Okay so this is the trip I wanted since the first time somebody said the word gazebo in my house, and last October we finally did part of it. The show was never filmed in Connecticut (I know, that one hurt), but the creator stayed in a tiny town in the Litchfield Hills one October and built the whole thing out of what she saw there, and the town is still there, and the bookshop with the hand-drawn map on the wall is still there, and the fan festival is on the green in Guilford this October. We did Mystic, New Haven and New Milford on our six-week fall road trip, and this is everything I saw plus everything I mapped for the parts we ran out of daylight for, every address and hour and price, so you can just go.
The New Milford bandstand, 4:56 pm
The map on the bookshop wall
Louis' Lunch, New Haven
Mystic, the day before
Bank Street Theater
The Hunt, after closeOur photos from October 2025. Mystic on the 27th, New Haven and New Milford on the 28th.
None of it was filmed in Connecticut.
The town square and the diner and the gazebo and the inn are all a set in California (chapter 1 tells you how to stand on it). But the creator built the show out of a real Connecticut town she visited one October, and that town is still there, and so is the bookshop, and there are two more towns close by that look even more like the show than the one that inspired it.
There are also three different fan events this fall run by three different groups, and people mix them up constantly. Chapter 6 sorts them out.
We were there last October, for the part that matters.
I want to be straight with y'all because you know I'm always straight with y'all. My Twilight guide came out of two trips to Forks. This one came out of one long Tuesday on our six-week fall road trip, when we ate the first hamburger in New Haven at 2 and pulled onto the New Milford green at 4:45 and watched the sun go down over Main Street with cocoa in our hands. Ninety minutes in the town that started it. It was enough to know I want to go back and not enough to write a whole guide from, so the rest of this is me with the map open, checking every hour and price and date against the real sites this September, because the blog posts I kept finding were four years old and half the places had changed.
So chapters 3, 7 and 9 have our photos and our mistakes in them (we missed the diner by two hours, don't do that), and the Litchfield Hills chapters are the version I'd hand my sisters if they said they were going next week. Which towns, in which order, which diner opens at 6, what the fan weekend costs and who's coming, the free Yale tour you have to register for, and when the leaves are going to peak this year. When we go back for the hills, it updates and you already own it.
The burger, on toast
Us, on the green
The leaf
Leaving, 5:45 pmWe missed the diner by two hours and the antiques shop was already dark. Give this town a whole day. I'm giving you the whole day.
Connecticut's leaves are on their own schedule this year, so if you're planning around color, don't book the first weekend in October just because it sounds like fall. Chapter 1 has the dates from the state's own forecast.
What's Inside
Twelve chapters. Every address, every hour, every price, and an honest note wherever I couldn't confirm something.
Before You Go
The real story behind the show, the Burbank set, when the leaves peak this year, and what to know before you book.
Washington Depot
The town she stayed in, with the inn and the bookshop and the diner and the green, and where to get apples.
New Milford
The longest green in the state, the bandstand, the pancakes, the bookshop, and a Sunday flea market.
Kent and the Covered Bridges
The falls, two covered bridges, breakfast, the Route 7 drive, a lake, and a pumpkin run.
Litchfield and Woodbury
Litchfield's green, the scarecrow meadow, a dairy and a bakery, Woodbury's antiques row, and a garlic festival.
The Festivals
Three fan events run by three different groups, which one is which, who's coming, and what it costs.
New Haven
The Yale reality check, the free campus tour, two libraries you can walk into, the first hamburger, and the pizza fight.
Hartford
The house where her trip started, a free rose garden, the big-house drive, the museum, and a free fall weekend.
The Shoreline
Guilford's green and corn maze, a steam train and a riverboat, a ferry to a castle, and Mystic for less.
For Girls Trips and Families
The kids version (falls, mazes, the train, age rules) and the girls version (bookshops, Firelight, inns), plus the cheap way.
Where to Stay and What It Costs
Which airport, the drive times, lodging from the fancy inn down to a tent, and a real 4-day budget.
Your Itinerary Options
Three plans day by day: the 2-day sprint, the 4-day sweet spot, and the 7-day full trip, with the dates to lock.
Two ways to do this trip
The towns are gorgeous whether or not you've seen an episode. But who's in the car changes everything, so chapter 10 is two guides in one.
Your people, the ones who quote it
Bookshops in three towns, the fan weekend on the Guilford green with the cast, an inn on the New Milford green, antiques in Woodbury, and a slow Route 7 drive with the windows down. Chapter 6 has who's coming to Firelight this year and what the pass costs.
If somebody's paying, chapter 2 has the inn where the creator stayed and the deal to ask for. If nobody's paying, chapter 11 has the motel version.
Half of them have never seen it and it still works
Because underneath it, this is a really good New England fall trip. A 70-foot waterfall with stairs up the side, two covered bridges you can still drive across, a steam train with a riverboat on the end, corn mazes, a car ferry to a castle, and an aquarium in Mystic.
Chapter 10 has the age rules nobody tells you and the cheap version with a campground.
However many days you've got
Washington Depot
Bull's Bridge, Kent
West Cornwall bridge
Kent Falls
Litchfield
Mark Twain House, HartfordThe towns we didn't get to yet, photographed by people who live near them (credits at the bottom)
Chapter 12 turns the other eleven into actual plans. Every stop in order, every reservation flagged, and which weekends to lock if you want the fan events.
The sprint
A weekend in the Litchfield Hills only. The three towns, the falls, the bridges, and home.
The sweet spot
The hills plus New Haven and Guilford. This is the one I'd do, and it lines up with the fan weekend if you time it.
Full immersion
Adds the shoreline, the steam train, Mystic, and Hartford. The whole state, slowly.
What you're getting
A website, not a PDF
It lives right here on bellebucket.com behind your login. Nothing to download, nothing to lose in your files app.
Built for your phone
Because you're going to read it in a passenger seat on Route 7, not at a desk. Addresses tap straight into maps.
Yours forever, updates included
When a place closes or a price changes or we finally go, it updates and you already own it.
Been there, and checked
Three of the towns we did ourselves last October and the photos in here are ours. Every hour, price and date in the rest was checked against the real site this September, and where I couldn't confirm something it says so instead of guessing.
Questions people ask
Is any of it filmed in Connecticut?
No, and the guide says so on page one. The set is in Burbank and chapter 1 tells you how to see it. Connecticut is the place the show was built out of, and having stood on the New Milford green at sunset, that's the better trip.
When should I go?
Mid to late October this year, and there's one week that gets you the peak leaves AND the fan weekend. Chapter 1 has the timing and chapter 6 has the festival.
Does this work with kids?
Yes, and chapter 10 is written for exactly that car. Waterfall, covered bridges, corn mazes, a steam train, an aquarium. The bookshops are the part they'll tolerate for you.
Do I need a car?
Yes. The towns are 15 to 30 minutes apart and the fan fest organizers say the same thing. Chapter 11 has the airports and the drive times.
This is why you fly across the country for a town green. The clouds over Main Street were just turning gold when we left.
Once. All twelve chapters, yours forever, updates included.
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Go in October.
Eat pancakes at a diner on a green at 6 in the morning. Drive Route 7 slow. Stand in the bookshop in the town that started it and read the map on the wall. It's all still there and it's cheaper than the inn makes it look.
Get the Guide · $10The New Milford, New Haven and Mystic photos in this guide are ours, from October 27 and 28, 2025. The Litchfield Hills, Hartford, Yale library and shoreline photos are by pedrik (CC BY 2.0), Bob P. B. (CC BY 2.0), Dougtone (CC BY-SA 2.0), Adam Jones, Ph.D. - Global Photo Archive (CC BY 2.0), usf1fan2 (CC BY 2.0), Mike GL (CC BY 2.0), notdavidbrooks (CC BY 2.0), Ken Mist (CC BY 2.0), all via Flickr and used with thanks. The towns are theirs, the plan is mine.