3 Best Sights in Southwestern Connecticut, Connecticut

The owner of this 19th-century home, wealthy textile merchant Robert Moffat Bruce, bequeathed it to the town of Greenwich in 1908 with the stipulation that it be used "as a natural history, historical, and art museum." Today this diversity remains, reflected in the museum's changing exhibitions—more than a dozen new ones each year—highlighting fine and decorative arts, natural history, and anthropology. On permanent display is a spectacular mineral collection. Kids especially enjoy the touchable meteorite and glow-in-the-dark minerals, as well as the fossilized dinosaur tracks. The gift shop is terrific, too!

In the 1890s, visitors from New York's Art Students League journeyed to the Cos Cob section of Greenwich to take classes taught by American Impressionist John Henry Twachtman at a boarding house for artists and writers run by Josephine and Constant Holley. Thus, the Cos Cob Art Colony was born and flourished until 1920. Today, the circa-1730 house is known as the Bush-Holley House, which displays a wonderful collection of 19th- and 20th-century art by Twachtman, along with rotating art, history, and cultural exhibitions. The collection also includes personal papers, photographs, and records that reflect the long history of Greenwich and its inhabitants, from farmers to Gilded Age barons, politicians, artists and writers, and shopkeepers.

Opened in 1943 as the National Audubon Society's first educational nature center, the sanctuaries and trails are the best location in the area for bird-watching. During the Fall Festival and Hawk Watch each September, you can spot large numbers of hawks and other migrating raptors. Other events include early morning bird walks, summer and winter bird counts, birding classes, and field trips. The center is filled with interactive exhibits, galleries, classrooms, a wildlife observation room, and a deck with sweeping views of wildlife activity. Outside are 7 miles of hiking trails passing through 285 acres of woodland, wetland, and meadow.