Storrs appeals to a range of interests: performing arts and puppetry, natural history, activities in the forest, animal watching and regional food. If you’re looking for a hotel in Storrs, the focus of your free time can help you get oriented. Consider which of these themes you’d like to shape your stay.
Culture and Puppetry
The Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is a public performing arts center at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. It offers a broad focus on the performing arts. The Ballard Institute offers a more specialized focus: its collection includes more than 3,000 puppets, and its archival resources provide insights into the history of puppetry.
The institute also presents exhibitions, performances, workshops, forums and online resources about puppetry around the world. The collection gives substance to this thematic focus, while the archival resources provide insights into the history of puppetry; the program formats complement this perspective with different ways to engage. This distinguishes the Ballard Institute from the Jorgensen Center’s broader focus on the performing arts: here, puppetry is the clear theme, viewed from a global perspective.
Natural History, Forest and Animals
The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History hosts exhibitions and programs on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs and beyond. The museum currently has no central visitor area. So if you’re including natural history in your plans, use a specific exhibition or program as your guide.
At the Adventure Park at Storrs, the facility in the surrounding forest includes nine treetop courses, 28 zip lines and 106 challenge elements. Children aged three and up can use the Adventure Playground; climbers aged seven and up can complete one of the nine courses. The numbers convey the scale of the facility, while the age requirements distinguish two specific offerings. If you’re planning a visit with children, keep the age limits in mind for each named activity rather than applying them to the park as a whole.
If you’re weighing natural history against physical activity, you’re comparing two different formats: museum programs and climbing activities in the forest.
The UConn Animal Barns offer a different activity: visitors can see sheep, cattle and horses there; the animal barns are open to the public. Compared with the Adventure Park, the focus here is on watching animals rather than courses and zip lines.
Regional Food
Since 1994, the Storrs Farmers Market has served the wider Mansfield community with fresh regional produce, meat, dairy products, baked goods and more.
The Creamery offers another culinary experience: it makes ice cream using its original recipe and sells it through the UConn Dairy Bar. UConn eggs, artisan cheese and other frozen products such as ice cream sandwiches are also sold there. The differences are clear: the market brings together several categories of fresh regional goods and serves the wider Mansfield community; at the Dairy Bar, Creamery ice cream is part of the offering alongside eggs, cheese and other frozen products.
For the broader travel overview: Mansfield.
