Newport, RI?

Where are you leaving from? It can take 2 hours to get from far end of LI to either throggs neck or whitestone bridge.

Mystic CT?

As I recall (having grown up there), Long Island is 120 miles or so long. Where's the starting point?

Mystic would be ok, not much on nightlife but could go to one of the casinos. But it may be more than 2 hours depending on where in LI. Providence could work too as would the Newport recommendation.

lol...true!
i'm leaving from nassau county...smack in the middle

has anyone visited Stroudsburg, PA?

What kind of "fun nightlife?" Most places that I can think of in that range are pretty much 'burb-ish and nightlife may be hard to come by.

That said, what about northern Westchester County? First or second week in October will bring some nice foliage and great restaurants.

Or Ridgefield CT or New Canaan - both pretty, nice B&B's, antiques, restaurants.

New Hope, PA/Lambertville NJ, if you're into Antiques, Arts and Crafts Galleries, Quaint Inns, good restaurants, each town is on the opposite side of a foot bridge.

http://www.newhopepa.com/default.htm

http://www.westchestertourism.com/

http://www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com/

This is better for CT:
http://www.ctvisit.com/tourismregion.aspx?id=5

I had a suprisingly nice time for a short trip to Bethlehem, PA. There's a cute main street with local shops and another street across the river with galleries and a First Friday (Saturday? Thursday?) event. There was good walking with nature and architecture around the Moravian College campus. With a few other colleges in the area there was livelier nightlife as well as that of the "nice wine bar" variety. The Bethlehem Hotel is on the historic register and more than adequate, though not 4*. And there is an extremely nice casino (compared to a lot of others in PA) located at the old Bethworks plant, about a 5 minute drive.

As to the rec above re New Hope, Lambertville is quite cute, but I thought the main street in New Hope was suprisingly tacky tacky -- cheap t-shirts and bad silver jewelry, and not the gay artsy boutiques and galleries that I was expecting to see.

Visit a few wineries en route and stay in Greenport, on the North Fork. You can take the ferry to Shelter Island and Sag Harbor, and you can walk to shops and restaurants in Greenport itself...

http://www.liwines.com/




http://www.greenportvillage.com/

Leaving the middle of Nassau county at Friday afternoon rush hour in 2 hours will get you about as far as the end of Westchester.

Assuming you leave later you can get further - but Mystic is really the far end of your limit - unless you decide to drive out and take a ferry across the sound to CT.

You're not going to get to PA in 2 hours or Rhode Island.

>the North Fork on Long Island with wineries, antiques and good food (Frisky Oyster, North Fork Table & Wine, Jedediah Hawkins)
>Brooklyn (Coney Island, Brooklyn Flea, Williamsburgh)
>Westchester -Rye Playland, Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate options
>Mystic Ct. via Port Jefferson ferry

https://www.longislandferry.com/default.aspx

have you considered a ferry--youll avoid all the hassle of getting to the Thorggs Neck bridge on a Friday--there are several ferrys, heres a link above to one of them

Thank you all so much for your help!! I'm looking into the links right now...i'm sure one of your great suggestions will fit the bill!

Thanks again!

If you take the ferry from Orient Point to New London, CT you will be 15 minutes from the Mystic/Stonington area. Go to the Casinos for night life, most of the hotels/motels in the area run shuttles if you want to have a drink and not have to drive.

The casinos may even have a ferry/bus connection from Orient Point and you might be able to score a package that includes a room etc.

Yes, if that is your choice, you can leave your car (free parking) at the lot at the Orient Point ferry and get a package that includes ferry plus bus trip to either casino, lunch, and keno.


To my knowledge, there are no packages that include overnight stays in a hotel room.

https://www.longislandferry.com/Common/Help.aspx?page=casinos