Gold Boat Journeys

10 Reasons to Visit Ithaca, New York

As you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that your journey be a long one, filled with adventure, filled with discovery.

~ Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth

If you’re not in school or visiting an Ithaca College or Cornell University student, why drive or fly to Upstate New York instead of sightseeing  in the Big Apple?

1. Ithaca is Gorges: with miles and miles of hiking trails, deep pools for swimming, waterfalls and majestic rock walls.

2. Ithaca Farmer’s Market:  Artist-made crafts, music, tastings of home-brewed cider and preserves and a delicious variety of ethnic foods to take away or enjoy at the market’s picnic tables by the lake.

3. Vladamir Nabokov: Lived in Ithaca (in many different houses): Of course, he also wrote and collected butterflies here.

4.  The chance to follow in a U.S. President’s footsteps and eat Dr. Baker’s Original Cornell Chicken in the place where the recipe was developed.

5. Cornell Plantations: Hiking trails, an aboretum and herb garden, outdoor sculptures, a pond full of frogs, lily pads and ducks and even a gift shop.

6 & 7. Cornell Lab of Ornithology & Sapsucker Woods: Hiking trails, guided birdwatching tours, an ornithology museum, birdcall listening station, and telescopes trained on  nesting birds.

8.  Day Trips: Homes of Harriet Tubman, William Seward and Mark Twain, Women’s Rights National Historic Park and the Corning Museum of Glass.

9. Excursions: Niagra Falls, 1000 Islands Park, Finger Lakes, the Hudson River Valley (Pictured, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, where author Washington Irving lived and wrote his American classics. He is buried here.)

10. After a scenic drive, explore the city that never sleeps!