New Haven

The college town home to Yale University, with a Gothic campus, free art museums and the coal-fired thin-crust pizza of "America's pizza capital."

New Haven sits in southern Connecticut on the north shore of Long Island Sound, about 130 km from New York City. Founded by Puritans in 1638, it was one of New England's first planned cities, and the New Haven Green at the center of its nine-square street grid is still in use today. The city is best known for Yale University, founded in 1701: its Collegiate Gothic colleges, Harkness Tower and Sterling Memorial Library are right downtown and easy to explore on foot. The Yale University Art Gallery, Yale Center for British Art, Peabody Museum of Natural History and Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library are all free, making this New England's densest cluster of free museums.

New Haven is also called "America's pizza capital." Frank Pepe and Sally's around Wooster Square, plus Modern a little farther out, are known as the "Big Three," famous for coal-fired, thin and crispy "apizza" and white clam pizza; expect long lines at mealtimes. Louis' Lunch claims to be the birthplace of the American hamburger. The basalt ridges of East Rock and West Rock on either side of the city offer hikes with views over the city and the sound. Lighthouse Point Park on the east side has a lighthouse and a vintage carousel; farther east, boat tours from Branford weave through the more than 100 granite islets of the Thimble Islands, and beyond lies Hammonasset Beach, the longest beach in the state.

The best times to visit are April–May (cherry blossoms in Wooster Square) and September–October (fall color on campus). Summers are warm and humid; winters are cold and snowy. Metro-North from Grand Central Terminal in New York takes about 2 hours to New Haven Union Station, and Amtrak also runs direct. The city center is best explored on foot, but you'll need a car for sights outside town. Plan on 1–2 days.

Top sights

• Yale University Old Campus & Harkness Tower – The center of Yale’s oldest campus, where red brick and Gothic buildings surround the lawns. Harkness Tower is the campus landmark.
• Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library – A modernist building with marble panels that glow with translucent light. Its glass book tower holds a Gutenberg Bible and the Voynich Manu…
• Yale University Art Gallery – The oldest university art museum in the United States. Admission is free, and its collection includes Van Gogh’s *The Night Café* and Ameri…
• Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana – The founding pizzeria of New Haven pizza, established in 1925. It bakes thin, crisp crusts in a coal-fired oven, and its signature is the w…
• Sterling Memorial Library – Yale's main library, which looks like a Gothic cathedral. The nave's stained glass and the 'Alma Mater' mural are breathtaking.
• Yale Center for British Art – The largest collection of British art outside Britain, and the last work of Louis Kahn. Famous paintings by Turner and Constable can be see…
• Yale Peabody Museum – An important American natural history museum. Its Dinosaur Hall has a Brontosaurus skeleton and Rudolph Zallinger's giant mural 'The Age of…
• New Haven Green – A city-centre square planned in 1638, with three churches built in the early 19th century standing side by side. It is a National Historic…
• Wooster Square – A historic Italian-American neighbourhood, famous for its cherry blossoms in the square. Wooster Street nearby is home to New Haven's famou…
• Sally's Apizza – Opened in 1938, this long-established coal-fired pizzeria competes with Pepe across the street. It is known for its tomato pie and a season…
• Modern Apizza – One of New Haven’s “Big Three” pizzerias, opened in 1934, baked in brick ovens and famous for the “Italian Bomb.”
• Louis' Lunch – A small brick building that claims to have invented the American hamburger in 1900, still grilling patties on old upright iron stoves and s…
• Shubert Theatre – Broadway’s “tryout house” since it opened in 1914, where *Oklahoma!* and *The King and I* premiered.
• Grove Street Cemetery – One of the first planned cemeteries in America, founded in 1797, with an Egyptian Revival gate and the graves of many Yale presidents and n…
• East Rock Park – A basalt cliff about 110 meters high on the north side of the city; from the summit monument you can overlook the Yale campus, downtown and…
• West Rock Ridge State Park & Judges Cave – A basalt ridge west of the city; at its summit is Judges’ Cave, where two 17th-century regicide judges hid from pursuit, with views over th…
• Lighthouse Point Park – A seaside park on the east side of the New Haven harbor entrance, with the 1847 Five Mile Point Lighthouse, a beach and an antique carousel.
• Shore Line Trolley Museum – Home to the oldest continuously operating suburban trolley line in the United States, where you can ride a vintage streetcar about 5 km rou…
• Thimble Islands – More than a hundred small pink granite islands off Branford, with private summer homes on many of them, and 45-minute boat tours full of pi…
• Sleeping Giant State Park – A ridge shaped like a giant lying on his back, with a classic trail to a stone tower at the summit, views of Long Island Sound and popular…
• Hammonasset Beach State Park – Connecticut’s longest public beach, with about 3 km of sand, boardwalks and a salt-marsh nature center.

Where to eat

• Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana – Founded in 1925, this is the birthplace of New Haven-style pizza, famous for its Original Tomato Pie and White Clam Piz…
• Louis' Lunch – A family-run eatery opened in 1895 that claims to be the birthplace of the hamburger sandwich, still cooking them in an…
• Sally's Apizza – An iconic Wooster Street pizzeria opened in 1938, famous for its Fresh Tomato White Pie and Potato & Rosemary Pizza.
• Modern Apizza – An East Rock neighborhood pizzeria opened in 1934, highly acclaimed and famous for its Clam Casino and Italian Bomb piz…
• Union League Cafe – An upscale French bistro set in a 19th-century townhouse next to Yale, where stained glass and fireplaces create a gran…

Itineraries

• Connecticut and Rhode Island Coast Islands – From Yale, heading east along the coast through Mystic, Block Island and Newport to Providence.
• New York to Boston Ivy League & Prestigious Universities Rail Tour – Ditch the car and travel along the Northeast Corridor to visit Columbia, Yale, Brown, Harvard, and MIT.