Old Mystic Inn

Not far from the Mystic Seaport is a small inn with eight guestrooms in two buildings: one a former bookstore where the keeping room, with its original fireplace and lovely old paneling, dates back to 1784, and behind this a carriage house built in 1988. This is a simply furnished inn where each guestroom has a queen bed (five have canopies), antique quilts, its own sitting area, and a private bathroom (one is across the hall from the bedroom). Three rooms have wood-burning fireplaces, two have whirlpool tubs, three have gas fireplaces, and several have stenciling on the walls. Since this was once the Old Mystic Bookstore, each of the rooms is sentimentally named after a New England author and contains the works of that author as well as a synopsis of the author’s life, which the innkeeper has thoughtfully provided. Michael Cardillo was trained at the Culinary Institute of America and breakfasts are his special creation and a time to show off his talent in the pleasant breakfast room with its fireplace and bay window. In addition to the Seaport, nearby are the Aquarium, the USS Nautilus Submarine Museum, and the casinos, and an hour away lies Newport, Rhode Island with its famous mansions. Mystic and its neighboring towns offer many attractions, among them antique shops, restaurants, and many festivals.