2026's 9 Most Scenic Upstate New York Towns
Lake Placid pairs autumn foliage with ski jumpers soaring overhead at its October festival. Skaneateles fills its streets with Charles Dickens characters every holiday season. Waterfalls cut right through the heart of Watkins Glen. Woodstock still draws artists to the Catskills more than a century after its first arts colony opened. Each of these nine towns makes its scenery part of everyday life.
Lake Placid
Autumn in Lake Placid comes with an unusual extra. The Flaming Leaves Festival each October pairs live music, food, and craft vendors with the US Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined National Championships, so some of the country's best jumpers launch into the air above the crowd. Hikers can aim higher with the Lake Placid 9'er challenge, a list of nine peaks under 4,000 feet designed for newcomers and seasoned hikers alike. The shortest climb on the list, Crow Mountain, is about 1.2 miles round trip, and the longest, Hurricane Mountain, runs about 6.8 miles. For an easier outing, Route 73 leads about 10 minutes out of town to the Cascade Lakes, two narrow lakes beneath steep cliffs where visitors can paddle, fish, and take a short walk to a waterfall spilling down from Cascade Mountain.
Skaneateles
Pronounced "skinny-atlas," Skaneateles sits at the north end of Skaneateles Lake, often called the jewel of the Finger Lakes. A Mid-Lakes Navigation cruise shows off the clear water from the deck, while Clift Park offers a lawn for watching sailboats drift past. The Sherwood Inn, which dates to 1807, has fed and housed travelers on the waterfront for more than two centuries. Downtown is filled with boutiques and craft beverage makers, and it is at its most festive during Dickens Christmas, when horse-drawn wagons roll through the village and costumed Dickens characters, including the author himself, stroll among the shops.
Lake George
Lake George keeps a busy calendar of festivals, fireworks, and free events at the southern end of its namesake lake in the Adirondacks. The Lake George Steamboat Company offers sightseeing, lunch, dinner, sunset, fall foliage, and fireworks cruises aboard its historic vessels, and any of them shows off the lake from the water. On land, the Prospect Mountain trail climbs to wide views over the lake, and the Prospect Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway lets drivers go partway up for a shorter walk to the summit. Just south of the village, Six Flags Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor pairs roller coasters with a water park. Check its operating calendar before planning a visit.
Watkins Glen
Nineteen waterfalls line the Gorge Trail in Watkins Glen State Park, which begins at the edge of Watkins Glen's downtown and runs about 1.5 miles past cliffs and cascades. A few minutes away, Finger Lakes National Forest is the only national forest in New York, and it is open year-round at no charge for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and skiing. Drivers can trace the village's racing history, too, since the first Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948 ran on public roads that started and finished at the Schuyler County Courthouse. Pick up a map of the original course at the International Motor Racing Research Center before taking it for a spin. The farmland around Seneca Lake adds creameries, u-pick orchards, and vineyards, and the Red House Inn and Stable offers farmstead stays inside the national forest with trails leading straight from the door.
Woodstock
Woodstock lent its name to the 1969 music festival, even though the event itself took place about 60 miles away in Bethel. Artists had been drawn to this corner of the Catskills long before that. Byrdcliffe, founded in 1902 on the slopes of Mount Guardian, is the oldest operating arts and crafts colony in the country, with a historic barn campus above town and a guild venue in the village. On the edge of town, Maverick Concerts has hosted the nation's oldest continuous summer chamber music festival since 1916 in a hand-built hall with a gambrel roof, with reserved seats inside and benches outside. For a quieter moment, step off Tinker Street into Woodstock Waterfall Park, a tiny pocket park overlooking a small waterfall.
Cold Spring
Cold Spring sits on the east bank of the Hudson River beneath the steep slopes of the Hudson Highlands. Hudson Highlands State Park protects roughly 8,000 acres around the village, with about 70 miles of trails climbing toward rocky summits above the river. One of the easiest walks, under a mile, reaches the Cornish Estate Ruins, the remains of a mansion, greenhouse, and gazebo slowly being reclaimed by the forest. A tougher climb passes an old quarry on the way up Bull Hill, where hikers may spot bald eagles riding the air above the river. Just upriver, the ruins of Bannerman Castle stand on Pollepel Island, built after Francis Bannerman bought the island in 1900 to store military surplus for his arms business. Tours are booked through the Bannerman Castle Trust.
Cooperstown
Cooperstown is best known as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, whose three floors of exhibits draw fans from across the country. Its setting is just as memorable. Otsego Lake stretches about 9 miles north of the village, and James Fenimore Cooper called it "Glimmerglass" in his Leatherstocking Tales. Visitors can swim and paddle at Glimmerglass State Park or take a narrated cruise aboard the Glimmerglass Queen between Memorial Day and Columbus Day. Back on land, the Farmers' Museum displays the Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in American history, amid the rolling farmland outside town.
Saranac Lake
Lake Flower sits right in the middle of Saranac Lake, inviting visitors to drift in a canoe or kayak with no destination in mind. On land, the Bloomingdale Bog Trail follows a former railroad bed past open water, wetlands, and mountain views, with chances to spot beaver lodges, great blue herons, and even bald eagles. Fall color draws plenty of visitors, but winter here has a tradition all its own. The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival dates to 1897, and its centerpiece is an illuminated ice palace built from blocks of ice cut out of Lake Flower.
New Paltz
New Paltz was founded in 1678 by French Huguenot settlers at the foot of the Shawangunk Ridge, known to climbers simply as the Gunks and home to some of the best rock climbing in the eastern United States. Mohonk Mountain House, perched above a lake on the ridge, opens up a long list of hikes, climbs, and water activities. In town, Historic Huguenot Street is a National Historic Landmark District that preserves seven stone houses from the early 1700s, a burial ground, a reconstructed 1717 church, and a replica Esopus Munsee wigwam. The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art on the SUNY New Paltz campus adds a permanent collection of more than 6,000 works spanning some 4,000 years.
Scenery Woven Into Everyday Life
What sets these towns apart is how close the scenery sits to daily life. Watkins Glen and Woodstock have waterfalls within a short walk of their main streets, while Lake Flower and Otsego Lake frame the centers of Saranac Lake and Cooperstown. In Cold Spring and New Paltz, trails and climbing routes begin almost at the edge of town. Wherever a trip leads in 2026, the views here come with plenty to do.
