How to Spend the Perfect Weekend in New Haven

On the shores of Northern Long Island Sound, the City of New Haven is best-known for hosting Yale University, the famous Ivy League institution dating all the way back to 1701. While the ancient campus and its foreboding Gothic architecture are well worth a look, weekenders wandering into Connecticut’s second-largest metropolis will find a wealth of other delightful diversions.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. While on Yale’s campus, visit the University Art Gallery, the oldest college art museum in the nation. The museum is spread across a handful of buildings and showcases everything from European masters such as Rubens and Renoir to American artists like Hopper and Homer.

2. A similar attraction is the newer Yale Center for British Art, housed downtown in a nondescript shoebox of a building. The Center hosts the most extensive collection of British art on the planet (outside of England that is) and Turner Hogarth and Gainsborough are just a few of the showcased greats on display here.

3. Take in a play or show at one of the city’s many performing arts venues. The historic Shubert Theater hails back to 1914 and hosts everything from offbeat shows like STOMP to live international music to big-time, Broadway-style shows.

4. Have a historically significant lunch, as New Haven lays claim to being the birthplace of both hamburgers and pizzas. Louis’ Lunch is a no-frills eatery that supposedly created the ‘hamburger sandwich’ and has been in biz since 1895; Pepe’s Pizza (aka Pizzeria Napoletana) dates back to 1925 and serves some of the best pies in New England.

5. Green thumbers or anyone with a taste for natural beauty will want to visit the Marsh Botanical Gardens, particularly its greenhouses housing literally thousands of colorful orchids. Located on the Yale campus, the gardens cover eight acres and date back to 1899.

6. Families with kids will particularly savor the Peabody Museum of Natural History, where you can take a trip back in time to ancient Egypt, the days of the Dinosaurs, or early America. With three sprawling floors and millions of artifacts on display, this is a great locale for beating the summer heat or winter snows.

7. In fair weather, stop by Lighthouse Point Park, where you’ll find a historic old beacon, an attractive beach, excellent bird watching, and a ranger station with a ‘touch tank’ and other aquarium tanks hosting creatures from Long Island Sound.

[werdy_nerdy]

on 3/23/2007 *Ahem* The Yale Center for British Art is housed in a building designed by world renowned architect Louis I. Kahn. It might not be your cup of tea (because it's modern), but it's hardly a "nondescript shoebox of a building." Some people come to the museum as much to see the building as to see the works inside.