New Haven in general isn’t that great for tourists, compared to the better cities around us

I mean he’s not wrong, for a tourist it’s not really that great of a city…

next time you want to get a good coffee at Willoughby's near the green and walk to Beineke Library, it'll be a different trip

What if you’re not into art? Then those galleries wouldn’t matter. being a tourist and seeing a cemetery that’s not Arlington National cemetery? Not quite exciting.

Louis lunch is also not good, at all

People here are offended, but as someone who went to SCSU for 4 years, and been all over New Haven, he’s right, it’s not that great of a city. Has good restaurants and some night life, but not something I’d recommend people to visit. Other than trying the few pizza spots, nothing stands out Vs better cities around us like NYC, Boston, Newport

OP was right it’s not that great for tourists…

That part of Whalley avenue you were on isn’t the greatest representation of new haven

If you can't figure out a city that's kind of on you. Later

So I'm going to be blunt.

You drove all the way here, but it sounds like the only research you did was to look up "Yale" on Google Maps.

Even a little bit of planning would have gotten you to the Sterling Library, Beineke, Woolsey Hall, the Grove Street Cemetery, the Yale Art Gallery, the Center for British Art, and half a dozen other places within a couple blocks where of where you were. And that's not even counting non-Yale destinations like Louis Lunch, Wooster Street, and East Rock Park.

Hope you come back, but next time, maybe read up a little first.

I'm not entirely unsympathetic. New Haven doesn't always present a good face to visitors if you happen to come at it from the wrong angle. Had your wandering been around Whitney Avenue and Audubon Street, say, or further north in the area of the New Haven Museum or the Peabody, you would have had a different impression. You were well away from the posh environs of Prospect Hill or the Yale campus proper. This is where a little advance research would have served you well.

(I have relatives who travel that way: "We'll just show up and take whatever comes our way!" And they end up missing out on stuff they would have enjoyed, or hunting two hours for someplace to eat. Fun fact: I'm diabetic, so you better believe I always know of suitable places to eat before I travel.)

All that said, I'm not sure what response you're expecting coming to the local sub and posting this now? Visitors often post questions here before they visit, and folks here are always up for recommending good places and noting things to avoid. That would have been the thing to post.

I live in Westville and it’s very quiet.

Thank you for understanding. We DID use Google maps. This really wasn’t a day trip, so we put no planning into it. It was more like. “New Haven is 1 1/2 hours from here. Let’s just drive over there and look around.” We put Yale into Google and we got there among some of the gothic buildings and said “You have arrived.” We parked and made the mistake of walking the wrong direction. If we had more time, we should’ve stopped somewhere for coffee and strategized which way to walk.

Damn I guess that renders it completely useless for finding literally anything else

Google maps took us about a block from The Shops at Yale and said we had arrived.

They said they were across from Yale so that would be past the Yale exits

If they're on the road that one wouldn't shock me.

I consider that "west Haven" but I know it's still new haven but damn I hope that's not where they were

Or the one off 95 on kimberly

At first I thought the same. Then he kept doing it. Again. And again. And again. At some point it's not applying lotion. It's a fetish. He passed that point half way through the video.

Yeah, you drove past the nice part of the campus, and half a block past you're in an edgy neighborhood that used be bad but now it's just depressing.

The nice part is, as you say, kinda hidden behind behind buildings, in courtyards and concealed within a web of one way side streets designed to get you back to the highway. The stadiums and fields are like 2 miles away basically in another town

New Haven is pretty unhip and a lot of the campus architecture is either medieval and forboding, or like the art museum, designed by Louis Kahn and has no visible entrance and little signage and is easy to miss. If you're driving there's a right turn down a narrow street off the main drag that gets you into the interior of the campus

You're pretty brave to use the bathroom at Popeye's though.

I like New Haven. There is a lot to going on for a small city. However, it's not New York or Chicago. It's not big enough to just wander in a random direction and be guarantee to stumble upon interesting places. Unfortunately for you, the Popeyes you stopped in is at the unofficial demarcation between the tonier part of New Haven and the poorer. That was some bad luck. I'm sorry you didn't find what you were looking for, but with a bit more research I think you could have put together a worthwhile day trip.

Yale has some interesting architecture. There are some cool gothic-style buildings about a block away from the Shops at Yale. If you walked down Wall St you would have seen law school, the Beneicke Library and Woolsey Hall.

Most of the restaurants and nightlife are concentrated in the area bounded by Orange St, Howe St, George St and Elm St. You can also find some small pockets of restaurants along Whitney Ave, Wooster St. and Whalley Ave in Westville.

If you want culture, there are plenty of plays and classical music concerts because of the Yale's drama and music schools. Yale also has an art gallery and a center for British art. There are some great festivals on the green when the weather is nice. You can hike up East Rock Park to see views of the city and Long Island Sound. Light House Point is also a nice walk. They have a festival of Christmas lights in December.

So you could come here, find this sub, and post this but Google maps was a bit too much for you to handle?

Wow bizarre

Ahhh you were across the street from Yale. Which is like, 90% of the city.

Edit: checks on Popeye location and OP was on corner of whalley and goffe. Just a couple blocks away from where they needed to be

Westville or East Rock/Prospect Hill.

Or a nearby suburb. Depends on budget/needs.

We didn't do anything in New haven and can't see why anyone would like it!

he looks like he's applying sunscreen