Experience the best of Mystic

Mystic is a village shared by the towns of Stonington and Groton on Connecticut's eastern shore, where the Mystic River runs down to Fishers Island Sound. In the nineteenth century its shipyards built whalers and fast clipper ships, and that history is the draw. Mystic Seaport Museum recreates a working port, with historic vessels including the Charles W. Morgan, an 1841 whaleship that is the last of its kind afloat. A bascule drawbridge crosses the river at the foot of Main Street.

Mystic Aquarium keeps beluga whales and sea lions, and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, to the north, tells the story of the region's Native peoples. Stonington Borough, a fishing village a few kilometres east with a lighthouse museum and a street of old captains' houses, keeps one of the last working fleets on the Connecticut coast. Watch Hill, in Rhode Island, is a short drive east.

Clam chowder, lobster rolls, fried clams and oysters are the local order, eaten at shacks and tables by the water, and ice cream stands stay busy all summer. The quietest and crispest days come in autumn.