You don’t need to have ambitions of an Ivy League education to visit Yale. Founded in 1701, Yale University is the third oldest college in the United States and was named as one of the most beautiful places to visit on the East Coast by Travel + Leisure. Yale’s publicly accessible campus is renowned for its lawns, tree-lined pedestrian walkways, and gothic architecture. Yale and New Haven are a treasure trove of culture, art and history, making it a worthwhile stop on any trip to Connecticut.
Most of Yale’s campus is spread out through downtown New Haven and accessible to the public. Dogs are welcome in all the publicly accessible outdoor areas of Yale’s campus as long as they remain on a leash in compliance with local leash laws. In fact, many New Haven locals walk their dogs around Yale and enjoy Yale’s many green spaces.
If you’re wondering how you can live the Eli life at Yale with your dog for the day, here are the can’t miss dog-friendly things to do at Yale and in New Haven.
Things to Do at Yale University with a Dog
Get a Yale Bandana at the Yale Bookstore
The Yale Bookstore isn’t just for students to pick up their textbooks and course materials. While the Yale Bookstore does feature two floors of books, it is also the destination in New Haven for the largest collection of Yale merchandise, gifts and souvenirs.
The Yale Bookstore even sells some pet merchandise like dog bandanas, collars, and even a pet bed that looks like the Yale Bowl – Yale’s Bulldogs football stadium.
While only service dogs are allowed inside the Yale Bookstore, you can either order your pet merchandise online in advance of your visit to Yale, or quickly shop while a friend waits with your dog outside.
Yale University Official Bookstore, 77 Broadway
Take a Photo with Handsome Dan
Handsome Dan is Yale University’s official mascot. The tradition of Handsome Dan dates all the way back to 1889, when Yale student Andrew Barbey Graves bought an English bulldog from a local blacksmith for $5, cleaned him up and named him Handsome Dan. Graves, who was on the crew and football teams, started bringing Handsome Dan with him everywhere around Yale – including to sporting events. Handsome Dan was even supposedly trained to bark on the command “Speak to Harvard”.
The other students quickly adopted Handsome Dan. A tradition was started that before football and baseball games, Handsome Dan would be led across the field on his leash. He became widely considered to be the first use of a live animal collegiate mascot in the United States.
Handsome Dan wasn’t just a name, either. He earned his “handsome” moniker by winning first prize at the Westminster Dog Show and at least 30 other first prize ribbons at dog shows throughout the United States and Canada.
Handsome Dan I retired in 1897 and returned to England with his owner Andrew Barbey Graves. According to the Yale Alumni Weekly, Dan and Graves took a trip around the world together. Perhaps he was one of the first traveling dogs?
After Dan died, Graves had Handsome Dan taxidermied and returned him to Yale. Handsome Dan I now is in a sealed glass case and on display in one of the trophy rooms of Yale’s Payne Whitney Gymnasium.
There have been 19 bulldogs to hold the title, and the current Handsome Dan XIX was born in 2021.
While only service dogs are allowed inside the buildings at Yale, and so your pup can’t take a photo with Handsome Dan I, there are some Handsome Dan statues outdoors around Yale that you can take a photo with. There is a metal sculpture of Handsome Dan on a public bench at The Shops at Yale at the Broadway Triangle. It’s a popular photo spot for Yale students, visitors, and dog walkers.
There is also a bronze statue modeled after Handsome Dan I that stands outside the gates of the Yale Bowl, and is another popular photo spot.
Visit Yale Law School
For over three decades, Yale Law School held the number 1 spot at in the U.S. News’ annual rankings of the best law schools. And while Bruiser Woods was parading around Harvard Law School in Legally Blonde, we couldn’t miss a visit to Yale Law School for a few photo ops.
Yale Law School is located in the Sterling Law Building at 127 Wall Street, and is famous for its Gothic “Hogwarts-style” architecture. The Sterling Law Building entryways with heavy wooden doors and intricate stone carvings make a top publicly accessible photo spot for the perfect “What, like it’s hard?” capture.
The interior courtyard, framed by its buildings with stone archways, climbing ivy and gothic leaded windows is another beautiful spot for photos. The central quad is accessible to the public, unlike some other areas and libraries that require a Yale ID card or a guided Yale Law School Tour, and gives vibes of a Cambridge feel.
Alexander Walk is a pedestrian pathway transformed in 2021, and named in honor of Bruce Alexander, former Yale Vice President of New Haven and State Affairs and Campus Development. It runs alongside Yale Law School and connects to the Rose Walk, another of Yale’s five pedestrian pathways on the campus. It’s another picturesque photo spot in Yale Law School.
Check Out Yale’s Public Art Works
As part of Yale’s commitment to art as a public trust, the artworks are not only relegated to the Yale University Art Gallery. Yale University has around 30 public art installations located around the 261 acre campus in courtyards, plazas and green spaces.
While the Yale University Art Gallery is both open to the public and free to visit, only service dogs are permitted to enter. That doesn’t mean that you and your dog can’t enjoy the various public artworks located around campus. There are a number of statues, such as Yale’s earliest public artwork that honors Yale’s first president, Abraham Pierson, on Old Campus. There are also more contemporary works like the iconic Lipstick on Caterpillar Tracks that was commissioned as an anti-monument.
You can pick up a self-guided tour booklet of the Public Art at Yale at the Yale Visitor Center located at 149 Elm Street.
Try the Famous White Clam Pizza from Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
You probably don’t know that New Haven is officially recognized in the U.S. Congressional Record as the pizza capital of the United States. And New Haven has its own style of pizza, called apizza ((pronounced ah-beetz), which is a unique thin crust coal fired style of pizza. Of course, there is a Holy Trinity of New Haven pizza, representing the three best pizza places in New Haven. And all three are part of the Connecticut Pizza Trail.
The oldest and most famous pizza place in New Haven is Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, founded in 1925, and one of the three of the Holy Trinity of New Haven pizza. Named for the Italian immigrant owner Frank Pepe, he is credited for both inventing the New Haven apizza style and for inventing Connecticut’s famous White Clam Pie.
The original location is still located in the Italian neighborhood of Wooster Square, and Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana is truly not to be missed.
And for a clam lover like me, Frank Pepe’s signature White Clam Pie is also not to be missed. Clams on pizza might sound weird, but seafood on pizza is actually really typical for Neapolitan-style pizza in Italy. Frank Pepe’s White Clam Pizza was even named the number 1 pizza in America at one point, and consistently ranks at the top of the list of the 101 Best Pizzas in America.
The White Clam Pizza forgoes tomato sauce and mozzarella, instead putting freshly shucked little neck clams, garlic, oregano, olive oil and pecorino cheese on Frank Pepe’s signature coal fired crust. Baked at extremely high temperatures, the crust emerges from the coal fired oven crispy and slightly charred and blistered, making it the perfect vehicle for the sweet and tender clams.
For me, the White Clam Pizza is like a marriage of spaghetti vongole – one of my favorite coastal Italian pasta dishes – and pizza. Of course, if seafood on pizza just isn’t your thing, the menu offers a variety of other pizza toppings sure to please any palette.
In Connecticut, dogs are strictly prohibited inside restaurants (with the exception of service dogs). So while you can’t dine at Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, you can get your pizza to go and take it to nearby Wooster Square Park.
Squirrel Watch at Wooster Square Park
Wooster Square Park is named for the Revolutionary War hero David Wooster. It was established in 1825, is surrounded by distinctive 19th-century historic homes and buildings built to face right on to the park, and bordered by 72 Yoshino cherry trees. It’s one of New Haven’s most recognizable parks, and on any given day you’ll find locals gathered on the lawn – with a pizza box from one of the pizzerias on Wooster Street – and walking their dogs.
Loads of eastern gray squirrels also inhabit Wooster Square Park, and locals love them as much as Frank Pepe’s Neapolitan-style apizza. Just remember that local leash laws dictate that dogs remain on a leash and local residents will give you a stern talking to if your dog decides to chase the squirrels.
Play Ball on One of the Oldest Public Squares in America
Another green space just a few minutes walk from Yale’s campus, New Haven Green is one not to be missed when visiting New Haven. The 16 acre public park is one of the oldest public squares in America. Laid out in 1638, New Haven Green is anchored by by three historic churches—United Church on the Green, Center Church on the Green, and Trinity Church on the Green.
Serving as a central marketplace, meeting space, and civic hub for nearly 400 years, New Haven Green is recognized as a National Historic Landmark. The true heart of New Haven, you’ll often find concerts, art installations and festivals hosted on the square.
The park is divided into the Upper Green and the Lower Green, and features pathways, lawns with shade trees (and more squirrels), and benches.
Getting to Yale University and New Haven
New York City’s airports are the closes major airports to Yale University and around a 1.5 – 2 hour drive or train ride away. While you can rent a car from New York City airports and make the 2 hour drive to New Haven, you can avoid New York City traffic and tolls by taking the Metro-North Railroad from Grand Central Station. Metro-North is one of few train lines that allow dogs of all sizes to ride in the US.
Metro-North runs a railway service between Grand Central Station in New York City and New York’s northern suburbs, and between Grand Central Station and a handful of cities in Connecticut, including New Haven. Dogs of any size ride free of charge and are welcome aboard so long as they are well behaved and under control of their owner either on a leash or in a carrier.
Tickets are easy to purchase for Metro-North Railroad on the MTA TrainTime app. You can also get train status updates and track location right in the app.
Hertz, Avis, Budget and Zipcar all have car rental offices located right inside New Haven Union Station. Hertz also has a second location about a 10 minute / 0.5 mile walk from New Haven Union Station.
I rented a car from Hertz, a short walk from the New Haven Union Station, for a fraction of the cost of a car rental in NYC and started our Connecticut lobster roll road trip from New Haven. As it turns out, a lot of one-way car rentals end up in New Haven each fall when students move in to Yale, and you can often find reduced car rental rates.
Where to Stay in New Haven
Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale
Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale is situated in downtown New Haven and just a 5 minute walk to the Yale campus. The 16 acre New Haven Green is only a half block away, making the hotel perfect for visiting New Haven with a dog.
You can even select a Yale view room with breathtaking views of the Harkness Tower, High Street Arch, Sterling Memorial Library and the Law School Towers on the Yale campus.
The hotel has a 19th-floor rooftop bar and restaurant, John Davenports at the Top of the Park, which offers uninterrupted views over Yale and New Haven Green. Enjoy breakfast, dinner or a drink at the upscale restaurant. Note that the restaurant is not pet-friendly.
Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale’s pet policy welcomes one dog or cat per room up to 50 pounds. The pet fee is $125 + tax per stay. Pets may be left unattended in the room if the pet is placed in a carrier or kennel while left unattended. The hotel will discuss two or more pets in the room, but you must call and speak to hotel management regarding the request.
New Haven Hotel
For a boutique hotel in downtown New Haven, head to the New Haven Hotel. The hotel is situated just a 3 minute walk from New Haven Green and a 5 minute walk from Yale. The restaurants and boutique shops of downtown New Haven are all on your doorstep.
Rooms are modern and comfortable with a refrigerator and coffee and tea making amenities.
One dog of any size is welcome per room for a pet fee of $75 per stay.
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