NY Finger Lakes
 

Will be traveling through this area in early August en-route to Toronto to see the Yankees. Couple of questions:

- Can you recommend a winery to visit for tasting, etc.?

- Have you been to the Watkins Glen track? There is a NASCAR related weekend happening around the same time, and am wondering if it's worth attending.

Thanks for the input ^

I've been to a number of Finger Lakes wineries and can recommend Dr Konstantin Frank which is particularly well known for their Rieslings. This is a convenient one to hit if you're heading west on Route 17/I-86. If you're already up on I-90 then this is out of the way because it is on the southwest corner of the Finger Lakes wineries. If you are on I-90, I would recommend you hit the Seneca Lake wineries near Geneva. There are about 15 wineries on each side of the lake and I'm fairly sure more than one of them offers lunch. In fact, I know at least one of them does because I lunched there a few years back. . .I just can't remember which one. Just ask the first one you go to about wineries in the area that offer food. They are all friendly and will be happy to point you in the right direction.

I'm no help to you about Watkins Glen. I lived in upstate NY for over 10 years, but I'm not into NASCAR so I can't recommend you check it out or not. Enjoy your trip!

I just ran across this...Finger Lakes Wine Festival. These dates don't align with your dates, but the website can probably give you contacts to the local wineries.

In addition to Frank, I recommend Hermann Wiemer (currently producing the best FL Rieslings), Shalestone (reds only), Prejean, and Standing Stone.

For food, Wagner and Red Newt have restaurants. Stone Cat (Hector) and Dano's Heuriger (Lodi) are two good restaurants between Seneca and Cayuga lakes.

Thanks for the replies - I plan to taste each one of them ! ^

Any suggestions on where to stay? I was originally thinking the Inn at Glenora, but just saw some pretty poor reviews of it on TripAdvisor. I'd like to stay close to Seneca Lake, but am thinking it might be best to stay at the HGI in Horseheads. I'm travelling with 2 kids, ages 12 and 9 - so traditional B&Bs probably aren't an option.

Thanks

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Don't know if you'd consider staying in Ithaca, but it is a kid-friendly town. There's a relatively new HGI, and an even newer Homewood Suites in town. (I've stayed at the HGI and recommend it.) Ithaca is about a 30-40 minute drive to Watkins Glen.

I recall driving through Horseheads, and it has a very charming old-fashioned-looking downtown.

I would second the suggestion about Ithaca -- I stayed there for a summer and it was great fun. Maybe the kids would enjoy the children's science museum there?

One other option for lodging is the Hotel at Cornell, which is staffed by students at Cornell's hospitality program, reputed to be one of the best in the country.
http://www.statlerhotel.cornell.edu
Although this may be a bit pricey and maybe wouldn't be quite right for the kids.

Thanks for the replies - we're going with the Homewood Suites in Ithaca. Cheers :)

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I hope you and your family enjoy Ithaca and the Finger Lakes as much as I do. You might want to consider purchasing an Entertainment 2007 book for Binghamton (or perhaps Rochester) before you go. The Binghamton book has discounts for several wineries, 2-for-1 discounts for the Binghamton Zoo, the National Soaring Museum in Elmira, restaurant discounts at the Sheldrake Point Vineyard and Café in Ovid, and at one of my favorite restaurants, Taughannock Farms Inn in Trumansburg, about 10 miles northwest of Ithaca, on NY 89. The 2007 books are currently on sale for about $14 each including shipping, and if you order through fatwallet.com, you can knock $5.00 off of that.

In Ithaca, Purity Ice Cream and the Ithaca Bakery (both downtown on NY 13) are worth a stop.

Enjoy your trip! I spent three years in Ithaca in law school, and it is an absolutely beautiful place, especially at that time of year. I will second the suggestions for the Herman Wiemer and Dr. Frank wineries; they are among the best. Sheldrake in Ithaca is not bad either. My best advice is to stick with the whites whereever you go as most of the reds are not so good. As for activities in the Ithaca area, if you and your family enjoy hiking, there is a path that runs up through a gorge between the Commons downtown area and the Collegetown area that is really beautiful. Great trails in Treman park as well. If you find yourself on Cornell's campus, the ice cream at the dairy bar is great, and don't miss breakfast at Collegetown Bagels. Also, if you are there on a weekend the Ithaca Farmers Market is really extensive and nicely sited right on the lake - there are lots of prepared food vendors as well and it is a nice place for breakfast or lunch.

I don't know anything about Watkins Glen except that on race weekends, accommodations get scarce all the way up through Ithaca, so hopefully you have already booked the Homewood Suites! I had two friends who set their wedding dates in August only to find out that they were on Nascar weekends and it was a pain in the a** trying to get blocks of rooms for guests.

To follow up on njm's post, while the hotel school at Cornell is generally regarded as one of the best in the country, the Statler Hotel itself is really nothing special - I've stayed there, eaten there, and attended a wedding reception there. The rooms at the Statler will easily run over $200 a night (much higher on graduation weekends, etc.), and the quality is that of a run of the mill Hilton or Sheraton. It used to be the only game in town for a nicer hotel, but several new ones have been built in recent years, such as the Hilton Garden Inn downtown, and others up by Triphammer mall that I can't remember the name of.