3-Day Weekend in NY's Finger Lakes Region

Here is my 3-day itinerary for a long weekend in New York's Finger Lakes region! Other than its summer water activities, this area is probably most known for its wonderful wineries scattering the shores of the lakes. My husband and I are not huge drinkers, and my husband does not like water activities. But we picked this area as a destination because it has so much natural beauty to explore! We went in June 2023 and had a lovely time exploring and spending time outdoors.

The Finger Lakes consists of several long, thin lakes over a pretty large area but the two main ones are Seneca and Cayuga. We focused our trip on the southern portion of these two lakes, with our primary reason for going being Watkins Glen State Park. This park had been on my bucket list for a while! It is important to note that the park is only open from mid- to late May until the end of October/early November timeframe. Because of this more limited time window to visit, it is usually pretty crowded. But we still enjoyed our time there!

I booked the trip a bit last minute which meant a lot of the accommodations closer to Watkins Glen were booked or out of my price range. The college town of Ithaca is not far and has chain hotel options, but we wanted to stay somewhere more in nature and opted for an Airbnb. We would recommend something in or around Watkins Glen if possible.

Day 1: Arrive and Enjoy Our Unique Airbnb

Driving to the Finger Lakes region from the DC-area takes around 5.5 hours and is a pretty drive, but ours was a bit shorter because we opted to stay in Erin, NY at this top-rated Airbnb. It was close enough to the sites we wanted to see and was such a fun stay! It also has a cool backstory. The house itself does feel very secluded, and the town and it's neighbors of Breesport and Horseheads are also small. This meant dining options were pretty limited, but our Airbnb owner left us with recommendations. We started our drive to Erin a bit late so after dropping off our bags, we grabbed some dinner in Horseheads and enjoyed the rest of the night by the fire pit of our Airbnb.

Day 2: Waterfalls

For today, we woke up on the early side to set out on a 35-minute drive to the famous Watkins Glen State Park, grabbing breakfast on the way. When you enter the state park into Google Maps, it takes you to the park's primary entrance (3600 Walnut Rd, Watkins Glen, NY 14891). This is what we did, but I wish we would have parked at the parking lot in town (971 N Franklin St, Watkins Glen, NY 14891), or the one directly across the street from that. This meant we would have started the Gorge Trail at the very beginning. Instead, we started a little past the beginning and were able to first turn right to see the waterfalls there before heading back down to the left for the rest of the trail. The park is most known for this Gorge Trail and it is 2.2-miles out and back (but most people loop it with Indian Trail). Going on weekdays in the early morning is probably the best time, but even going mid-morning on a weekend like us was enjoyable. It was so beautiful! There were crowds and sometimes lines on the smaller/slipperier portions of the trail, but we were able to find moments of peace. Because of the rock stairs and constant water making things slippery, the Gorge Trail is rated as moderately challenging and not suitable for those with issues walking, but we personally found it pretty easy. No pets or strollers are allowed on this trail, either (though they can go on other trails in the park).

After finishing up in the state park, we moved our car into the town of Watkins Glen to grab some lunch. Watkins Glen is a very charming town and next time, I would love to stay here. We ate lunch at Nickel's Pit BBQ (very good) and wandered some of the town's shoreline on Seneca Lake.

After finishing up in Watkin's Glen, we drove about 30 minutes to the shores of Cayuga Lake to visit Taughannock State Park. This park boasts a beautiful waterfall that plunges over 200-feet into a rocky gorge. If you enter on Taughannock Park Road, you can stop at an overlook to witness the falls from atop the cliffs, then drive to the bottom to do a short, flat, paved hike closer to the falls themselves. The rest of this park had nice views of the lake and plenty of picnic benches. Very family friendly for all ages! We wanted to stop by the nearby Cayuga Nature Center, which has a fun 6-story treehouse, but instead we opted to start our 50 minute drive back to Erin and stopped in Ithaca instead. We parked in downtown Ithaca and walked a bit to try and go to Mercato Kitchen and Bar for dinner, but it was closed on a Sunday. This part of Ithaca honestly gave us weird vibes, so we grabbed a snack instead at Collegetown Bagels and continued our drive home. We later grabbed dinner to-go from Horseheads and enjoyed another night by the fire.

Day 3: Enjoy last moments and head home

We opted to have a lazy morning at our Airbnb before starting our drive back home instead of hitting any final sites. Some things I had saved but did not get to do included:

• Ithaca Farmer's Market (only Saturdays)

• Cayuga Nature Center

• Buttermilk Falls State Park

• Belhurst Castle and Winery (far up Seneca Lake)

• A visit to one of the (literally) dozen wineries on either side of Seneca Lake just north of Watkins Glen