These are the best communities for you to consider when choosing a home-base for your exploration of the Finger Lakes region.
Spending more than one day visiting the Finger Lakes? Unless you’re just cruising through on a day-trip, you’re going to need a place to set up as a home-away-from-home, so to speak. But which community in the Finger Lakes area would be best for this? Let us help you out.
There are several factors that go into choosing the ultimate location to serve as your command center. Are you coming up from the NYC Metro area…or perhaps from points west? Where you’re coming from will determine where your entry point into the region is, and that might have an impact on where you decide to stay for your trip.
How long are you staying? If for an extended time, perhaps staying in more than one community could be beneficial to you or your family.
What are your interests while here? One community may be best for wine-tasting, while another may be better for hiking, fishing, or antiquing.
Let us break some of these considerations down a bit for you, with these categories:
- PRIME: communities that rise above all others as central locations to bring you multiple options with the best the Finger Lakes region offers its visitors.
- GEOGRAPHICALLY CONVENIENT: perhaps not as fully loaded with the variety of venues of PRIME communities, their geographic location can win you over, often with a more laid back vibe and plenty of charm, too!
- UNIQUELY INDEPENDENT: though not as geographically centered, these outstanding communities offer unique and outstanding activities and a stand-alone presence worthy of your stay.
So, which Finger Lakes communities are we recommending for you? Let’s take a look.
PRIME COMMUNITIES
These communities offer the absolute best combination of geographic location, variety of accommodations, and enjoyable venues to experience during your stay. Watkins Glen is our overall top selection for a PRIME location for your stay. If you’re going for a small town feel, you can’t do better than quaint Hammondsport. Ithaca and Geneva offer more mid-size city options, and Skaneateles brings a definite upscale charm. For more specific details for each of these outstanding options, check out our post The PRIME Communities for Your Finger Lakes Vacation.
GEOGRAPHICALLY CONVENIENT
These communities each came really close to making our PRIME category list above, so they shouldn’t in any way be considered “lesser” offerings for you. Each of these offer some sort of geographic value for your consideration. If you’re coming from the direction of western New York State, and you have an interest in sharing your Finger Lakes stay with the city of Rochester, then Canandaigua should be your choice. If coming from the east, and you want to spend some time in the Syracuse area, then look into Auburn. The villages of Waterloo and Seneca Falls work together in the northern part of the region, and Penn Yan seems to be centrally located for nearly everything. For more information on each of these great communities, check out our post The GEOGRAPHICALLY CONVENIENT Communities for Your Finger Lakes Vacation.
UNIQUELY INDEPENDENT
Though not as centrally located as the communities listed above, these three communities offer stand-alone excellence by themselves. Without a doubt, a full day enjoying Corning would be time well spent for all Finger Lakes visitors. Laid-back Naples lies in a gorgeous valley reminiscent of the best of European beauty. And tiny Aurora, in the very heart of the region, will charm your socks off. You can find out about each of them in Three UNIQUELY INDEPENDENT Finger Lakes Communities.
To Summarize
These communities, along with dozens of other charming cities, towns, and villages, offer you many options to consider as a place for you to establish a base-of-operations for your visit to the Finger Lakes region. We know you will enjoy your visit!