1 Best Sight in Hartford and the Connecticut River Valley, Connecticut

Opened in 1846, the country's oldest amusement park is known to locals simply as "The Lake." Today's attractions include a lakefront beach, a water park, and a clipper ship with a 300-gallon bucket of water that gives unsuspecting guests a good dousing. There are also some pretty hair-raising rides, such as the Sky Coaster, Wildcat (New England's oldest roller coaster), Boulder Dash ("World's #1 wooden coaster"), and Zoomerang.