CONNECTICUT: THE CONSTITUTION STATE
In Discover New England The Guide (2007)

Wedged between New York City and Boston, Connecticut may be small, but it delivers on quality: inns and restaurants, museums and galleries, shopping and spas. The seashore is a delight, dotted with Colonial villages set on beaches and coves. Inland, the countryside is easy on the eye, with a landscape that is almost English in places. But, there are also vibrant cities and major attractions for couples as well as for families.

“Connecticut has its share of fine beaches ... framed by neat clapboard houses painted pale blue or cream…” The Observer

My kind of town
Apart from its impressive Old State House and America’s oldest State Capitol, the main magnets that draw visitors to the state capital of Hartford are the homes of two influential 19th-century writers: Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin). With original furniture and decoration, both look as if the owners have just popped out for lunch. If you are a garden lover and especially keen on roses, then head for Elizabeth Park, with its 800 varieties and 15,000 bushes. Down on the coast, New Haven is the home of Yale University, founded in 1638. To find out more about its history, take a free student-led tour of its broad green, peaceful quadrangles and ivy-clad halls. (Yes, that’s why America’s oldest universities are called the Ivy League!). Leave time for the outstanding collections at the Yale Center for British Art and Yale University Art Gallery.

Somewhere special
Litchfield and Essex are the sort of attractive towns that are regularly pictured on calendars. A favourite with New York personalities and weekenders is Litchfield. Set in the glorious Litchfield Hills, it has a handsome green lined with grand homes, plus excellent restaurants, antiques shops and inns. With main streets labelled North, South and West, you’ll never get lost! Near the mouth of the Connecticut River and once voted the ‘best small town in America’, Essex is a real charmer, with its Colonial, Georgian and Federal architecture, its shipbuilding traditions and a fine museum devoted to the area’s maritime and shipbuilding history.


Highways and byways
A delightful drive follows Route 169 in eastern Connecticut’s Mystic Country. Running south/north, parallel to the state border, and only 32 miles long, you could drive it in an hour, but there are tempting stops all along the way with 25 historic towns (many founded in the 17th century), all with Colonial homes, classic churches and dry stone walls. Look for Lisbon, Canterbury, Brooklyn, Pomfret and Woodstock.

Culture club
If you like art galleries, you’ll love Connecticut. Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is rated one of America’s Top 12 art museums. West of Hartford, in Farmington, Degas, Manet and Monet star in the outstanding collection of Impressionist paintings at the Hill-Stead Museum, while south of Hartford, admire American talent, including Remington’s cowboy sculptures, at New Britain’s revamped Museum of American Art. America also produced her own outstanding Impressionists who worked in Old Lyme; see their work at the Florence Griswold Museum, with its handsome new annexe. As for the Brits, New Haven’s Yale Center for British Art with masterpieces by Turner, Gainsborough and Reynolds, is rated the finest British collection outside the British Isles. And don’t miss the Yale University Art Gallery, just down the street. For something different, head for East Haddam, where the Victorian Goodspeed Opera House boasts a tradition of Broadway-style musicals. Nearby, Gillette Castle was the eccentric home of a Broadway megastar of the early 1900s.

Only in Connecticut
Go back in time in Mystic, where Mystic Seaport is an authentic recreation of a 19th-century seafaring village. With its tall ships and historic craft all afloat, its craftsmen and women demonstrating traditional skills, this is the USA’s leading maritime museum. Nearby, at Mystic Aquarium, the white beluga whales vie for the ‘most popular’ title along with the Institute for Exploration’s renowned Titanic exhibit.

In the south-eastern corner of the state, and just seven miles apart, are two of the world's biggest casinos: the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort. As well as their exciting casinos, you can enjoy the resorts' on-site shops, restaurants, arenas and nightclubs, as well as championship golf courses and high-quality, value-for-money hotels. Look out for special sporting events, from basketball to world boxing championships, and concerts by world-class performers such as BB King and Tom Jones.

Away from it all
The state boasts several themed trails that are well worth following. The Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail, a guided driving trail, links 10 museums offering some of the finest American Impressionist art. A Trail of Connecticut Craft Centers takes you to some of America's most impressive artists: the Brookfield Craft Center in Brookfield; the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven; the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon; the Guilford Handcraft Center in Guilford, and The Wesleyan Potters in Middletown. The Connecticut Wine Trail covers 14 vineyards; split into two sections, the trails each take a day. And if you like hunting for antiques, go to www.chs.org.

Fascinating facts
Connecticut is a land of ‘firsts’. At the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, you can see a model of the first submarine, launched nearby in 1775. In Groton, you can go aboard the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, while Litchfield is home to America’s first law school. As you drive into Hartford, watch for the blue dome of the Colt Armory, a reminder that local inventor Sam Colt’s ‘45’ was the ‘gun that won the West’. In New Haven, watch Yale University students spin a frisbee across the Green. Legend has it that Ma Frisbie’s empty apple pie plates provided entertainment and sport back in 1920: yet another local invention!