Things to Do in Mystic

On the banks of Connecticut’s historic Mystic River, Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929, it is home to four vessels with National Historic Landmark status. Visitors can explore more than 19 acres along the river, including a re-created 19th-century seafaring village and a working preservation shipyard. 

A visit to Mystic Seaport is an interactive experience, where you can learn about 19th-century New England’s seafaring heritage and maritime history through on-site historians, storytellers, and craftspeople. Climb aboard historic vessels including the wooden whaleship Charles W. Morgan, witness shipbuilding in action in the working shipyard, duck inside the cooperage, or explore the stars (and the art of celestial navigation) at the Treworgy Planetarium. The museum’s gardens showcase plants from the habitats of the Mystic River.

Mystic Seaport is located in the town of Mystic, located 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of New London. The easiest way to get there is by car; there is free parking across the street from both the north and south entrances.

Mystic Seaport is open daily throughout the year, with limited hours and operation during January and February. The best weather—and more sizable crowds—arrives in June, July, and August.

If you’re in the area to visit Mystic Seaport, set aside some time to see some of the area’s other notable attractions. Traveling families can spend an afternoon at the kid-approved Mystic Aquarium, while the historic downtown area offers plenty of shopping and dining opportunities. Browse the rotating exhibits at the Mystic Museum of Art, or dive deeper into the region’s history at the Denison Homestead Museum.

Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut is a tourist attraction and research facility putting visitors in close proximity of Beluga whales, black­footed penguins, Stellar sea lions, and many more aquatic mammals and exotic fish from around the world. 

The aquarium features a 30,000­-gallon tank full of colorful fish and other marine life, and has one of the largest Beluga whale exhibits in the United States. Other exhibits include a stingray and shark touch pool, an African penguin exhibit, and Exploration: Wild, which takes visitors through various diverse ecosystems, including rain forest, wetlands, desert, the Arctic, and the open ocean. At the center of this new 650­-square-­meter exhibit there are four American alligators.

Mystic Aquarium also features a National Geographic Theater, plus a 4D theater showing popular films such as Ice Age and Polar Express.