Category
Hidden Gems
12 adventures tagged Hidden Gems.
Day AdventuresBranford, CT
Day Adventure: Branford
A boat tour through an archipelago of tiny pink-granite islands with pirate-treasure legends, a village that time forgot, seafood-shack lunch, and ice cream on the green. Episode three goes to the shoreline.
Family AdventuresMontville (Oakdale), CT
The Dinosaur Place
Over forty life-size dinosaurs on wooded trails, a splash pad, and a maze. For the dinosaur-phase years, this is the promised land, and it's an hour from home.
MuseumsGroton, CT
Submarine Force Museum & USS Nautilus
You walk through an actual nuclear submarine. The first one ever built, the one that went under the North Pole. It's free. I don't know what else you need to hear.
Family AdventuresNorton Park, Plainville, CT
Plainville Hot Air Balloon Festival
Hot air balloons at dawn, a balloon glow at dusk, fireworks over a small-town park, and a giant slide in between. One weekend a year, and it's free to walk in.
MuseumsOrange, CT
PEZ Visitor Center
The PEZ factory is in Orange, Connecticut, fifteen minutes from home, and you can watch the candy get made under the world's largest collection of dispensers. This is not a drill.
State ParksEast Haddam, CT
Gillette Castle State Park
A stone castle built by the actor who played Sherlock Holmes, with 47 weird doors, a lost railroad, a 75-foot train tunnel, and a river ferry to get there. Connecticut's best make-believe is real.
WaterfallsEast Haddam, CT
Devil's Hopyard State Park
A 60-foot waterfall, perfectly round potholes in the rock that colonial farmers blamed on the devil, and a name kids will not stop saying. Pairs with Gillette Castle for the full East Haddam day.
Day AdventuresShelton, CT
Day Adventure: Shelton
A waterfall on the Housatonic, a proper deli sandwich, farm ice cream, and a pick-your-own farm that changes with the seasons. One town, one tank of gas barely touched.
Day AdventuresDerby & Ansonia, CT
Day Adventure: Derby & Ansonia
Valley episode two: a free nature center with animal ambassadors, a riverwalk along two rivers, apizza that outranks its zip code, and a state park most of the state forgot. Ten minutes from Shelton, all of it.
State ParksKillingworth, CT
Chatfield Hollow State Park
A covered bridge, a swimming pond, and a hillside of rock caves kids can actually scramble into. The park nobody outside Killingworth talks about, which is exactly the point.
Hidden GemsNiantic (East Lyme), CT
The Book Barn & the Niantic Boardwalk
An outdoor used bookstore with resident cats and goats, a mile of boardwalk over the beach, and ice cream in between. The most un-Google-able great Saturday in Connecticut.
MuseumsCheshire, CT
Barker Character, Comic & Cartoon Museum
A museum in Cheshire stuffed floor to ceiling with cartoon history: PEZ dispensers, lunchboxes, California Raisins, and every character your kids' grandparents grew up on. The ultimate rainy-day wildcard.