Area Guide

This is the list we give everyone. It is longer than it needs to be, because I am the sort of person who reads up before visiting somewhere so as not to miss anything, and this is what I would want handed to me. It is written from the perspective of people who live here rather than people passing through, so there are things on it a tourist guide would never mention — and a few famous things we will tell you to skip.

Two notes. Everything is listed with its town and state, because "Mystic and the surrounding area" quietly spans two of them and a good number of these are in Rhode Island. And the restaurant scene here changes constantly — this list was checked over in the summer of 2026, but call ahead before you drive somewhere.

The island itself

As our guests you have the run of Masons Island, and it is one of the real pleasures of staying here. The roads carry very little traffic, which makes them ideal for running and cycling, and there are several public access points to the water. The one exception is the gates marked Private Drive below our house — that land is separately owned.

There is a guard at the gate in season. Tell him you are staying at 26 Schoolhouse. He will ask each time; that is simply how the gate works.

Farm stands and markets

• Wehpittituck Farm — Cove Road, Stonington, CT. Fresh eggs, produce, and pure beauty. This is a huge photo opportunity: miles of stone walls, old buildings and farm animals. Honour-system payment. Our favourite of the lot.
• Denison Farmers Market — Mystic, CT. Sundays, June through October, at the Denison Homestead.
• Stonington Farmers Market — Stonington, CT, at the Velvet Mill. Saturday mornings, and now indoors and year-round rather than seasonal. Cato Corner Farm sells their cheese here.
• The Velvet Mill — Stonington, CT. Worth a wander any day of the week, not just market day: art shops, galleries, antiques, a brewery, and several places to eat.
• Stone Acres Farm — Stonington, CT. Farmstand open daily with seasonal vegetables, pasture-raised meat, eggs and pantry staples. They have added a food truck since we first wrote this.
• B.F. Clyde's Cider Mill — Old Mystic, CT. Seasonal: they open on the 1st of September and run into December. If you find them listed as "temporarily closed" in summer, that is just the off-season.
• Coventry Farmers' Market — Coventry, CT, at the Nathan Hale Homestead. Sundays, June through October. Still the largest farmers' market in the state, but it is a proper trip from here.

Shopping

• Mine — 40 Washington Street, Mystic, CT. Antiques, local art, and a genuine treasure hunt; our dining room table came from there and the owners are wonderful. They have moved since we last visited, so the new shop will be a surprise to us as well as to you.
• The Fun Company — Westerly, RI. A bit of everything, inventory constantly changing, designer overstock at wholesale prices: clothing, linens, toys, home goods. You never know what you will find. Highly recommended.
• Downtown Mystic — CT. Eighty-odd independent shops around the drawbridge. Lovely, and very crowded in season; we tend to avoid it in July and August.
• Olde Mistick Village — Mystic, CT. Shops and eateries with nice walking paths. You can get a bite or just walk around and watch the ducks. Good for children — try the chocolate-covered bananas.
• Water Street, Stonington Borough — CT. Mostly antiques, a few clothing shops, and some good restaurants.
• Manufaktura — Mystic, CT (in Olde Mistick Village) and Watch Hill, RI. Beautiful Polish pottery.
• Pennywise — Mystic, CT. High-end consignment, mostly clothing, handbags and jewellery. Open seven days.
• Westerly — RI. About ten miles away, with far more restaurants and shops than you would expect, a really nice park, a theatre, and music performances. Much more accessible than Mystic in summer. All the big-box stores are out along Route 1 — thankfully, Mystic has none.
• Clinton Premium Outlets — Clinton, CT.

On the water

All the tour boats below pass our house, so you may well wave at us on the way out.

• Argia — Mystic, CT. A schooner running two-hour sails from Steamboat Wharf, several times a day, May to mid-October. Booking is now by seating zone rather than by the boat, and children under ten are not carried on the sunset sail.
• Sabino — Mystic Seaport, CT. A beautifully restored 1908 steamboat that takes you up the river, May to October, with Sunday evening cruises and Monday music cruises in high summer. She was coal-fired for a century; she is now diesel-electric, which purists mourn and everyone else does not notice.
• Mystic River Cruises — Mystic, CT. Departs Seaport Marine aboard Novelty, a 1947 wooden motorboat.
• Mystic Boat Adventures — Noank, CT. June through September. They gather for training in front of our house and it always looks like fun.
• Poet's Lounge Sailing Charters — Mystic and Noank, CT. Private charters rather than scheduled seats.

Kayaks and paddleboards

We have kayak stands by the back door. Bring your own on the roof of the car if you have them — otherwise rent locally and paddle up to the dock, which several of our guests have done over the years.

• Mystic Bike & Kayak — Noank Shipyard, Groton, CT. Ocean kayaks by the half-day, plus e-bikes and ordinary bikes. By appointment, last-minute welcome, and they may be able to deliver. Being down at the mouth of the river, they are the closest to us by water.
• Adventure Mystic — Holmes Street, Mystic, CT. Kayaks, paddleboards and bikes in summer; snowboards in winter. Right in town, so you can paddle down the river to us.

Fishing charters

• Helen III — Groton, CT. The Glas family have been running boats out of this dock since 1946; parties of eight to fifteen.
• Wild Bill's Action Sports — Noank, CT. Striped bass, tuna, black sea bass, false albacore, depending on the season.

Tours and attractions

• Mystic Seaport Museum — Mystic, CT. The nation's leading maritime museum, founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the artefacts of America's seafaring past. Go early in the morning on a day that is not too hot. Fascinating and exhausting in equal measure.
• Mystic Aquarium — Mystic, CT. Among the best in the country, and a non-profit with a serious research programme. Open daily.
• Seaside Shadows — Mystic, CT. Haunted history tours of the town and the cemeteries. Book ahead. The downtown tour is the best of them and you will want walking shoes.
• Denison Homestead — Mystic, CT. Established in 1654. You can walk the grounds and hiking trails freely, but house tours run only three weekdays plus Saturdays in season, so check before you set out.
• Whitehall Cemetery — Mystic, CT. Even if you skip the night-time ghost tour, this is a very old burying ground worth seeing. It has a stone body cellar where the dead were kept until the ground thawed, and it is tangled up in a great many ghost stories, including a lost native burial site and a vampire burial. It sits on the Whitehall Mansion grounds — ask at the inn about visiting.

Day trips

• Newport — RI, about an hour. Where the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and the rest of the Gilded Age elite built their summer houses, most of which you can now tour. Our favourites are The Breakers and Marble House. If you want the view from below stairs, the Servant Life Tour runs at The Elms.
• The Cliff Walk — Newport, RI. A three-and-a-half-mile public path along the shoreline, running behind the back lawns of the mansions with enormous ocean views the whole way. Note that this is not the same thing as Rosecliff, which is one of the houses you tour. One section of the Walk is closed for storm repairs with a signed detour, so check the City of Newport's site before you go.
• Watch Hill — Westerly, RI, about thirty minutes. Taylor Swift's house is here, and the public beach below it is lovely and rarely crowded — the entrances are on Bluff Avenue and a couple of the side streets. You can walk out to the lighthouse, though the tower itself is closed and the road up is walking-only. Her song "The Last Great American Dynasty" is about the history of that house. Parking in the village is genuinely difficult in season; read the practical notes at the end before you drive over.
• The Fantastic Umbrella Factory — Charlestown, RI, near Watch Hill. A quirky collection of hippy and art shops with beautiful gardens, chickens running loose, an emu called George, and some goats who have arrived to keep him company. Children love it, as do I.
• Block Island — RI. A full day, possibly overnight. The ferry runs from Point Judith in Narragansett, about an hour's drive, and takes thirty minutes on the fast boat or fifty-five on the traditional one. Bring bikes or hire a car and tour; some locals will take you round in their own. Beautiful lighthouse, a great deal of history, good shopping and restaurants.
• Essex Steam Train & Riverboat — Essex, CT, about forty minutes. A train ride and a boat ride in one afternoon. Reservations required; seasonal, roughly May through October.
• Wickford — North Kingstown, RI. A quaint, very old seaside village, ideal for walking, with good restaurants and shopping. Much of the artwork in our house came from Harbor View Artisans on Brown Street, a co-op of local artists, where the work is wonderful and the prices are reasonable. The Wickford Art Festival — around two hundred juried artists at Wilson Park — runs in July and is worth planning a day around.

Food

There are so many options that this section could be a book. Most places here are good because they have to be, to survive the competition. You could eat out for a year and not exhaust Mystic, Groton, New London, Stonington and Westerly. We stay away from downtown Mystic in summer because of the waits. And in truth we mostly cook at home, with all the excellent ingredients available here and the best kitchen either of us has ever worked in — the view from our dining table cannot be beaten.

Breakfast, bakeries and coffee

• Carson's Store — Main Street, Noank, CT. An adorable general store and diner, and a village institution. It has had a turbulent couple of years and has just reopened again — now open into the evening Friday to Sunday, and serving ice cream. Closed Tuesdays.
• Kitchen Little — Quarry Road, Masons Island, Mystic, CT. At the marina, with outdoor seating overlooking our cove. Excellent and innovative, with a few Portuguese-inspired dishes among the seafood and the breakfasts. One of our favourites.
• Nana's Bakery & Pizza — Mystic, CT. Award-winning pastries and clam pizza, and the best cinnamon buns in existence. Takeaway or picnic tables. We go more than we should.
• Sift Bake Shop — Mystic, CT. Food Network award winner. Now four locations.
• Zest Fresh Pastry — at the Velvet Mill, Stonington, CT. Parisian bakery. They have since opened in Noank and Ledyard too.
• Lighthouse Bakery & Cafe — Mystic, CT. Great bread, open daily but mornings only.
• Somewhere In Time Cafe — Mystic, CT. Down-home, solid breakfast. Closed Wednesdays.
• Noah's — Stonington, CT. Great breakfast in a quaint old building. Reservations strongly suggested.
• Mystic Depot Roasters — Mystic, CT. Good breakfast and coffee at the train station.
• Macondo — Stonington, CT. Excellent coffee and beans to take away. Their pastries come from Zest and Merryl-Masa at the Velvet Mill, and the bagels are New York bagels baked in-house. Open early on weekdays, mornings only at weekends.
• Junk & Java — Beach Street, Westerly, RI. Delicious coffee and a fun place. Open seven days, early.
• Mystic Market — Mystic, CT. A little pricey, but very good prepared food, salads, cakes, cheese and coffee beans. There are now five branches; East and West Mystic are the two near us.

Casual and takeaway

• Ju Sushi — Mystic, CT. Phenomenal sushi, and our favourite takeaway anywhere. Get it and eat at the house.
• Beijing Dumpling — Beach Street, Westerly, RI. Really good pot stickers, which we pick up to go alongside Ju Sushi; excellent Chinese generally. Eat in or take away.
• Paul's Pasta Shop — Groton, CT. An old building on the Groton waterfront with fantastic, authentic Italian. You can pre-order trays to go — seafood lasagne, vegetarian lasagne and the rest. One of our favourites.
• Mystic Salad Company — Cottrell Street, Mystic, CT. Fantastic takeaway salads and oddball soups, and they now do rice bowls too. Another favourite.
• Sea Well Seafood — Masons Island Road, Mystic, CT. The seafood shack at the bridge as you come onto the island. They have their own fishing fleet, so the fish is as fresh as it gets: oysters, clams, lobster.
• Captain Daniel Packer Inne — Mystic, CT. Only worth eating in the basement, for the full colonial pub atmosphere — which makes it by far our favourite bar in town. Live music seven nights a week, and Thursday jazz night is exceptional. It sits in the basement of an old sea captain's house, is haunted by Ida and Daniel, and is one of the very few old buildings in Mystic never to have burned.
• Dog Watch — Stonington, CT. Two of them, both in Stonington despite what you may read: one does barbecue, the other is the waterfront one with local fish. Great outdoor dining at both.
• Ford's Lobster — Noank, CT. Gone viral for the lobster mac, the lobster bomb and the lobster grilled cheese. Fantastic setting, with seating where you can dangle your legs over the water. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• Angie's Pizza — Mystic, CT. Far better pizza than Mystic Pizza, and you are not paying tourist prices for it. Mystic Pizza sells the film, not the food — buy the t-shirt, then come here.
• Engine Room — Mystic, CT. Fancy burgers and a proper evening bar scene.
• Jealous Monk — Mystic, CT. Bar, casual food, indoor and outdoor dining with fire pits.
• Chester's Barbecue — Groton, CT. Probably the best barbecue around.
• Johnny's Peking Tokyo — Mystic, CT. Artistic sushi and good Chinese.
• Pink Basil — Olde Mistick Village, Mystic, CT. Eclectic Asian menu and a sushi bar.
• Stonington Pizza Palace — Stonington, CT. Good pizza, plus Greek dishes and seafood.
• The Mariner — Mystic, CT. Really good food, nice atmosphere, open daily.

Clam shacks

All of these are seasonal — roughly spring through autumn — and shut over the winter.

• Costello's Clam Shack — Noank, CT. Great location right on the water, at the Noank Shipyard. This is where we go. Abbott's next door is the famous one, but we find it overrated for lobster and it is always mobbed.
• Fred's Shanty — New London, CT. Fred's and Captain Scott's are the real deal for seafood shacks — both on the river in New London and worth the drive if you want the authentic thing. Combine either with a trip to Harkness.
• Captain Scott's Lobster Dock — New London, CT.
• Sea View and Sea Swirl — Mystic, CT. Both fine rather than special, but they are right here if you do not want to drive for fried clams.

Upscale

• River Tavern — Chester, CT, thirty to forty minutes away. Reservations essential. A fantastic farm-to-table menu that changes constantly, and a beautiful, intimate room. If the sticky date pudding is on that day, order it. My favourite restaurant anywhere, and a stroll around the village of Chester is a must in its own right.
• Oyster Club — Mystic, CT. Farm to table, high end, excellent.
• Milagro — Water Street, Stonington Borough, CT. Amazing upscale Mexican — not by-the-numbers at all. Small, really charming, and the margaritas are unusual and very good. Note it is in Stonington, about ten minutes east, not in Mystic.
• Buon Appetito — North Stonington, CT, about ten minutes from Foxwoods. Excellent northern Italian and specialty pizzas. One of my favourite places to eat.
• The Shipwright's Daughter — Mystic, CT, inside the Whaler's Inn. Their chef won a James Beard award in 2024.
• Anthony J's Bistro — Mystic, CT. Really cute atmosphere, decent Italian, outdoor dining in the heart of town.
• S&P Oyster — Mystic, CT. Popular garden restaurant right at the drawbridge.

Wine, beer and spirits

• Dick's World of Wines — Westerly, RI.
• Grand Wine & Spirits — Mystic, CT.
• Cask'n Keg — Mystic, CT, in the same plaza as McQuade's.
• Cove Ledge — Water Street, Stonington Borough, CT.
• Beer'd Brewing Co — at the Velvet Mill, Stonington, CT. They have a second taproom in Groton now.
• Misfit Club — Water Street, Mystic, CT. This was Barley Head Brewery, sold in 2024; same basement location, and they still brew the Barley Head beers.

Cheese and groceries

• The Cheese Corner — Westerly, RI, next door to Dick's World of Wines. An excellent selection, local and international. Try the Vermont Jasper Hill cheeses; their spoonable Harbison is to die for. They carry Cato Corner too.
• Cato Corner Farm — Colchester, CT. Wonderful cheese, and a proper trip — but they also sell at the Stonington Farmers Market at the Velvet Mill on Saturdays, which is much closer.
• Big Y — Stonington Road, Mystic, CT. Really good selection and decent bread.
• McQuade's Marketplace — Mystic, CT. Good grocery, with a pharmacy.
• Mystic Market — Mystic, CT. Good, limited, and a little expensive.

Ice cream

• Buttonwood Farm — Griswold, CT. Absolutely worth the trip, and some of the best ice cream I have ever had, with genuinely innovative flavours. Bring a cooler and ice: it is about thirty-five minutes each way. Open March to October. At the end of July they run "Sunflowers for Wishes," a Make-A-Wish benefit where you can walk the sunflower fields and cut your own. Children love this place.
• Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream — Mystic, CT. Open year-round; a nice place for dessert after dinner and a stroll around downtown.
• Mystic Sweets & Ice Cream Shoppe — Mystic, CT.

Meat

• Westerly Packing — Westerly, RI. An Italian grocery and a serious meat market, making Old World soppressata by the thousand. Some of the best sub sandwiches you will ever eat, and an extensive catering menu. Really worth seeing.

Walking, running, hiking and biking

• Masons Island — Mystic, CT. Start at the front door. Very little traffic, and lovely running and cycling.
• St. Edmund's Retreat, Enders Island — Mystic, CT. An island just off ours, about an hour for the round-trip walk. Beautiful gardens in summer, extraordinary ocean views, a Rosary Walk and Way of the Cross, and a tiny chapel out on the rocks that floods on a really high tide — people leave prayers in it that are sometimes washed out to sea. The church holds a relic of St. Edmund of Canterbury. Please note their own rules: it is a place of retreat and prayer, not a public park; park in the northeastern lot only, not on the causeway; and anyone under eighteen must be with a parent or guardian.
• Barn Island Wildlife Management Area — Stonington, CT, about fifteen minutes. Set your GPS to Palmer Neck Road, Stonington — not to Pawcatuck, which will take you somewhere else. More than a thousand acres of salt and freshwater marsh, hardwood forest and field, with moderate trails good for hiking and dog walking. It is also an active hunting area, so wear blaze orange in autumn and winter.
• Bluff Point State Park — Depot Road, Groton, CT, about eighteen minutes. A peninsula out into Long Island Sound; the main loop is roughly three and a half miles. The main trail floods on high tides and there is a marsh-restoration project underway, so expect some boardwalk works. Out-of-state cars pay to park — see the practical notes.
• Noank Village — CT. One of my favourite walks, through a charming town next to Mystic, with ocean views. Amelia Earhart married George Putnam here in 1931, in a secret ceremony at his mother's house — which is still a private home, so please admire it from the road if you find it at all.
• Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center — Mystic, CT. More than ten miles of trails, free and open dawn to dusk; there is an admission charge only for the indoor exhibits and the birds of prey. Dogs are not allowed on these trails.
• Coogan Farm — Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, CT, about ten minutes. Part of the same Nature Center, connected to it by the trail network, through an orchard. Leashed dogs are welcome here — this is the one to bring the dog to.
• Paffard Woods Preserve — North Main Street, Stonington, CT, about ten minutes. An Avalonia Land Conservancy preserve running from wooded glacial valley down to a tidal salt marsh, with a spur out to the cove. Gravel parking on the west side of the road, about half a mile north of Route 1. Leashed dogs welcome, no bikes.
• Harkness Memorial State Park — Waterford, CT, about thirty-five minutes. An enormous piece of land with beautiful views, formal gardens and a mansion you can tour at weekends in season. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is next door, on its own campus. Note that the old summer concert series no longer runs. No swimming. Out-of-state parking charge applies.
• Napatree Point — Watch Hill, Westerly, RI. Walk the beach out to the point; highly recommended. There is no parking at Napatree itself and village parking is expensive and tightly controlled, so read the practical notes first. Piping plovers and least terns nest here, so respect all roped-off areas, and dogs are restricted through the summer season.
• Stonington Docks and Stonington Point — Stonington Borough, CT. The docks are home to Connecticut's last commercial fishing fleet — over a hundred fishermen and two processors still work out of them — and they are both picturesque and educational to watch. I have taken thousands of photographs here. The old whaling village around them is wonderful to wander, surrounded by the houses of the whaling captains. Drive to the very end of Water Street for a beautiful sunset from the Point; the lot there is free public parking, though the fifteen-minute spaces further up the street are enforced. There is major reconstruction work on the North Pier at present, so expect equipment.

Casinos

• Foxwoods Resort Casino — Mashantucket, CT, about eight miles. The largest self-contained casino in the United States. We are not remotely casino people, but it is worth seeing for the architecture alone, and there are dozens of restaurants, outlet stores, and top names performing every evening — look into events several months ahead, because they sell out. My favourite thing there is the Chinese bakery, which rivals anything in Chinatown in New York or San Francisco.
• Mashantucket Pequot Museum — Mashantucket, CT. Highly rated and well worth the time, but it is a separate building a short drive from the casino and it opens only Wednesday to Saturday. Its observation tower is currently closed. Check their site before you set out.
• Mohegan Sun — Uncasville, CT. A second casino, smaller than Foxwoods. I am told the decor is beautiful.

On our list, not tried yet

Recommended by people we trust, but we cannot vouch for them ourselves.

• Via Emilia — Mystic, CT. Emilia-Romagna cooking with house-made pasta; consistently among the best-rated in town.
• Wickford Art Association — Wickford, RI. A non-profit gallery running since 1962, with classes and an open studio most Thursdays.

Before you go — the practical bits

These are the things that catch people out, and none of them are obvious.

• Out-of-state cars pay to park at Connecticut state parks. Bluff Point and Harkness are free for Connecticut plates but charge everyone else, more at weekends and on holidays. If you are here for a week and plan several visits, the out-of-state season pass may work out cheaper.
• Watch Hill parking is the most expensive surprise on this list. There is no parking at Napatree Point at all. On-street parking on Bay Street is free but time-limited in summer; the Bay Street lot explicitly forbids beach parking; and the Larkin lot is free for thirty minutes and then a flat fee that will startle you. There is no overnight parking anywhere in the village.
• Dogs: allowed at Coogan Farm and Paffard Woods, not on the Nature Center trails, and restricted at Napatree during the day in nesting season.
• Ticks are present everywhere here. Check yourself, your children and your dogs after any walk.
• The clam shacks close for winter, as do Buttonwood Farm, most of the boat tours, and Clyde's Cider Mill in reverse — it opens in September.
• Call ahead. Everything in this list was checked over in the summer of 2026, but restaurants here open, close and change hands constantly. A two-minute phone call saves a wasted drive.