the Peabody Natural History Museum. There's also some random museums like the Yale musical instruments museum, the New Haven museum, etc. Check out the Center Church on the Green and its underground graves.
Attractions: Do the Yale Campus walking tour. It's free and has some of the most beautiful architecture in the region. Check out the green, Wooster Square, Hillhouse Ave and St. Ronin Street and all the historic mansions. Many incredible churches. Check out West Rock and East Rock Parks, or a little further from the city are some great parks like Silver Sands or the Coastal Audubon Center in Milford (free parking and boardwalk), Sleeping Giant in Hamden, and Hamonasset in Madison. If you're in the Madison area, Madison and Guilford centers are both beautiful to visit. Guilford center has some of the oldest homes in New England, a few of which you can tour. Milford also has a couple of the oldest homes in CT you can tour if you visit Silver Sands or the Audubon Center. A little further, you could visit historic Essex downtown and the CT River Museum and Steam Train, or Gillette Castle. Chester downtown is also very charming.
Exceptional/unique dining: Prime 16, Miya's Sushi, BAR, Oak Haven, Mezcal, Istanbul Cafe, Soul De Cuba, Zinc, Caseus, Ibiza, Barcelona, Roia, 116 Crown, Union League, Skappo, L'Orcio, Thali, Bentara, Miso, Heirloom in New Haven. Bar Bouchon in Madison, Bistro Basque in Milford, Mikro in Hamden.
Good bars: Barcelona, BAR, Ordinary, Cask Republic, Rudy's, Avro, Heirloom, 116 Crown, Firehouse 12, Karaoke Heroes, Prime 16, C.O. Jones, Cave A'Vin. You could also try downtown Milford if it's warm. Lots of outdoor bars and and a pretty fun scene.
New Haven has run down areas, but if you follow the above - you'll never have a reason to step foot into any of them. They are isolated areas with nothing much to offer anyway.
If you're coming for just a weekend, you can't go wrong with staying right in the city of New Haven.
I'd treat it like a combo conference/ romantic get away with your girlfriend and splurge on a hotel. Stay right near or in Yale. Some hotels to consider would be the Omni, the Study at Yale and the New Haven Hotel. Each has a website you can check, but all are right where you will be conferencing.
There are also numerous chain motels- Courtyard, La Quinta, etc. in the general area. However, the first three are going to put you right into the heart of the Yale, New Haven Green theater, pub, restaurant, shopping scene. All of that would be walkable to those first three hotels.
New Haven center is where Yale is and the area and streets around the Green are ringed with more restaurants than you will know what to do with, lots of interesting shops. There are pubs, plus various live theaters such as the Schubert and Yale Rep.
Yale itself has various museums such as the Peabody Museum, Yale Science Center, the Center for British Art, Yale Art Gallery. It's all walkable from any of those first three hotels.
Next we have to get this pizza thing straightened out. It's not Hartford, but New Haven that is famous for pizza. The big three pizza restaurants that made New Haven pizza famous are Pepe's, Sally's & Modern's. Stuff yourself and try all three. There are also many more pizza restaurants in the city. Bar Restaurant is a newer, up and coming one, with interesting variations on the pizza theme.
For small town shopping, I'd take a drive east to the town of Guilford. This is a charming town with a quintessential New England town green with cute little shops, a wine bar, etc. all around it. The towns of Clinton & Westbrook, even further east, both have outlet malls. Guilford is perhaps 15-20 minutes from New Haven, Clinton & Westbrook, 25-30.
New Haven does have some bad areas. However, the area around Yale/ the Green is well populated by tourists, shoppers, the restaurant crowd day and night and is quite safe using common sense.
As others have said, plenty to do in New Haven. If you want to get out of the city, you're probably better off heading up the shoreline a little to check out the towns on the coast rather than going to Hartford, which really doesn't have much in the way of tourist attractions (unless there's a good art exhibit at the Wadsworth Atheneum).
Not to start a controversy, but Hartford has EXCELLENT pizza options (Harry's, Luna, Joey's) plus the thicker Greek style at several places. But I agree it would not be worth a drive from New Haven for pizza!!
Wow, thank you everyone for your responses! I'm glad to hear that New Haven itself has so much to do, it will save us some travel time. Sorry about the Pizza mixup. BAR sounds like a place we'll definitely try, and Milford might be worth a stop since it's on the way to/from NJ. My area of NJ was settled by New Englanders so I'm familiar with town greens, I'm quite interested to see some more when I'm in Connecticut.
Def spend extra and stay at The Study or Omni....don't stay at La Quinta...it's really ghetto over there. Marriott is better but the area is still shady
Def spend extra and stay at The Study or Omni....don't stay at La Quinta...it's really ghetto over there. Marriott is better but the area is still shady
Agree. I'm not the most knowledgeable about New Haven, but i know i've seen news coverage reporting incidents at that hotel.
La Quinta is in an OK area, but its low prices attract trashy clientele. Marriott is at the edge. It's fine as long as you walk toward Broadway and not the other direction. That said, it's hard to beat the Study.
I'll be headed to New Haven for a conference in early April and I was wondering if anyone here could give me some information about the region. The conference won't take all weekend, so my girlfriend and I were hoping to do some sightseeing while we're there. We are in our 20s, and from New Jersey. Sadly I don't know much about Connecticut despite living in a nearby state.
First and foremost, we need a place to stay. I've heard New Haven has run-down areas, though I'd imagine the Yale campus itself is beautiful. Any reccomendations on hotels in New Haven, or nice nearby towns?
Second, what else to see in Connecticut? It appears Hartford is only 40 minutes away; is the state capital worth a visit? We'd love to check out any gentrified/walkable towns and neighborhoods with an interesting bar or restaurant scene. I love fancy pizza places, and have heard the Hartford area has a distinctive style, so any pizza recommendations would be great. We'd also be interested in smaller towns with quaint shops. Finally, any parks, museums, or historic sites would be great too.
Third, shopping? Any outlets or great shopping destinations?
Lastly...anything that's a can't miss for someone visiting Connecticut?
Thanks for any input...nothing beats the insights of locals.
Haven't read any responses yet so I might (probably will) be repeating a bunch of other posters:
Hartford isn't worth a visit.
Walkable towns would be downtown New Haven. Check google maps to see where all the following things are located.
Pizza places would be in Wooster Square, but really just about any pizza spot in New Haven has edible Neapolitan-style pizzas. Specific pizza joints to consider: Pepe's, Sally's, the Modern, the Spot. For amazing meatless food (their salads and fresh-baked mini-loaves of bread are to die for), try Claire's CornerCopia.
Tons of shops up Chapel Street, especially Chapel West. The Study, also at Chapel West, is front and center of New Haven life. It's ridiculously expensive (over $200/night) but if it's reasonable for your budget (or if your school/company is footing the bill) I'd say that'd be your best option.
Other great hotspot for walking/shopping/window-browsing would be Upper State Street. The Modern Apizza is there too, so you could check boutiques and antique stores and eat in the same adventure.
Back on Chapel, you're where most of the best museums are. There's the Beineke rare books library, the Yale Fine Arts museum, there's an architectural museum/gallery, and one or two more. The Yale Rep theatre is right across from the Fine Arts museum, and up Howe (take a right at Chapel and Howe if you're coming up from downtown), is Mamoun's Falafel restaurant, which is my #1 favorite haunt.
Another walking area is a short strip of stores on Broadway. There's an Origins store, and the Yale Co-Op, a place that specializes in hamburgers (The Educated Burgher), and off the side street there (York Street) is Toad's Place, where 20-and-30-somethings go for live music.
Peabody Museum of Natural History is up on Whitney, not really in walking distance unless you walk fast and make a day of it. There's no restaurants close to there though so either bring a lunch, or eat first and expect to be hungry when you're done.
Another walking area is Orange Street, all the way down from Chapel to East Rock.
The architecture on ALL these shopping areas is amazing; from old walk-up storefront apartment buildings, to churches that look like medieval castles, the Yale campuses with enormous wrought-iron gates, and Yale college buildings with gargoyles and carved stonework depicting scenes. There's one set of stones coming from Toad's - I -think- it's the College of Law. If you look up, while walking past the lower-level cafeteria windows, you'll see a relief of a victim - then an old-time cop, then a criminal. Then a few yards down along the building, you see the cop chasing the criminal and the victim throwing up his hands or something like that. Yale is FILLED with surprises like that, you just have to look at the details.
I used to work on Church at the courthouse, and walked up that way almost every single day at lunchtime, when the weather was nice. I never got tired of the architecture and discovered new twists and turns on a weekly basis.
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