10 Nicest Small Towns In New York
New York keeps most of its best towns far from the skyline. Four real seasons, downtowns with barely a chain store, and outdoor recreation in every direction. Saranac Lake hands you the rugged Adirondacks and miles of trail. Ithaca answers with gorges and waterfalls a short walk from its arts scene. Cooperstown opens the list on baseball and holds its own from there. The ten towns ahead each make a different case for New York.
Cooperstown
Every July, the baseball world points itself at Cooperstown. Hall of Fame Induction Weekend pulls tens of thousands of fans into a village of about 2,000, and for a few days it is the center of the sport. The National Baseball Hall of Fame is the reason most people come, the game's deepest archive of artifacts and stories under one roof. But the town holds more than baseball. The Fenimore Art Museum runs a strong American folk art collection, the Farmers' Museum recreates an 1840s working farmstead, and Brewery Ommegang pours Belgian-style beer on a scenic spread ten minutes south.
Saratoga Springs
Saratoga Springs floats on mineral water. More than 20 public springs bubble up around town, and no two taste alike, so filling a bottle at Congress Park turns into a tasting. The bigger draw is the racing. The Saratoga Race Course is one of the oldest sporting grounds in the country, and the Gilded Age architecture along Broadway backs up the money that built it. Victoria Pool, among the first heated public pools in the nation, still opens to swimmers in the state park. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the auto museum, with its rotating muscle-car and racing exhibits, fill out the rest of a day.
Hudson
Hudson packs a mile of antiques onto Warren Street and calls it a downtown. The red-brick blocks date to the 19th century, and more than 10 galleries share the street, including Carrie Haddad, the first fine-art gallery to open in town. This is Hudson River School country, so the landscape that hooked those painters is right outside. Olana, Frederic Church's Persian-style mansion and studio, sits a short drive off with the view that made it famous. The food scene keeps pace, with a Michelin-recognized French room at the Maker Hotel and the long-running Swoon Kitchenbar.
Ithaca
Ithaca is a showstopper for scenery, gorges and waterfalls and all. Taughannock Falls, just north of town, drops in a single plunge taller than Niagara, with a 400-foot gorge wrapped around it. Cornell sits above it all, and Cascadilla Park Road climbs past houses that look airlifted from Europe. The Ithaca Commons runs a pedestrian street of shops and restaurants downtown. Add the Cornell Botanic Gardens and Moosewood, the vegetarian restaurant with a dozen cookbooks to its name, and the day fills itself.
Lake Placid
Lake Placid wraps a walkable village around Mirror Lake, with the High Peaks standing behind it. Main Street faces the water and stays lively, soft lake views one way and mountains the other. Henry's Woods keeps quiet trails close to town, and Mt. Van Hoevenberg gives an easy climb with some of the best High Peaks views going. Kate Smith spent 40 summers here and is remembered in a stained-glass marker inside St. Agnes Church. History runs deeper at the John Brown Farm, where the Harpers Ferry raider is buried.
Saranac Lake
Saranac Lake runs on water and open air. Three lakes feed the paddling, Ampersand Mountain and the Saranac 6ers handle the hikers, and the brick Riverwalk traces the Saranac River through town. Donnelly's, just outside, scoops what a lot of locals call the best ice cream in the Adirondacks, one flavor a day. The showpiece is the Wild Walk at the Wild Center, more than 1,000 feet of bridges and platforms that climb into and over a living forest. It hands you a view usually reserved for birds.
Skaneateles
Skaneateles sits on one of the cleanest lakes in the country, and the village leans right into the water. A cruise on the Judge Ben Wiles, a 65-foot boat from 1985, is the easy way onto it. Skaneateles Bakery has run since 1959 and still pulls people in for the cookies. The Sherwood Inn has taken guests since 1807, with a lakeside spot over Clift Park and Skaneateles Lake. The park's gardens and open lawns do the rest.
Rhinebeck
Rhinebeck fills the Dutchess County Fairgrounds every fall for the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, where thousands turn up for fiber arts, livestock, and handknit sweaters. The village once called itself the Violet Capital of the World. Its Main Street runs boutiques, galleries, and cafes about two hours north of the city. Hikers climb the fire tower at Ferncliff Forest for a sweep of the Hudson Valley. A Himalayan salt sauna at the Mirbeau Inn and Spa is the reward after, ideally following a stop at Art Gallery 71 to meet a few local artists.
Watkins Glen
Watkins Glen State Park has been the most-searched state park in the country, and one walk explains it. The Gorge Trail runs past as many as 19 waterfalls, with stone stairways and bridges cut into a gorge of layered shale as the mist comes up off the water. In fall the trees turn it into a color show. The Glen Theatre downtown dates to the vaudeville days, and Watkins Glen International is the premier road course in the state. For wine, the Seneca Lake Wine Trail strings together more than 30 wineries.
Canandaigua
Canandaigua puts its best face on the lake. Kershaw Park launches the kayaks and paddleboards, and the City Pier lines up photogenic boathouses for the sunset walk. Sonnenberg Gardens wraps a 40-room 1880s Queen Anne mansion in nine themed gardens, one of the best-preserved Victorian estates in the country, open May through October. The water here is some of the clearest in the Finger Lakes, calm and glassy on a long summer evening. Rent a kayak at Seager Marine and spend the day on it.
The Nicest Town Is The One That Fits You
The nicest town in New York comes down to the kind of day you want. If it is baseball history, lakefront sunsets, and blocks of historic homes, Cooperstown is hard to beat. If it is gorges, a college-town arts scene, and energy year-round, Ithaca pulls ahead, with Cornell doing a lot of the lifting. Either way, none of these ten asks you to settle for one thing.
