Two beautiful villages within the larger town of Groton, both are beautiful and fun places to visit. Unfortunately, they are also very expensive places to visit. Mooring balls were going for $1.50 a foot, and ultimately we stayed at Noank Village Boatyard (860-536-1770) for the same price. They start at $3.50 a night, dropping to $2.50 the second night, and $1.50 all subsequent nights.
Plenty of water in the well marked channel. Plenty of protection from Fisher's Island.
It's a nice dingy ride from Noank to Mystic, where there's a public dock on the East side of the river free for dinghys with no time limit. All of Mystic is with easy walking distance from there.
There's an anchorage up the river just past Mystic Seaport which looks very protected. You're not officially allowed to anchor over night, but boats frequently do, at the very end of the channel off the point from the graveyard.
The second largest used bookstore in the country, the Book Barn, is just 5 miles away to the West in Niantic.
Mystic has a great health food store (the only grocery store in town) with plenty of Vegan food. The coffee shop also had some good vegan soups.
A nice little bookstore -- they're talking of adding a used section soon. Mystical Toys is a real gem of a toy store.
