A narrated two-and-a-half-hour journey with Essex Steam Train & Riverboat travels to Deep River Landing, followed by a trip on the riverboat Becky Thatcher. In Essex, Connecticut, you can also choose among a museum spanning more than 12,000 years of history, historic houses, and hiking trails as different focal points for your stay.
Train and Riverboat Ride
Essex Steam Train & Riverboat offers a narrated two-and-a-half-hour ride, with boarding at Essex station. The excursion travels to Deep River Landing, followed by a trip on the riverboat Becky Thatcher. The change from train to riverboat gives the experience a clear sequence and makes it more than a train ride. The stated duration provides a concrete guide when fitting this excursion into your travel plans.
The Essex Clipper Dinner Train offers a different focus: a four-course meal is served in restored 1920s Pullman dining cars. Unlike the narrated ride, the experience here is shaped by the meal and the historic cars. The two offerings therefore differ mainly in their focus: Essex Steam Train & Riverboat centers on the train and riverboat, while the Dinner Train centers on the meal in the restored cars.
History at the Museum and in Historic Houses
The Connecticut River Museum is located by the river in historic Essex, Connecticut. Visitors can explore three exhibition levels and more than 12,000 years of history. The long historical perspective and multiple levels give this museum visit a distinctive way to explore the town’s history.
Pratt House offers the chance to explore one of the oldest houses in Essex. The visit includes a reconstructed barn, gardens, and a museum shop. So the experience extends beyond the house itself. Essex’s historic houses and buildings also attract visitors, making its architectural heritage a focus in its own right when planning a trip.
The Ivoryton Playhouse adds theater history to these themes: it became the nation’s first self-supporting summer theater. Taken together, these places highlight different aspects—from a museum with its broad historical perspective, to a historic house, to the history of summer theater.
Hiking Trails and Outdoor Activities
Hikers can explore 87 trails spanning a total of 42 miles in Essex’s nature preserves. The 42 miles refer to the entire trail network, not to a single trail. This gives a sense of the scale of the hiking options without confusing the total distance with the length of a particular route.
Viney Hill Brook Park also offers hiking trails, as well as picnic areas and a dog run. The difference is specific when choosing a nature outing: the number and total length of trails are the stated features of the nature preserves; the park also has picnic areas and a dog run. You can make your choice based on whether hiking, or a combination of trails, picnicking, and a dog run, is your priority.
The attractions give Essex several distinct travel profiles: a ride with a set duration and a change to travel on the water, historic and cultural destinations, and outdoor trails and park amenities. You can decide which of these will shape your stay based on your interests, without combining the different experiences into a fixed itinerary.
Discover more destinations: Old Saybrook, Haddam, Middlefield, Cromwell, Middletown.
See the broader travel guide: Middlesex.
