Hartford, Connecticut

If you want your kids to be smart and successful, moving to the capital of Connecticut will definitely give them a head start. Connecticut's students have the leading standardized test scores in reading, writing, and arithmetic and the highest high school completion rates in the US. The city also has two major universities – Trinity College and the University of Hartford, and there are many more throughout Connecticut. Perhaps that's why the Greater Hartford region, which encompasses 31 towns, has one of the nation's most educated and productive workforces in the US.

And living in this city of 121,578 will make you and your kids well rounded, too. You'll receive literary inspiration from the city's two most celebrated authors: Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. (Both authors' houses are open to the public.) And a daily history lesson comes in the form of the Hartford Courant, which was founded in 1764 and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the US. Art and history combine with a visit to the Wadsworth Athenaeum art gallery – the nation's oldest public art museum. Architecture, politics, and history (history is a recurring theme in Hartford) are covered with a trip to the Old State House, the oldest state house in the US.

If you're happy to allow your prodigies (or yourself) a little downtime, golf is big here, and there are an abundance of local courses to unwind on. Jurassic State Park, one of the largest dinosaur-track sites in North America, is just 20 minutes outside the city. And Hartford is just big enough to provide a good selection of restaurants, arts, spas, and nightlife to keep you busy.

Historical and hospitable, Hartford makes a great home.

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