Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven

Best time to travel: March-Aug
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere
  • It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven
  • Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the gallery emphasizes early Italian painting, African sculpture, and modern art

Mark Twain House, Hartford

Best time to travel: May-July
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) and his family from 1874 to 1891
  • It is built in the American High Gothic style
  • Clemens wrote many of his best-known works while living there, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Tramp Abroad, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Mystic Seaport

Best time to travel: May-June, Sept-Oct
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Mystic is the largest maritime museum in the United States
  • It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for the re-creation of the crafts and fabric of an entire 19th-century seafaring village
  • It consists of more than 60 historic buildings, most of them rare commercial structures moved to the site and meticulously restored

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Best time to travel: May-July
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art museum in Hartford, noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as collections of early American furniture and decorative arts
  • Founded in 1842, it is the oldest continually operating public art museum in the United States
  • The museum is the largest art museum in the state of Connecticut

Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard

Best time to travel: mid June-mid Sept
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$

  • Native American hotel and casino complex owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their reservation located in Ledyard
  • Including six casinos, the casinos have more than 250 gaming tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker, and have more than 5,500 slot machines
  • In 2015, a retail complex, known as Tanger Outlet Mall, opened between the two hotel towers with 85 stores for luxury goods

New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain

Best time to travel: May, Sept
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art museum in New Britain, founded in 1903, it is the first museum in the country dedicated to American art

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Best time to travel: March-Sept
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in New Haven, houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom
  • The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare books, and manuscripts reflects the development of British art and culture from the Elizabethan period onward