If you’re there July 18-21, and are at all into roots/folk/zydeco/whatever music, you could swing by the Grassroots festival in Trumansburg, NY.
If you’re there at that time, and not into the music, be warned that driving through Trumansburg might take longer than usual.
Trumansburg is very close to Ithaca, if you wanted to go to the festival and enjoy the area.
Scooped by everyone. 
I grew up there, and went to Cornell, but I haven’t lived there since the 90s.
In the summer, if you see a sign for a chicken barbecue, or smell a delicious cooking smell wafting down the “highway” - pull over and eat some chicken! It’s soooo delicious!!
I’d quibble with the article author’s “all of upstate New York” assertion, as it seems to me more localized to Central and Western NY with a big concentration in the Finger Lakes.
The chicken bbqs are pretty much always fund raisers for this or that. Very common for the volunteer firemen to be selling chicken.
I so miss the smell of summer in the Ithaca area - chicken!
I make Cornell recipe chicken at home but it’s not the same as that serendipitous hasty “omg chicken! pull over!” moment on a summer day.
But unless you’re going there specifically to watch the races, it’s the worst possible time to visit the area.
Well, it’s not a good time to visit Watkins, anyway. (Unless, as has been said, you want to go to the races.)
If you’re around the north end of the lakes, or over around Ithaca or Naples but not driving through Watkins, you’d never know there was anything going on in Watkins.
It depends on the event being run. My experience is a little dated but for things like the “auto-cross” and some of the F-V events the crowds numbered in the tens of tens. 
But it brings up a point of visiting any area; check what the BIG DRAWS are and avoind them. You do not want to be anywhere near Knoebels when the big monster-truck thing is in Bloomsburg or the Little League World Series is in Williamsport. Nashville or Gnaw Bone Indiana can get a little strange during the Indiana Bean Blossom Bikerfest at Bill Monroe’s Music Park — not in a bad way but strange. No matter where you go or what you have planned there are going to be days to avoid.
The Finger Lakes! I live about 75-90 minutes east of the Finger Lakes, but I’ve taken a lot of day trips though the area. Coincidentally, my sister, her hubby, and my nephew are coming back to the area to visit in July for the first time in a few years and I’ll be playing tour guide in the Finger Lakes (although they also want to go to the Cooperstown/Oneonta area).
In addition to checking out the attractions, also check the calendar for events. The Finger Lakes is chock full of events in the summer. Some of them you might want to attend, and some you might want to avoid because of traffic, crowds, etc.
Outside of, say, Ithaca and Corning, there are not really any major attractions in the Finger Lakes that require a lot of time, but there are tons of minor ones. You can just drive around aimlessly and stumble across things to see or do. Your best bet is to find a Tourist Information Center and load up in maps and info to plan things out.
Since I already have to do research on Finger Lakes attractions, I figured I might as well keep posting it in this thread……
First, you need to have basic sense of Finger Lakes geography if you’re going to be driving around. The major Finger Lakes going east to west are: Skaneateles (not far from Syracuse), Owasco, Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka, and Cananandagua.(not far from Rochester). The Finger Lakes are long, narrow, deep lakes* created by retreating glaciers. Several of the lakes are in deep valleys, which are why there are so many waterfalls in the area. The northern shores of the Finger Lakes are roughly parallel to each other. US Route 20 runs through the towns on the north end of the lakes.
Keuka Lake is the oddball. It is Y-shaped and its northern branch only reaches about halfway up Seneca Lake.
That’s a good point, bmoak.
All of those long skinny lakes mean that places that are four miles apart in direct line may be 40 miles apart by road. Many years ago there used to be ferries across the middle of the larger lakes, but they’re all long gone.
There’s a saying: ‘the Finger Lakes, where you have to go north and south in order to go east or west’.
And oddly enough, the similarly-looking Chautauqua Lake in far western NY has both a ferry and a bridge across it. I’ve taken the ferry both when it was the only way to shave 20 miles off your car ride and a couple times when it was the olde-fashioned alternative to the bridge. But to be fair, the reason they could build a bridge across the lake is because it is only 70-something feet deep (and people would nowadays likely protest a bridge across a Finger Lake: people protested the bridge across Chautauqua but only because they thought it was a boondoggle rather than for aesthetic reasons.)
A couple of points for Ludovic:
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I’ll be getting to Finger Lakes towns later, but the town and cities are either on the north end of the lakes or the south ends of the lakes. They are not opposite each other on the east and west shores of the lake like Chautauqua Lake.
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The bridge over Chautauqua Lake is for US Interstate 86 a major route. The only major routes through the Finger Lakes are either south of the lakes or north of the lakes.
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Seneca Lake is 618 feet deep. Cayuga Lake is 435 feet deep. The other major lakes are at least 150 feet deep. Have fun building bridges!
Now on to the cities/town/villages of the Finger Lakes are
South of the Finger Lakes, US 86/NY 17 runs roughly along the NY/PA state line.
The notable towns along that route, going from east to west, are:
Owego (SE of Ithaca), Elmira (SW of Ithca, S of Watkins Glen) and Corning (SW of Watkins Glen)
US20 runs along the north edge of Finger Lakes:
The notable towns along that route, from east to west and by lake, are:
Skaneateles (Skaneateles), Auburn (Owasco), Seneca Falls (Cayuga), Geneva (Seneca),
and Canandaigua (Canandaigua).
The notable towns along the south shores of the Finger Lakes, from east to west and by lake, are:
Ithaca (Cayuga), Watkins Glen (Seneca), Hammondsport (Keuka), Penn Yann* (Keuka), and Naples (Canandaigua)
*Penn Yan is on one of the northern forks of Y-shaped Keuka Lake, but is far south enough that it is due east from Naples.
Some general Finger Lakes driving tips. Yes, there are quite a few Amish in the area, especially in the areas between the lakes, and you can see them on the roads. A few years ago, there was a bad multiple fatality accident when someone crashed into a buggy with a bunch of Amish teens.
However, IMHO, the main reason you have to be careful driving ing and be sure to leave a good gap between you and the car you’re following is because drivers are constantly stopping or suddenly slowing or swerving to pull over to see a scenic view or pull into a winery, a yard/anitque sale, a farmstead, a chicken BBQ*, etc.
*As mentioned upthread, chicken BBQ is a specialty of the area, and well worth trying.
Of course, the Finger Lakes area has a LOT of wineries. Far too many to try. If a winery is big enough for you to know about it, the odds are it will draw crowds of wine tour buses and limos. You might be better off stopping at a smaller or newer winery, or one a little off the beaten path where there are fewer wineries, like along Keuka Lake or along the east shore of Cayuga Lake.
In addition the the Wine Trails around the main lakes, there are also trails for breweries and distilleries, which have been springing up lately. There is also a Finger Lakes Cheese Trail, and there is a lot of agritourism in the area. There are a lot of artists and crafters in the area as well.
Now on to the villages/towns/cities! I’ve never been as far west as Lake Canandaigua, so I’ll leave that out. I was planning on doing links for things, but that would be too time intensive…
Owego: No special attractions, but Owego is very picturesque and the kind of place that gets mentioned in lists of America’s best small towns. The village is prosperous, with the economy underpinned by Lockheed-Martin. The walkable downtown is filled with an eclectic selection of shops, eateries, and antique centers. A few miles east is Tioga Downs Casino/Horsetrack (harness)/Hotel/Spa. The casino hotels are sometimes the best nightly rates in the area (There is another one near Geneva.).
Elmira: A very not picturesque city. Elmira is a small city that is getting by after its primary industry (railroads) disappeared. Mark Twain summered in Elmira for the last twenty years of his life, and Elmira doesn’t let you forget it, as every fourth thing in the city either has Clemens or Twain in its name. He’s buried in Elmira, and the detached study where he did his writing is at Elmira College, which hosts the Center for Mark Twain Studies. There is also the Arnot Art Museum. Outside of Elmira is the Harris Hill Soaring Center and the National Soaring Museum, dedicated to motionless flight. If you want to ride in a glider or get lessons, this is the place to go.
Corning: One of the main towns in the area, you can easily spend a whole day in Corning. The town is built around Corning Inc, so the town is prosperous.
The big attraction is the Corning Museum of Glass, which is well worth the trip/time and is easily worth a few hours to check out. I would recommend going as early as you can to beat the crowds. Also check the schedule for glassblowing demos and hot glass shows, or even take a class/lesson.
A lot of people just see CMOG and don’t bother to walk across the bridge to0 the restored downtown pedestrian-friendly Gaffer District, which has a shopping/restaurant district and also the Rockwell Museum (nothing to do with Norman Rockwell). Formerly the Rockwell Museum of Western Art (i.e. cowboys and Indians), it is now part of the Smithsonian and has rotating exhibits of other periods of American art in addition to the regular collection. I’ve always enjoyed visiting there. Corning also has the Heritage Village of the Southern Finger Lakes, a series of retired building with living history re-enactors.
Skaneateles: Another very picturesque village, even more so than Owego, and right on the lake. So picturesque that the village puts on Dickens Weekends before Christmas, with costumed re-enactors playing characters from his novels.
Auburn: A not-picturesque city, dominated by it’s large maximum security prison. It’s actually a few miles north of Lake Owasco, as the north end of the lake is a little swampy. However, Auburn has some historical significance. Both the Harriet Tubman Home, a National Park Site with rangers giving tours, and the William Seward House Museum.
Auburn is also home to New Hope Mills, a long-time local specialty producer of pancake mixes and flours. Their plant and store are in Auburn, with a well-regarded mostly-breakfast cafe attached. The original old water-powered mill is outside of town, and is being restored/converted to a museum.
Thanks again for all this input!
I appreciate it.
Penn Yan has Birkett Mills, which has been in operation since the late 1700’s. The mill’s no longer in operation, but the building that the mill went with is still in use, though it’s now not their only one.
– there are a lot of Amish on the roads; also a lot of Old Order Mennonites, a different group sometimes confused with them by people not familiar with either. From the point of view of buggy traffic, of course, it doesn’t make much difference; basically, there’s a lot of it in some areas in the region, little or none in some other places (which is also true of the farm equipment). And yes, the tourists abruptly stopping to look at things, and/or driving erratically because they’re trying to find something, are an additional hazard. On the main roads, the situation’s further complicated by tractor trailers in a hurry to get somewhere.
All of which description makes it sound more terrifying than it is; most of these roads are low traffic by city standards and some of them low traffic by just about any standard. Just be aware of people moving at a wide variety of different speeds on the roads.
I’ve seen the building for Birkett Mills, but I don’t think it’s open to the public or has a store or anything. Birkett Mills specializes in buckwheat. I had no idea they made Wolff’s Kasha.
Another thing about Watkins Glen — it was the site of the hugest open-air rock concert in the US…bigger than Woodstock…with just the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, and the Band. Consider it a historic site.
I’ve heard of Cornell chicken, but never tasted it. DETAILS, lady, DETAILS!!!