9 Unforgettable Small Towns to Visit in the Finger Lakes Region

In central New York, the Finger Lakes Region spreads across eleven long, glacier-carved lakes and is home to roughly 1.28 million people. The lakes are best known for their wineries, and the tasting-room tours are reason enough to visit, but the small towns strung along the shorelines are the real draw. These nine are among the most memorable.

Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen sits at the southern tip of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County, and its headline attraction is Watkins Glen State Park. The park's 1.5-mile Gorge Trail threads past 19 waterfalls, ending at Rainbow Falls, where midday sun sometimes throws a rainbow across the spray. North of town, the Seneca Lake Scenic Byway runs along the lakeshore past breweries, farm stands, and tasting rooms.

Watkins Glen also has a place in racing history. The first major American road race after World War II ran through its streets in 1948, and since 1993 the town has marked the anniversary with the Grand Prix Festival, which draws around 25,000 people for a re-creation of the original 6.6-mile course.

Ithaca

At the southern end of Cayuga Lake, about 55 miles southwest of Syracuse, Ithaca is the cultural anchor of the Finger Lakes. Just south of town, Robert H. Treman State Park is laced with a dozen waterfalls, including the 115-foot Lucifer Falls, viewable from a clifftop overlook. Downtown, the Ithaca Farmers Market has run since 1973 and now gathers more than 130 vendors of local produce and crafts.

Ithaca is also home to Cornell University, whose Ivy League campus is open for tours, and to Moosewood Restaurant, the pioneering vegetarian spot whose cookbooks have sold millions of copies. For a night outdoors, Firelight Camps offers glamping-style tents on the edge of the woods.

Naples

Naples sits near the southern end of Canandaigua Lake in Ontario County, and it is grape country to the core. The town has thrown the Naples Grape Festival every September since 1961, drawing tens of thousands for arts and crafts, wine, and the World's Greatest Grape Pie Contest, where local bakers compete for the title. Naples bills itself as the grape pie capital, and shops around town sell them by the thousand each fall.

Nature is close at hand. Grimes Glen Park leads to the Naples Devonian fossil tree, one of the oldest fossilized trees in the state, and the 900-acre Cumming Nature Center laces marsh and forest with trails, including a boardwalk out to a beaver pond. In town, the Naples Memorial Town Hall, built in 1872 and dedicated to Civil War soldiers, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Geneva

On the northern tip of Seneca Lake, about 48 miles southeast of Rochester, Geneva is often called the Gateway to the Finger Lakes. It is a college town, home to Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a private liberal arts school founded in 1822 on a 170-acre lakeside campus. Just south of downtown, Belhurst Castle combines a historic stone hotel, restaurants, and its own estate winery, with Seneca Lake as the backdrop.

Geneva packs a lot into a small footprint. Geneva On The Lake is a well-regarded lakeside resort, the 5&20 disc golf course is a free way to spend an afternoon outdoors, and the Smith Opera House, open since 1894, still stages concerts and shows in a beautifully preserved hall.

Canandaigua

Canandaigua lies at the north end of Canandaigua Lake. Its showpiece is Sonnenberg Gardens & State Historic Park, a 50-acre Gilded Age estate with a Victorian mansion, a grand greenhouse, and nine themed gardens. Down at the water, the Canandaigua City Pier has drawn strollers, anglers, and photographers for more than 150 years, and the lakefront Lake House on Canandaigua is the town's high-end resort, with a spa and a heated lakeside pool.

For families, Roseland Waterpark packs slides, a lazy river, and a wave pool onto a 56-acre site, and every July the three-day Canandaigua Arts & Music Festival fills Commons Park with artwork, food vendors, and live music.

Seneca Falls

Seneca Falls, near the north end of Cayuga Lake, is where the American women's rights movement began. The 1848 First Women's Rights Convention met in the town's Wesleyan Chapel, now the centerpiece of Women's Rights National Historical Park, which also preserves the home of convention organizer Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Nearby, the National Women's Hall of Fame honors figures such as Maya Angelou and Jane Addams.

The town is also widely believed to have inspired Bedford Falls in the film "It's a Wonderful Life," and it leans into the connection with a dedicated museum and an annual December festival. For quieter afternoons, walk the Ludovico Sculpture Trail along the old canal, or drive the three-mile Wildlife Drive through the 9,800-acre Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, a major stop for migrating birds.

Skaneateles Village

On the north shore of clear, cold Skaneateles Lake, Skaneateles Village has a long-standing reputation as one of the most beloved small towns in the Finger Lakes. The Mid-Lakes Navigation Company runs lake cruises from the village pier, and the Charlie Major Nature Trail follows a former rail line for an easy 1.5-mile walk, with a picnic area and playground along the way.

Summer brings the Skaneateles Festival, a chamber-music series that has run for more than 40 years and spans classical, jazz, and bluegrass, while the Antique and Classic Boat Show draws thousands each year to see dozens of restored wooden boats on the water.

Trumansburg

Ten miles north of Ithaca above Cayuga Lake, Trumansburg is built around Taughannock Falls State Park. At 215 feet, Taughannock Falls is one of the highest waterfalls east of the Rocky Mountains, taller than Niagara, and an easy overlook plus a gorge trail put it within reach for most visitors. The park also offers swimming, camping, and winter trails.

Back in the village, the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance has been the town's marquee event since 1991, four days of live music and dance that raise money for charitable causes. For a quiet reset, the spa at the Gothic Eves Inn offers massages, outdoor hot tubs, and a sauna.

Geneseo

Geneseo lies in Livingston County, about 30 miles south of Rochester and just west of Conesus Lake, on the western edge of the Finger Lakes region. Its heart is SUNY Geneseo, a public college whose hilltop campus and National Register historic Main Street give the town its energy; campus tours and open houses welcome visitors.

Just outside town, Long Point Park on Conesus Lake is a favorite for fishing, swimming, and spotting migratory birds. Downtown, the century-old Riviera Theatre still screens films and stages shows, and a short drive away, the National Warplane Museum preserves historic military aircraft and offers rides aboard a restored BT-13 trainer.

The Finger Lakes Await

The Finger Lakes pack an unusual amount into their small towns: the racing legacy of Watkins Glen, the women's-rights history of Seneca Falls, the grape pies of Naples, and the campus energy of Ithaca and Geneseo. Pick a lake, follow the shoreline, and the next memorable stop is rarely far away.