6 of the Most Overlooked Towns in the Finger Lakes

New York's Finger Lakes pull most of their crowds toward the headline wineries, but the region runs deeper than its bottle lists. Trumansburg sits 10 miles from Ithaca and looks down on 215-foot Taughannock Falls, the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rockies. Geneva keeps a row of Federal-style townhouses on its main drag plus the 1894 Smith Opera House. Seneca Falls remembers the 1848 women's rights convention at Wesleyan Chapel. Penn Yan once flipped a 4,050-pound pancake with a crane to set a Guinness record. Six unsung stops follow, each a little outside the typical itinerary.

Trumansburg

Trumansburg sits in Tompkins County, about 10 miles northwest of Ithaca and a short hop from Cayuga Lake. The name traces to Abner Treman, an early settler who built a mill and tavern here in the late 1700s. A postmaster's spelling slip turned "Tremaine's Village" into "Trumansburg" for good.

Taughannock Falls State Park anchors the town with its 215-foot waterfall, the tallest single-drop east of the Rockies, plus campsites, a marina, and a beach on Cayuga Lake. The park covers 750 acres with gorge trails and rim trails on both sides of the canyon. The Multi-Use Trail handles hiking, cross-country skiing, and winter sledding.

The arts scene punches well above the town's size. The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance has run for more than 30 years on Trumansburg's village fairgrounds, packing four days of folk, blues, reggae, and rock alongside dance workshops and local artisan booths. Several galleries downtown stock work from area artists year-round.

Hector

Hector spreads across the eastern shore of Seneca Lake with about 5,000 residents and a serious lineup of wineries. The town was settled in 1791 and incorporated in 1802. The Catharine Valley Trail handles hiking and biking through forests and wetlands worth a slow walk, and the broader Finger Lakes Trail runs through the surrounding Finger Lakes National Forest (the only national forest in New York State, at 16,259 acres).

Hector Falls cascades down rocky cliffs straight into Seneca Lake. Viewing it from the highway shoulder takes some care since cars travel at 55 mph past the pullout, so signal early and use the hazards before stopping.

Hector Wine Company is the local marquee producer, working an 1852 fruit farm that now turns out labels including Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards and Sawmill Creek Vineyards. The winery hosts High Tea wine-and-food pairings and Winemakers' Dinners. The well-known Red Cat Wine comes from the related Hazlitt Red Cat Cellars in nearby Naples.

Geneva

Geneva sits at the northern tip of Seneca Lake with one of the area's most distinctive collections of Federal-style row houses. Built between 1808 and 1820, the row houses share side walls in the tradition that took hold across the early Republic in Philadelphia, New York, and other Eastern cities.

The Geneva History Museum runs guided tours of Rose Hill Mansion, a 19th-century working farm with twenty restored and furnished rooms, and the Johnston House, owned by the first farmer in the region to use agricultural drain tiles. The 1894 Smith Opera House has cycled through names over the decades and now hosts live performances, repertory films, dance recitals, and ballet.

Geneva also sits on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, a 75-mile loop of wineries circling the lake. Three Brothers Wineries & Estates runs four tasting rooms in one stop, with wine, beer, hard cider, and craft soda all under one roof. Several Victorian-era bed-and-breakfasts make Geneva an easy overnight base.

Seneca Falls

Seneca Falls calls itself the birthplace of women's rights, and the title sticks. Women's Rights National Historical Park commemorates the convention held July 19-20, 1848. The Wesleyan Chapel hosted the meeting itself, and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House sits a short walk away. Stanton later co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association alongside Susan B. Anthony in 1869.

Seneca Falls Canal Harbor Park follows the Cayuga-Seneca Canal one mile east of the historical park. Visitors heading toward Locks 2 and 3 can watch boats rise and fall through the stacked chambers, a total lift of 49 feet between the two. The Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry fills in the canal's role in Erie Canal-era commerce, with exhibits on construction, local industry, and the role of waterways in shaping the town.

The Seneca Falls Canal Fest each summer rounds out the local calendar with fireworks, rides, vendors, a duck race, and live music along both sides of the canal.

Dundee

Dundee runs deep in Finger Lakes wine country with wineries clustered along the western shore of Seneca Lake. Fox Run Vineyards overlooks the lake and produces Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. The New York Wine and Grape Foundation certified the operation as a sustainable vineyard in 2023.

During the summer season, Fox Run runs personalized tours followed by a flight of seven wines and seven small bites in a dairy barn dating back to the 1800s. Glenora Wine Cellars, founded in 1977 as the first winery on Seneca Lake, sits a short drive away. The estate now includes The Inn at Glenora Wine Cellars and Veraisons, a restaurant that emphasizes seasonal cuisine and locally sourced ingredients.

The 1897 Beekman House Bed & Breakfast adds a Victorian-manor stay close to most of the surrounding wineries. Five guest rooms, antique clawfoot tubs, and three-course breakfasts daily make it the kind of base that hits the wine-country brief.

Penn Yan

Penn Yan sits at the north end of Keuka Lake. The name combines the first syllables of "Pennsylvania" and "Yankee," a nod to the mixed pool of 18th-century settlers who put down roots here.

On September 27, 1987, a Birkett Mills crew built what was then the world's largest pancake at the Annual Buckwheat Harvest Festival. The 4,050-pound, 28-foot disc was mixed in a sterilized cement truck, flipped with a construction crane (a Guinness requirement), and topped with 15 gallons of syrup and a 68-pound pat of butter. The pancake was cut into chunks and sold for $1 a piece by local churches. The record stood until 1994, when Rochdale, England, topped it. The 10-ton griddle now hangs on the side of the Birkett Mills building as a roadside attraction.

Keuka Lake takes the Y-shape that earned it the "Crooked Lake" nickname, with two points facing north and one facing south. Keuka Lake State Park offers camping, boating, and hiking. The Keuka Lake Outlet connects Keuka to Seneca Lake, and Shoreline Rentals supplies kayaks, paddleboards, and lily pads at the Outlet. The Keuka Lake Outlet Trail covers seven paved and gravel miles east toward Dresden, with Cascade Falls and Seneca Mills Falls along the way.

The Overlooked Side Of The Finger Lakes

Trumansburg pairs a music festival with the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rockies. Geneva runs Federal-style row houses and a 19th-century opera house. Seneca Falls anchors the country's women's rights story. Hector and Dundee hold serious wine country credentials beyond the headline producers. Penn Yan still owns the 10-ton griddle that built the world's largest pancake in 1987. The six towns above bend the typical Finger Lakes route in ways the wine tour alone does not.