Family Outings | Educational Outings | Best Pizza | Best Burger | Best Ice Cream

We know that when families travel that cleanliness, convenience, safety rank right up there with the fun factor. At the Premiere you have it all. Our studio and two bedroom suites are 50+% larger than a typical hotel room. No more fighting over the bed or bathroom time.

One size does not have to fit all. Each suite provides the comforts of home, and we make the beds! If traveling with small children, please request our child proofing safety kit.

When traveling having family friendly activities to blow off some energy becomes important. After a long day of sight seeing or traveling, families can enjoy swimming in our outdoor pool and hot tub or a good game of volleyball or basketball on the courts. We also offer a comfortable Gatehouse where you can relax and watch TV.

Just a few reasons why the Premiere Hotel and Suites is the perfect choice for families visiting New Haven.

• Spacious Suites offering flexible sleeping arrangements from 4-6 guests
• Complimentary Daily hot breakfast for the entire family in the Gatehouse
• Complimentary use of Pool and Hot Tub
• Complimentary use of Basketball and Volleyball courts
• Complimentary High Speed access in each room
• Free Evening Reception with Light Meals (Mon-Thurs)~
• Complimentary WIFI in the Gatehouse
• Complimentary Cribs
• Complimentary Child proofing kit
• 24 / 7 - Foodaccess in the "market"
• Complimentary Fitness Facility
• Guest Laundry ( 24 hours)
• Full kitchen
• Private entrances close to guest suites
• Pets are welcomed (additional fee applies)
• Free Parking

Here are some of Family friendly ideas for visiting New Haven. These suggestions have been put together by our staff and friends in Connecticut. If you have any ideas that we should add here, please let us know.

Best Family Outings

The Thimble Islands are an archipelago of small islands in Long Island Sound, in and near the harbor of Stony Creek. A rest stop for migrating seals, the jumble of granite rocks adds up at least 100 islands. Captain Bob Milne offers narrated cruises among these dreamy small islands aboard the Volsunga IV out of Stony Creek. (The name is a reference to the thimbleberry, cousin to the black raspberry, found on the islands.)

The comic book and cartoon characters from your childhood and earlier are hopping around in their original styling at the Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire. Archie and Jughead dolls? Roy Rogers Lunch Box? Charlie McCarthy Puppet? If you remember these icons and wouldn't mind visiting them again, the museum probably has them. Enjoy the collection of 60,000 pieces of fun as well as a cartoon theater.

A visit to Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison is more than just another day at the beach. Connecticut's largest shoreline park offers more than two miles of beach to swim, stroll the boardwalk, or just relax in the sun and surf. Park has facilities for swimming, camping, picnicking, saltwater fishing, scuba diving, hiking and boating; concessions. Nature center and interpretive programs.

Be Good to Your Skates - Take your sneakers or roller skates out for some exercise and rubbernecking along Long Island Sound. A 1.7-mile walkway in West Haven provides pedestrians, bicyclists, and skaters with a waterfront greenway along interconnected beaches from Bradley Point Park to Sandy Point. Among the well-loved local eateries near the beach is Jimmies

Freedom Schooner Amistad
www.amistadamerica.org

Quinnipiack Schooner
www.schoonerinc.org
New Haven Harbor (across the Highway from our hotel)

Connecticut College Arboretum
270 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320
Phone: 860-439-5020
Email: arbor@conncoll.edu
Connecticut College Arboretum's 750 acres include the college campus, plant collections, natural areas, and managed areas. Its three major plants collections for public enjoyment are the Campus Landscape with 120 acres of trees and shrubs from around the world; the Native Plant collection, with 20 acres of woody plants and wildflowers indigenous to North America with a pond, and walking trails; Caroline Black Garden with an exquisite display of diverse woody plants in a garden setting. Open every day from sunrise to sunset. Free public guided tours every Sunday afternoon May - October at 2 p.m. Call 860-439-5060 for more information. Private group tours can be arranged upon request.

Mystic Seaport
75 Greenmanville Avenue
Mystic, CT 06355-0990
Toll-Free: 888-973-2767
Email: info@mysticseaport.org
Open: Daily April through October, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and November through March, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Closed Christmas Day.
Mystic Seaport - The Museum of America and the Sea - encourages every child to discover their connection to the sea. Kids of all ages roll up their sleeves and find out what keeps a boat above water in our new interactive exhibit, How Boats Float. The Discovery Barn gives older children hands-on experience with nautical knots, signal flags and more, while the Children's Museum encourages younger sailors to explore a lobster boat, cook in the galley and swab the decks. Help set a tall ship's sails, participate in a traditional "dead horse" sailor's ceremony and create nautical crafts at Inspiration Station.

Ocean Beach Park
1225 Ocean Avenue
New London, CT 06320
Toll-Free: 1-800-510-SAND (7263)
Email: BCGOBP@aol.com
New England's Finest Beach and Boardwalk - There's family fun and more at Ocean Beach Park. New this year is our Splash Park for kids under 8. For more water fun we have the ocean, of course, an Olympic-size swimming pool and triple waterslide. Our award-winning lifeguard staff is on duty for your safety. For more fun we have rides, mini-golf, and a Family Fun Center with a video arcade. Kids can enjoy our playground and adults can work out in the health club. The nature walk and observation deck let you enjoy our natural beauty. When all the activity makes you hungry you can choose from our full-service restaurant, a food court, or ice cream stands. Ocean Beach Park can also accommodate picnics and corporate events. Our nightly entertainment schedule includes Classic Car Cruises on Mondays; kids movies on the beach Tuesday and Thursday; live magic on Wednesday; live bands on Friday; and family entertainment on Saturdays.

The Dinosaur Place
1650 Route 85
Montville, CT 06370
Phone: 860-443-4367
Join us at the "The Dinosaur Place" for an adventure of the prehistoric kind! Visit the indoor Activity Center and check out geodes- volcanic formations that are million of years old! Choose one for us to cut open and be the first to see inside this ancient gas bubble! Children of all ages enjoy digging for gems and crystals, panning for "gold" and excavating a dinosaur skeleton. Spend the day enjoying Outdoor Adventure! Over 25 life-sized dinosaurs can be found along 1 mile of easy walking trails. Visit the "What am I?" touch and learn stations and romp in Monty's Playground. Bring sunscreen and flip-flops and enjoy New England's largest SPLASHPAD®! Monty's SPLASHPAD® is a zero-depth, fully automated interactive aquatic play system that consists of over 30 dinosaur-themed features designed to stimulate and cool off children of all ages. Changing rooms available. Picnic areas, snack bar and ice cream shop on site. Visit our website for hours, rates, and directions.

Best Educational Activity

Along with more than 11 million objects in anthropology, botany, zoology, paleontology, entomology, and ornithology, the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven is home to Rudolph F. Zallinger's murals "The Age of Reptiles" and "The Age of Mammals." Permanent exhibits probe human culture at the Hall of Native American Cultures and Fossil Fragments: The Riddle of Human Origins.

Who says you have to go to Rome to see a serious crypt? People interested in New Haven history and personages or those simply enamored of headstone art should visit the New Haven Crypt below the Center Church on the Green. In 1813, Center Church was built over a portion of the town's burial ground. All the gravestones were left in their original positions to be protected by the church's foundation. Tours April through October.

For the sake of architecture, history, of the love of academia, a walking tour of Yale will inspire and enlighten (like of like a great university does). Visitors on the tour will hear about Yale's rich 300-year history and see the Gothic Sterling Memorial Library and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which is home to a preeminent collection of rare materials, including a Gutenberg Bible. Self-guided tours also are offered.

Knights of Columbus Museum
www.kofc.org

Best Pizza

New Haven is know to have some of the best pizza. Families have been divided over pizza. Check it out for yourself and decide which pizza your family likes best.

Frank Pepe 's Pizza
157 Wooster Street, New Haven, CT 203-865-5762
website - www.pepespizzeria.com

Modern Pizza
874 State Street, New Haven
203 776 5306
website - www.modernapizza.com

Sally's a Pizza
237 Wooster Street, New Haven, CT
203-624-5271

Abate's Pizza 129 Wooster St, New Haven, Ct
203-776-4334

Best Burgers
New Haven The Birthplace of the Hamburger!

Several sources, mostly Connecticut based, make a claim that the sandwich was invented in 1895 in New Haven, CT. Local newspaper accounts say that Louis Lassen, on emigrating from Denmark in 1880, sold butter and eggs and then leased a lunch wagon in 1895. He first specialized in a steak sandwich with thin slices of meat. He would take the trimmings home and grind them up to serve as patties or meat loaf to his family. Although some of the sources claim 1895 as the date for the sandwich, the Lassen family usually says 1900. Once when confronted with the Athens, TX, claim for Uncle Fletch Davis, Kenneth Lassen, Louis' grandson, was quoted as saying, "We have signed, dated and notarized affadavits saying we served the first hamburger sandwiches in 1900. Other people may have been serving the steak but there's a big difference between a hamburger steak and a hamburger sandwich." (Lassen quoted in Review Staff 1991). The sandwich was sold between pieces of bread and soon became the bulk of Lassen's lunch business.

Louis' Lunch is still selling their hamburgers from a small brick building in New Haven. The sandwich is grilled vertically in antique gas grills and served between pieces of toast rather than a bun.

Louis' Lunch
261-263 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06510
Phone: (203) 562-5507
website - www.louislunch.com

Best Ice Cream

Cold Stone Creamery - New Haven

Clark's Dairy - New Haven

Jennifers - East Haven

For additional information you may want to check out www.visitconnecticut.com or www.explorenewengland.com