Connecticut stands northeast of New York City, and is in easy reach of New York and Boston. The southwest corner of the state forms part of the New York commuter belt and has excellent transport connections. The state is served by two airports, Amtrak, Greyhound and Peter Pan buses and has good Interstate road links. The closeness to major cities make it a popular shopping and tourist destination. Continue Reading »

Good news, if you are thoughtful and appreciate the time to do some planning, it will make your summer vacation easy and one of those “family events” that you will cherish forever. The most frequent mistake people experience is first choosing a “destination.” The best vacations begin when you first choose “what you want to do”! Do you want to go camping, surfing on a beach, playing and relaxing at a pool, or touring cultural or historical locations? By deciding “what you want to do” to start with, you are off to the best start of selecting that perfect family tourism destination!
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FOR $1, a smart shopper can get one Butterfinger candy bar, three cans of cat food or five Christmas cards. Now, Connecticut’s tourism officials have to stretch a buck for statewide marketing campaigns — over an entire year.
After two years with a budget of $4.3 million a year, the state’s Commission on Culture and Tourism has to make do this fiscal year with just $1 allocated by the legislature in September for statewide promotions. The agency will get another lonely dollar next year. Continue Reading »

ON a cold Saturday morning in February, Shawn Pelak and David Parent were at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, in New Haven, Conn., soon after the doors opened. But the couple, from Ann Arbor, Mich., wasn’t there to hit the books. Ms. Pelak and Mr. Parent were spending the weekend in Hartford, 45 minutes north, and after downloading a walking tour of the Yale campus from the school’s Web site, they had gotten in their car for a first-hand look. Continue Reading »