[tpalagan]

Hello,

My fiance and I should be moving to CT from DC. We are a late 20's couple w/no children. We are looking for the following:

- Small town, trendy (eclectic, mom and pop type shops), good local pubs/bars/restaurants.
- W/in driving distance to New Haven and Groton. She will work in New Haven while I will work in Groton.

I have seen some possibilities, but would like local input on other towns I might be missing.


- Thanks

[skytrekker]

A town that is roughly between New Haven & Groton, which would have many of the attributes as you specified would be either Clinton, Westbrook or Madison- all these towns offer coastal access, high quality of life, smaller mom & pop stores and eateries & shopping.

[nico7]

Anywhere west of Madison would be a long commute to Groton (45+ minutes). Anywhere east of Clinton would be a long commute to New Haven -- and your wife should strongly consider taking the Shore Line East train instead of driving, no matter where you live. I suggest looking at Madison and Clinton. They both offer some "eclectic" local flavor. Clinton is more reasonably priced, and you don't need to be paying for Madison's school system while you don't have kids.

Westbrook, Essex, and Old Saybrook could be good choices but they are a little far from New Haven, and Westbrook might be too small to have the number of "mom and pop" restaurants/pubs/etc that you're looking for -- although you could easily drive 5-10 minutes to neighboring towns when immediate options are lacking.

[tpalagan]

Skytrekker and nico7, thanks for the feedback. What about towns further inland, say between Hartford and New Haven? Would that be an unrealistic commute to Groton for me? To me, an unrealistic commute is anything more than 1hr. However, the shorter the better.

[JayCT]

As you get further inland, the area gets pretty rural in character. Not much in the way of town cneters. You might consider the lower Connecticut River Valley towns of Essex, Deep River, Chester, East Haddam or Haddam. These are small but very beautiful towns. The area is a bit of a tourist area so there are a lot of restaurants. There is a wonderful historic theater in East Haddam (Goodspeed Opera House) that has wonderful shows. It is a very nice area to live in. JMHO Jay

[nico7]

I don't recommend commuting to Groton from towns on the I-91 corridor. That will push the 1 hour mark. I agree with Jay that Essex and Chester would be good choices if your wife is okay with driving to Old Saybrook or Westbrook in the morning to take the Shore Line East train. This is assuming that your wife will work daytime hours.

Haddam and East Haddam are nice too, but they are even further from New Haven. You could visit those places on a whim, if you were living in Essex or Chester.

Middletown is 45 minutes to Groton without traffic, and probably 25 minutes to New Haven. But it doesn't have the small-town flavor you describe; it's more of a small city.

[Lizzie007]

friends of mine had that same commute - she worked in milford (just south of new haven) while he was at pfizer in groton. they lived in clinton. while it was the midpoint, they both had pretty long commutes considering the Q Bridge rushhour traffic going to new haven. clinton, madison, westbrook would be my vote based on what you are looking for in a town.

[frogcreekwoods]

Alot of people do that split commute. Clinton is probably the halfway point. I have a friend that lives in Old Lyme (beautiful old small town on the CT river). The commute is longer for her into Yale than for her DH into Groton, but since Yale can sometimes be pretty flexible with schedules she was able to work from home one day a week. There is the train option as well, which is great for getting some work done along the way, and again, depending on the boss, that time might count as office time.

Old Saybrook and Westbrook are also good choices. Old Saybrook has more of the quaint downtown as well as ammenties of shopping.

[tstetinin]

I moved from D.C. several years ago and wound up in Branford then Madison.

[Jlpags11]

I live in groton, my best friend lives in higganum...what town is on the middle w apartments for rent?