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Free Things to Do in Middletown, Cromwell & Portland, CT

By Erik Hernal, founder & editor

The best free things to do in Middletown, CT are Wadsworth Falls State Park (721 Wadsworth Street), Harbor Park on the river (80 Harbor Drive), the Arrigoni Bridge walk into downtown, and Russell Library (123 Broad Street). You don't have to spend a dime to have a good weekend around here, with free art galleries at Wesleyan, Wednesday concerts in Cromwell, and two farmers markets on top of those. Here's the local's list, all of it actually free, across Middletown, Cromwell, and Portland.

Where can you walk to a waterfall near Middletown?

Wadsworth Falls State Park, 721 Wadsworth Street. There are two falls here, and people mix them up. Little Falls is the wide, pretty one a short walk from the main lot, the one most folks see. Big Falls is the taller drop, and it's about a 1.5-mile walk down the orange trail to get there. You cross active train tracks on the way, so keep the kids close and look both ways. No swimming at Big Falls, they're strict about it. Open daily, 8am to sunset, and parking's free if you've got Connecticut plates.

Want a second one? Seven Falls sits just south of town off Route 154, a free roadside park with a string of small cascades and a two-mile loop. Go in spring when the water's actually running.

What's free down on the river?

Harbor Park, 80 Harbor Drive, is the city's front porch on the Connecticut River. Benches, swings, a walking path right along the water. The cruise boat and the canoe-club restaurant cost money, but the park itself never does. Bring a coffee and watch the river do its thing.

Then do the Arrigoni Bridge walk, and this is the one I send everyone on. Park on the Portland side, walk back across the bridge into Middletown. Those two steel arches are 600 feet each, the longest bridge span in Connecticut, and the view of the river from up there at golden hour is the best free thing in the three towns. I'll fight you on it.

Where's the free art, and the free telescope?

Wesleyan opens a surprising amount of its campus to the public, for nothing. The Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery runs rotating shows, free, Tuesday through Sunday. The Davison Art Center (now over at 238 Church Street, in the Pruzan Art Center) is free and open too, with real prints and drawings most people drive to Hartford to see.

And here's the one nobody knows about: the Van Vleck Observatory runs free public "Space Nights" up on Foss Hill, a short talk and then telescope viewing if the sky's clear. The catch is they only run during the school year, Wednesday nights, so summer's dark. Check the observatory's page before you go, the fall schedule posts in August.

What's free every week in the summer?

A lot, actually. The Cromwell Summer Concert Series runs Wednesday evenings at Riverport Park, real bands, food trucks, ice cream, the whole thing. Bring a chair and a blanket. It runs through the summer into August.

Two farmers markets, and here's the local trick: they're both on Fridays, at different times, so you can hit both. The Middletown market is midday on the South Green (Main and Pleasant), and the Cromwell market is the evening one down at Riverport Park, with live music and food trucks of its own. Free to wander either way.

And once a month, First Friday shuts down part of Main Street in Middletown for an arts night: vendors, live music, restaurant specials, usually a theme. Five to eight in the evening, free, and the whole downtown turns out.

What's free for the kids?

Russell Library at 123 Broad Street is having a moment. It's the library's 150th year, and they're running the Russell Library Games, a town-wide smartphone scavenger hunt that runs most of the year. Beyond that it's the usual library gold: free Science Saturdays for little kids, family playtime, summer reading. All free, all the time.

For getting outside, the grounds at the Wadsworth Mansion (the Long Hill estate) are open free, dawn to dusk: 103 acres and a few miles of trails. The mansion's a rental, but nobody stops you walking the parklands.

And over in Portland?

Portland keeps its best secret in the woods. Meshomasic State Forest is free, no gate, no fee, with miles of trail and the old feldspar quarries you can still poke around. It's the quiet, woodsy counterpart to everything happening across the river. (Brownstone Park, the quarry adventure place, is a blast, but that one costs money, so it doesn't make this list.)

And the Arrigoni walk works from the Portland side too, which is honestly the better way to do it.

That's the free list, the stuff a neighbor would actually point you to. None of it costs anything, and most of it changes week to week, which is the whole reason this newsletter exists. We read the calendars and the venue pages so you don't have to, and every Thursday morning we send the handful of things worth leaving the house for.

Hungry while you're out? Here's the local guide to the best restaurants in Middletown, things to do with kids, things to do in Portland, the farmers markets, visiting Wesleyan, the perfect 48-hour weekend itinerary, and if you're new here, moving to Middletown. See what's on right now in our this-weekend rundown and on our events page, browse past issues, or get the rundown every Thursday by subscribing above.