I will be in Pa. for a couple of weeks in July. I am interested in taking a couple of overnight trips to NW New York for the excellent reason that I have never been there. I see on the map that Ithaca NY, Watkins Glen, Seneca Falls are some places in the are that I have heard of but have no idea which if any to visit.
Does anyone have any experience in this area? Any suggestions on places to visit for an afternoon or so? I can’t be away from Pa. for more than a couple of days, so any place I visit has to rate a quick visit.
Downtown Ithaca is a pretty cool place if you like college towns. There are also several gorges and waterfalls nearby. I don’t think that many students stay around for the summer (our son sure isn’t).
I used to live in the area, but not for quite a while, so YMMV.
Ithaca is beautiful and a really nice college town. If you hike, go see Buttermilk Falls.
Also some excellent used bookstores around there, including my favorite in the world: The Book Barn of the Finger Lakes. It’s about 20 minutes east of Ithaca, IIRC. It’s literally a barn filled with books. If it’s still the same owner, his name is Vlad and I’d swear he’s read every book he has in the place. I used to buy lots of airplane and space history books from him, and talking with him about them was often the best part. I’m due for a visit too.
If you like waterfalls, the gorge at Watkins Glen State Park is very nice. You should also check out nearby Montour Falls - they have a large waterfall right in the middle of their downtown. There’s also Taughannock Falls, which is the highest waterfall in New York (the Niagara Falls drop more water but aren’t as high).
If you’re into airplanes or motorcycles, there’s the Glenn Curtiss museum in Hammondsport (Curtiss’ hometown).
I live in that area. There’s all sorts of things to do, and lovely country to do it in.
If you like wine at all, or craft beer, there are tours of wineries etc. all around multiple Finger Lakes – you can spend as little or as long as you like on this, depending on how many places you want to go to. There’s a lot of local produce; also creameries and local cheese production. There’s excellent hiking in the Watkins gorge and around Ithaca and in the Hector National Forest. You can rent kayaks etc. a number of places around the lakes, and there is some public swimming access, though much of the lakefronts is privately owned. There’s the Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, which hosted the first Women’s Rights Convention in 1848. As others have said, Corning Museum of Glass is worth seeing, and Ithaca’s a good place for bookstores; also for music, though both can be found elsewhere in the area. Watkins and Dundee and probably other places host car races, if you’re into that – mostly on the weekends.
(I wouldn’t ordinarily call this Northwest NY – that phrasing makes me think more of Buffalo, which is quite a ways away by my standards. Every place in NY probably thinks it’s ‘central NY’, but we are sort of in the middle of the state. Ithaca, Watkins, and Seneca Falls are all generally considered to be in the Finger Lakes.)
ETA: traffic through Watkins can be, ah, interesting on a summer weekend, especially if there’s a major race or concert on. Allow time.
Folks have already hit on the Ithaca / Watkins Glen area things to do, all of which I agree with, so I’d add that Naples, in the south of Canandaigua Lake, is, in the aspect of waterfalls trails, like a mini-Ithaca, and is also in the middle of wine country. (It’s a bit out of the way versus Ithaca, but not farther than Seneca Falls is, which was on your list of possibilities.)
Grimes Glen, Conklin Gully, and Clark Gully are my favorite valley hikes in that area: the trails are more primitive (you might get wet [you definitely will get wet if you see Grimes Glen, but it is the shortest trail and is the closest to the falls]) and the waterfalls harder to find (with the exception of Grimes Glen.) If you had a choice between waterfall towns, Watkins Glen and Ithaca would be my choice but if your travels take you past Naples, keep it in mind.
If you want to go a bit further west, go to Letchworth State Park.
[ul]
[li]2015 USA Today Best State Park in the nation[/li][li]2017 Best attraction in NY State[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]600’ gorge[/li][li]3 waterfalls, including 107’ middle falls.[/li][li]Hiking [/li][li]Camping / cabins for rent[/li][li]Balloon rides; sometimes over the falls (depending upon wind direction)[/li][/ul]
I spent two summers in Ithaca during college and, I’m not exaggerating, they were some of the happiest times in my life. I spent a lot of time hiking and swimming in gorges. There’s a reason for the dopey bumper stickers-“Ithaca: It’s Gorges.” Agree with others that Watkins Glen is beautiful.
Others I went to:
Buttermilk Falls
Cascadilla Trail (on the Cornell campus)
Taughannock Park
Potter’s Falls (unofficially nudist, if you like that)
Treman State Park
Cornell isn’t exactly Harvard but there are some grand old buildings and a decent small contemporary art museum. The botanical gardens are nice to wander around in and you can get fresh ice cream, honeycomb, apples, and so forth.
If you’re driving: in much of this area, you’re going to be sharing the roads with horse-and-buggy traffic, farm vehicles (some of them overwidth), and bicycles. Most of the roads in the area weren’t properly designed for a mix of slow and fast traffic. There are few separate lanes; shoulders may be in poor condition for travel; shoulders may be narrow or even nonexistent; and lines of sight for passing may be terrible for some distance. Please give everyone enough room, and wait to pass until you’ve got clear visibility.
I can’t say that I’ve experienced horses, farm vehicles, or bicycles in the area moreso than other semi-rural places, but now that you mention it there is a lack of passing lanes and visibility to pass. Plus, near the Ithaca area, it definitely is semi-rural, with a lot of unexpected blind driveways in places that don’t seem like they are heavily inhabited.
Seneca Falls = birthplace of the American Women’s Rights Movement. Lotsa fascinating history there.
Ithaca is one of my favorite college towns. My college clique was great friends with another clique at Cornell, and we used to swap New Haven-Ithaca road trips to hang out with each other.
The last time I was in that area two years ago, I was amazed at all the young Amish families moving in and buying small farms that have fallen into disuse. Based on my class reunion, very few boomers took over the family farms in that area.
Watkins Glen is terrific not just for nature but for the races if the timing works out right. https://www.theglen.com/
Sylvan Beach NY is one of our fallbacks from the WB area. A lot of small cool little places around there and a nice little funky amusement park with a haunted house that is actually haunted according to local lore.
In PA around there but requiring the standard commercial mention are
a) Knoebels Grove Amusement Park
with over 60 attractions, no admission or parking fees, and great shows and a couple museums right in the park
b) French Azilum historic site
a seriously hidden treasure (trust me – you will need to ask directions and/or call to find it) and some great scenery.
