Things to do in Mystic & the Connecticut Shore

A Gilded Age mansion on Narragansett Bay surrounded by 33 acres of gardens and a century-old arboretum.

Year-round ferry service across Narragansett Bay from Point Judith to Block Island, plus a faster seasonal high-speed option.

Sail Newport Harbor aboard classic schooners and a vintage 1929 motor yacht.

Historic Providence zoo with elephants, giraffes, and Victorian park grounds.

Newport Harbor sailing charters and sunset cruises from Bowen's Wharf.

A traditional wooden schooner offering sailing cruises out of downtown Mystic.

A low-key Rhode Island island getaway known for bluffs, beaches, and a lighthouse-dotted coast.

A maritime history museum on the Essex, CT waterfront with a working replica of the first combat submarine.

A nature preserve near Mystic with miles of trails and live-animal exhibits.

The eastern Connecticut shoreline region built around the seafaring village of Mystic.

Narrated harbor and sunset cruises out of Newport, Rhode Island.

A Newport mansion turned museum honoring tennis's greatest champions with interactive and immersive exhibits.

A sprawling Connecticut casino resort with 1,600 rooms, a 10,000-seat arena, and dozens of restaurants and shops.

A postcard New England seaport village known for its drawbridge, waterfront shops, and maritime history.

America's oldest knot shop, handcrafting nautical rope bracelets, decor, and gifts in a 180-year-old Mystic building.

A Connecticut family attraction pairing a life-size dinosaur sculpture park with a rock, mineral, and fossil shop.

A volunteer-run museum of working steam engines and vintage radio equipment in four historic buildings.

Home of the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, on the Thames River in Groton, CT.

Historic art museum on the Connecticut River celebrating American Impressionism and the Lyme Art Colony.

Treetop zipline and aerial ropes course with nine trails through the forest canopy near UConn.

Home of the annual Guilford Fair, a Connecticut agricultural fair with livestock, exhibits, rides and food each September.

Hop-on hop-off water taxi tour linking historic sites along the Thames River in New London and Groton.

A restored 1892 mill in Stonington Borough now filled with artist studios, shops and eateries.

Mobility scooter rental and delivery service serving Mystic-area attractions like the aquarium and Seaport.

Treetop zipline and aerial adventure park on 50 wooded acres near Mystic, Connecticut.

A Smithsonian-affiliated tribal museum with life-size dioramas covering Pequot history and southeastern Connecticut's natural history.

A small craft brewery and wood-fired pizza cafe near Mystic with weekend live music.

Indoor ropes course inside Jordan's Furniture in New Haven, with more than 100 elements, 180-foot zip rails and climbing walls on a five-story frame.

Stroll or drive past Newport's Gilded Age mansions, several open for tours, along a landmark avenue of summer cottages.

Walk a 3.5-mile shoreline path with the Atlantic on one side and Newport's Gilded Age mansions on the other.

Walk around a geodesic dome built over early Jurassic dinosaur footprints, then hike the trails through a Mesozoic-style arboretum.

Ride a vintage steam train through the lower Connecticut River Valley, then board a riverboat for a cruise.

Tour a 19th-century harbor fort, swim at a small bay beach and take in views of Newport Harbor.

Play slots and table games, catch a show, shop the outlets and ride a zipline at a tribal resort casino.

Order a coal-fired white clam pizza or original tomato pie at the 1925 Wooster Street pizzeria that started it all.

Tour actor William Gillette's fieldstone castle above the Connecticut River and hike the path of his miniature railroad.

See a musical in an 1876 Victorian-style opera house on the bank of the Connecticut River in East Haddam.

Swim, camp and walk two miles of sandy Long Island Sound beach at Connecticut's largest shoreline park.

Order a hamburger sandwich on toast, cooked in 1898 cast-iron vertical broilers, with no ketchup offered.

Tour the Vanderbilts' 50-room marble summer house and its Chinese Tea House above the Atlantic.

Swim and sunbathe on a lifeguarded Atlantic barrier beach with a pavilion, showers and snack stand.

Look out from 150-foot clay cliffs on Block Island's south shore and take the steep stairs down.

Watch beluga whales in an outdoor habitat, then see sea lions, African penguins, sharks and touch pools.

Board an 1841 whaleship, walk a recreated 19th-century seaport village and watch shipwrights restore wooden boats.

Drive 10 miles of Newport shoreline past beaches, Gilded Age mansions, Fort Adams and Brenton Point.

Walk through a Gilded Age mansion with Newport's largest ballroom and a heart-shaped grand staircase.

Tour the 70-room Vanderbilt summer house on Newport's cliffs with a self-guided audio tour of its gilded rooms.

Take a guided tour of the oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States, dedicated in 1763.

See a mounted Brontosaurus, the 110-foot Age of Reptiles mural and galleries on ancient civilizations at Yale's natural history museum.

See van Gogh's The Night Cafe and art from ancient to modern in a free university museum on Chapel Street.

Board a 58-foot excursion boat at Bowen's Wharf for narrated cruises past Newport's lighthouses, harbor and seals.

Hop on and off a seasonal ferry linking Jamestown, Rose Island Light, Fort Adams and downtown Newport across the bay.