Car Rental - New Haven

1111 Chapel Street (at York Street) New Haven, CT

The Gothic and Georgian buildings at Yale stretch across central New Haven, and most of them are open and free to explore. The Yale University Art Gallery, the oldest college art museum in the Western Hemisphere, holds a collection of nearly 300,000 works spanning ancient artefacts to post-war abstraction.

Across the street lies the Yale Center for British Art, which houses the largest collection of British art outside the UK. Guided walking tours depart from the Yale Visitor Center on Elm Street and cover everything from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (home to one of the few surviving Gutenberg Bibles) to the student societies that have shaped American public life for generations. 

Wooster Place, New Haven, CT 06511

Wooster Square sits east of downtown, across the train tracks, and is where New Haven’s Italian American identity is most evident. The neighborhood centers on a residential park lined with 19th-century homes and a concentration of restaurants and bakeries along Wooster Street that have been drawing visitors for decades. Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, open since 1925, and Sally’s Apizza, established in 1938, sit close to one another and represent the twin pillars of New Haven’s distinctive apizza style: thin, coal-fired, and unlike anything else in the country. The white clam pizza at Pepe’s is a dish people travel from all over to indulge in. It is a short drive from downtown New Haven, and the neighborhood is walkable enough that you can park once and explore on foot.

500 Sargent Drive, New Haven, CT 06511

Hotel Marcel is one of the most architecturally distinctive places to stay in Connecticut. The building, originally the Pirelli tyre headquarters, was designed in 1968 by Bauhaus-trained architect Marcel Breuer. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places, converted into a fully all-electric hotel powered by its own solar microgrid. The interiors retain the mid-century Brutalist bones of the original structure while adding carefully restored finishes and custom furnishings that reference Breuer’s pioneering design work. The hotel sits in New Haven’s Long Wharf district, less than 10 minutes from Yale University and around five minutes from Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, making it a great starting point for both city exploration and longer drives across New England.

57 miles & 1 hour

Head east along I-95 and follow the Connecticut shoreline to Mystic. Stop in Guilford for its antique shops, then continue past Old Saybrook, where the highway crosses the Connecticut River with picturesque views on both sides. In Groton, the Submarine Force Museum lets you tour USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine. From there, it's a short drive into Mystic, which also hosts some of the best food scenes in Connecticut. 

102 miles &2 hours

Head east along I-95 past Mystic and into Rhode Island, through Westerly, where Misquamicut State Beach sits just off the highway. Cut east on Route 1 through South County's beach towns before picking up Route 138. The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge and Pell Bridge carry you across Narragansett Bay onto Aquidneck Island, with open water on both sides for the final stretch. The approach to Newport signals you've arrived somewhere different. Thames Street is lined with restaurants and independent shops, and the Cliff Walk offers 3.5 miles of Atlantic coastline framed by mansion grounds.

137 miles & 2.5 hours

Take I-95 north through New London and into Rhode Island, where Providence makes a natural halfway stop. Its compact downtown and RISD Museum are worth an hour of your time. For a more inland route, cut through Hartford and Springfield on I-91 and I-90; Hartford's Mark Twain House sits just off the highway, and Springfield's Basketball Hall of Fame makes an easy stop before the Mass Pike. Either route lands you in Boston, a city that delivers on every front: the Freedom Trail threads through 250 years of American history, and Fenway Park is a genuine pilgrimage for any baseball lover.