{"id":144176,"date":"2026-02-24T21:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/144176\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T21:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:22:17","slug":"what-new-york-state-is-getting-just-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/144176\/","title":{"rendered":"What New York State is getting just right"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight days, a dozen travel advisors and one unanimous verdict: the rest of New York State has been hiding in plain sight. Ivy Carruth joins a winterful wonderful trip in New York State to uncover it.\u00a0
\nInto the woods
\n\"NewWho needs a trail when you can snowshoe your own<\/p>\n

The snowshoes are harder to walk in than they look. This is the first thing I learn at Roscoe Mountain Club in New York State\u2019s Sullivan Catskills, approximately four seconds after being handed a pair. The second thing I learn? It couldn\u2019t matter less, because we\u2019re moving through a fairy tale of a snow-blanketed forest, so quiet that all I hear is the crunch of powder and my own heavy breathing. Nobody\u2019s in a hurry to be anywhere. New York City\u2019s in the rear-view, two hours back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewFat chewy s\u2019mores at Roscoe Mountain Club in the Sullivan Catskills are your reward for braving the chill<\/p>\n

The Catskills set the tone for our trip early with sweet s\u2019mores and wood-fired saunas; the cold\u2019s like that friend I\u2019d never stopped to talk to properly. Now I don\u2019t want to leave.<\/p>\n

No one mentions Manhattan for the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

Fingers in the landscape
\n\"NewTaughannock State Park\u2019s Frozen Waterfall in Ithica, is taller than Niagara<\/p>\n

From the Catskills, we move into the Finger Lakes \u2013 eleven glacial pools carved through central New York, each longer and more narrow than expected. The Haudenosaunee, the Indigenous people known as the Iroquois, believe the bodies of water were formed when the Great Spirit pressed his hands into the earth in blessing. Standing at the lip of Taughannock Falls in February, watching 66 metres of vertical frozen water defy gravity, it\u2019s easy to believe something deliberate happened here. Our group escort, Rhonda Carges, points out that it\u2019s taller than Niagara.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe we\u2019re this close to New York City, it\u2019s a completely different world here,\u201d Maria DiGiacomo from Reach Global Marketing marvels. It\u2019s the kind of remark that lands differently when it comes from someone who sells travel for a living. These aren\u2019t\u00a0civilians easily impressed by a waterfall.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A master sommelier and a speakeasy<\/p>\n

The cutie-pie town of Geneva anchors the Finger Lakes section of our itinerary, sitting at the northern tip of Seneca Lake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"New
\n\"New<\/p>\n

\"NewTop left and right: Chris Bates, Geneva\u2019s certified Master Somm (left); his wine shop (right). Lower image: Don\u2019t miss the speakeasy under Vinifera Tasting Room in the Finger Lakes<\/p>\n

The wine is the headline \u2013 Chris Bates, one of only 291 Master Somms in the world lives here, and he is, as advertised, full of opinions and happy to share them. (The Riesling conversation alone is worth a stop.) Down the street, at Vinifera, a tasting room owned by the Mayor, ask to check out the Prohibition-era speak easy \u2013\u00a0they don\u2019t advertise it. Liz, a travel advisor from Germany sums up the rhythm perfectly: \u201cThis town\u2019s got Hallmark movie energy.\u201d This is not an insult. Wine Enthusiast magazine named the Finger Lakes one of the Top 10 Wine Regions in the world in 2024; not an honour handed out willy-nilly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewHallmark towns, indeed<\/p>\n

Like other \u2018burgs we\u2019ll come across on this trip, this isn\u2019t a \u2018tourist town\u2019; it\u2019s a town for locals that welcomes visitors. There\u2019s a difference. These places are built for the people who live in them. The kind of place, as someone notes, where you could leave your bag in your car and not worry. Not that you should. But you could.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State to plate<\/p>\n

Dinner at Rose Tavern, inside The Lake House on Canandaigua, answers any questions about whether the food scene has caught up with the wine. Word on the street? Michelin\u2019s noticed. Service is exceptional \u2013 they miss nothing, and after the meal is served, we all have to take a beat to just look at it. Photo-worthy? Yes. But not long for the plate? Also yes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In town, the 132-year old Smith Opera House may be small, but she\u2019s mighty. She\u2019s been known to host a few bands you might have heard of, Bruce Springsteen among them, in a 1.400-seat venue that has no business being this charming in a town of this size.<\/p>\n

\"1000
\n\"1000<\/p>\n

\"NewTop left and right: Buffalo wings started in\u2026 Buffalo, NY (left); Shhh. We won\u2019t tell (right). Lower image: Peek n\u2019 Peak Resort in Buffalo brings in more than 60 metres of snow each winter <\/p>\n

\u201cThe vibe of this region is just so many places hidden right under your nose,\u201d says Cathy of Linkd Tourism in Sydney. She\u2019s not wrong.<\/p>\n

Other stand out moments? The group debating the definition of a \u2018home fry\u2019 at pretty much every meal (potatoes are popular here). Nordic skiing becomes, unexpectedly, a highlight for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The town that laughs at itself<\/p>\n

Jamestown follows, and with it the DesiLu Studios Museum and the National Comedy Centre (NCC) \u2013 both better than the lot of us expect. It was Golden Age actress Lucille Ball\u2019s wish that her hometown celebrate comedians broadly, not just her own legacy. At the NCC, plan enough time to really interact with the exhibits \u2013 and for those of you with a\u00a0 ribald sense of humour, take the lift downstairs to The Blue Room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The verdict<\/p>\n

The trip closes through Chautauqua, Buffalo and Niagara \u2013 each making its own case and doing it well.<\/p>\n

Somewhere on the bus, between stops, the conversation turns to what we\u2019ll take home from this. The sentiment across the dozen of us, from four countries? Staying in the Big Apple and not exploring further afield is a rookie mistake. \u201cNYC hogs all the spotlight,\u201d someone quips, and it does, right? The rest of the state has, historically, let it do the talking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This, the group agrees, is a new story worth telling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Discover more New York State wonders\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Never miss a New York thing when you\u00a0sign up\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0trade newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Writer Ivy Carruth travelled as a guest of I LOVE NY<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Read Ivy\u2019s review of the iconic TWA Hotel at New York\u2019s JFK here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article is brought to you by I Love New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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