New Haven is a thriving metropolitan center located on the Connecticut coast. Education, social activities, arts and culture, manufacturing, commerce, corporate enterprises and world-class health care all flourish in the Elm City. New Haven provides a wealth of high learning and cultural amenities to residents, visitors and students from across the globe from its rich history of fine colleges and universities. Arriving in 1716, Yale University arrived in New Haven, established itself as an important academic and cultural influence. Yale, in addition to its unsurpassed undergraduate and graduate programs, maintains the Peabody Museum, which features informative and entertaining anthropology and dinosaur exhibits.

Yale's exciting natural history museum is the only museum in Connecticut with fossil dinosaur material on permanent display. The Pulitzer Award winning "The Age of Reptiles" mural depicts 300 million years of prehistory. Explore the cultures and peoples of the world through exhibits on Ancient Egypt, Mesoamerica, the Andes, the Great Plains and more. New Haven is also home to the Yale Center for the British Art. This museum boasts of the most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom, including paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and rare books that chronicle British life from the Elizabethan period to the present.

Additional art venues around the city including downtown's Shubert Theater, Southern Connecticut State University, Albertus Magnus College and the University of New Haven and nearby Quinnipiac University, also offer galleries, traveling art displays, science shows, enrichment and learning opportunities. The Audubon Arts District is where culture abounds on quite Audubon Street with a variety of galleries including Artspace, Small Space Gallery, performance spaces like the Arts Hall, and arts organizations and art schools.

Stunning 17th century churches surround the city green, which is one of Connecticut's oldest established in 1638, and is distinguished as one of the most beautiful in the U.S. Trinity Church standing on the northwest corner of the historic green was founded in 1752 and has been a tourist attraction since its beginning, Trinity is a superb example of medieval architecture. The Center Church has a beautiful Tiffany window, installed in 1890, depicting the Rev John Davenport leading the first service in the new colony.

The City's Colony Historical Society has exhibits of fine art, genealogical records, furniture, everyday artifacts, and maritime displays. There are exhibits drawn from the museum special collection, such as a recent one on the Amistad Incident: captured African slaves who went on trial in New Haven after they mutinied their slave ship.

The extensive public school system in New Haven is rich with unique opportunities and specialties. New Haven has almost 50 public schools, including a wide assortment of specialized academies, interdistrict magnet schools and charter schools. Private school opportunities are plentiful.

The Connecticut Children's Museum showcases different theme rooms, with one designed to resemble the ever-popular Goodnight Moon storybook.

New Haven's housing is as diverse as the city's population. Ranging from impressive condominiums and modern apartment complexes to stately historic homes, charming brownstones and traditional single- and multi-family neighborhoods. Throughout the city exists fine restaurants and abundant shopping, including unique shops, specialty boutiques and major department stores. Supplement to the downtown offerings are suburban malls. New Haven's active recreation department utilizes the city's full 2,300 acres of beautiful parks. Long Island Sound offers the extraordinary setting for swimming, boating, fishing and peaceful harbor cruises, predominantly the panoramic Lighthouse Point Park and Long Wharf Drive.