Rainy Day Activities in Connecticut (CT)

Who cares about the rain? It’s just an excuse to head to the It Adventure Ropes Course for a day of fun and excitement. The attraction, inside Jordan’s Furniture in New Haven, CT, has something for everyone, from exhilarating zip rails to climbing walls to a course specially designed for your littlest adventurers. The world’s largest indoor ropes course includes a double catwalk, crisscross angled rope ladders, cargo nets, bridges, swinging beams — in short, something for every thrill-seeker! And you can go in any direction you want — there’s no set path. The Little It ropes course for small kids features platforms just three feet off the ground, where adults can stay close by to help. Four different walls at the Climb It attraction provide a fresh take on traditional climbing. Contact us for group rates for school field trips or birthday parties.

Looking for a fun activity for the whole family? It’s time to make tracks to the Railroad Museum of New England, where kids can explore steam and diesel locomotive passenger and freight cars, a crane, a plow and cabooses. (One is bright red!) There are educational exhibits at the historic Thomaston, CT Station, too. And the highlight, of course, is stepping aboard a vintage train for an excursion up the Naugatuck River Valley, over the famed Thomaston Dam, through woods and over the river. Special excursions to delight children of all ages are the Easter Bunny Express, the Pumpkin Patch train, the Santa Express and the Northern Lights Limited. The latter two trains, decorated for the season, include visits with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Visit the Mark Twain House & Museum, a National Historic Landmark, and see why the Clemens family loved this Hartford home in rain or shine. Daily tours take you to rooms richly decorated, many by Louis C. Tiffany & Co., filled with period pieces and domestic artifacts. There’s a lovely carved bed in the Clemens’ bedroom, a vast literary collection in the library, a fountain in the conservatory, and other delights of the Victorian era. (You can even see the Paige Compositor typesetting machine that drove the family to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing them to leave the home in 1891). The museum holds over 16,000 artifacts, including books by Darwin, Hawthorne, and others, with margin comments written by Clemens.