Ithaca, NY

A tucked-away Collegetown osteria that brings scratch-made Tuscan cooking to a city that has more than its share of good restaurants — housemade pasta, wood-fired preparations, and a list of Italian wines that rewards exploration. The intimate dining room draws a loyal mix of Cornell faculty, locals, and visitors who've done their homework.

The Commons' most consistently celebrated table, where New American cooking meets bold global flavors — Thai-inflected curries alongside classic burgers and local farm produce, in a room that keeps pace with both a relaxed dinner and a lively night out. It sits at the top of most Ithaca restaurant rankings and earns the placement.

A downtown Ithaca institution that anchors the Commons with a menu spanning upscale seafood and steak alongside well-made sandwiches and casual plates — covering the range from a quick lunch to a proper dinner without feeling unfocused. The outdoor patio is the best people-watching seat on the Commons.

An Ithaca staple for small-plate dining, with a menu of creative tapas-style dishes, an impressive rotating wine list, and a garden patio that turns into one of the best outdoor dining settings in the city on a summer evening. The format rewards sharing and lingering over multiple rounds.

One of the most influential vegetarian restaurants in American food history, operating since 1973 as a worker-owned collective in a renovated school building on North Cayuga. The menu changes daily based on what's seasonal and what the collective cooks want to make — a model that has kept the kitchen inventive for five decades when others would have gone stale.

A California-inspired taqueria that has earned serious local loyalty since 1995 with fresh, made-to-order Mexican cooking — tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and a tequila bar that makes the cantina side worth a stop on its own. It consistently ranks among New York State's best Mexican restaurants and earns that designation.

A Middle Eastern kitchen on the Commons bringing Yemeni and broader regional cooking to Ithaca with malawach flatbreads, shakshuka, and a menu that takes the cuisine seriously rather than using it as a hook for fusion. It's one of the more distinctive spots in a dining scene that trends toward Italian and American.

A casual, fun spot near the Commons where the menu crosses borders without apology — carnitas street tacos, gochujang short ribs, mac and cheese, and poutine burgers living together on the same board. It captures Ithaca's food-curious, globe-trotting dining culture without taking itself too seriously.

A downtown Ithaca Italian spot with a comfortable bar and a menu of familiar pasta, pizza, and cocktails that makes it the right choice when you want a reliably good dinner without a long reservation wait. It sits a few steps off the Commons and has outdoor seating that fills on warm evenings.

The flagship brewery for one of upstate New York's most respected craft beer operations, with a full tap list of year-round and seasonal releases alongside a pub menu built to hold its own. The space is large, welcoming families and groups, with an outdoor beer garden that becomes Ithaca's best warm-weather patio gathering spot.

One of the finest farmers markets in New York State, set in a permanent pavilion on Cayuga Lake's southern shore where more than 150 vendors gather on weekends. It's equal parts food hall, live music venue, and community gathering point — the place Ithacans go on Saturday mornings without any particular plan.

A long-running Ithaca Commons restaurant serving honest Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking — falafel, hummus, shawarma, and housemade sauces — with a focus on natural ingredients that predates the farm-to-table trend by decades. It's the kind of place that locals take for granted because it's always been reliable.

A Fall Creek neighborhood favorite operating in a converted house with a focused menu of locally sourced New American plates and a welcoming, low-key room that feels distinctly un-touristy. It's the kind of spot that doesn't need to advertise because the neighborhood already knows about it.

A small Chinese kitchen near Collegetown that takes the cuisine seriously — hand-pulled noodles, xiao long bao, and beef noodle soup that holds up to comparison with serious Chinese-American restaurant cities. Ithaca's Cornell connection brings in enough demand that Tianjin doesn't have to simplify.

A Greek-influenced spot near downtown serving mezze and Mediterranean plates in a room that tilts toward the casual end of the dining scale — good for a relaxed dinner or a long lunch with wine and shared plates. Ithaca doesn't have a deep bench of Greek cooking, and Agora fills the gap competently.

The signature hike of the Finger Lakes — a flat, easy 1.9-mile round-trip through a gorge that grows progressively more dramatic as the canyon walls rise to over 400 feet on either side, ending at the base of the 215-foot waterfall. The scale of the gorge walls in comparison to the waterfall's modest width is genuinely surprising.

A 0.65-mile climb through a cascade of ten waterfalls starting at the park entrance, rising 600 feet along Buttermilk Creek through layered shale formations carved over millennia. It's short enough for most visitors but strenuous enough to feel earned — the reward at the top is a quiet meadow above the gorge rim.

The most dramatic single-direction gorge trail in the Ithaca area — 2 miles top to bottom through Enfield Glen past Lucifer Falls and 11 other waterfalls, with the canyon walls tightening to slot-canyon width in several sections. The lower swimming hole is the best natural pool in the area and the destination for a full-day park visit.

A 10-minute walk from the Ithaca Commons that climbs stone steps through a narrow gorge past nine waterfalls directly onto Cornell's main campus — one of the most compressed sequences of gorge scenery in the area, entirely free and accessible from downtown. It functions as Ithaca's backyard shortcut from the city to the university.

An 8-mile flat, paved multi-use trail along Cayuga Lake's southern shore connecting the Farmers Market pavilion, Stewart Park, Cass Park, and the boat launches — the best flat cycling and walking route in the Ithaca area and the counterpoint to the steep gorge trails. The waterfront setting and lake views make this a completely different experience from the gorge hiking.

A converted rail trail on Ithaca's south side that climbs 200 feet from the city edge into the surrounding hills, with views back over downtown, Cayuga Lake, and the gorge-cut landscape that makes Ithaca's geography so distinctive. It's a local favorite for a quick hill workout that delivers a panorama most visitors don't find.

A 1,600-seat restored 1928 movie palace on the Commons that serves as the city's primary music and performing arts venue, hosting touring acts, film screenings, and local productions in a room that was built to make every show feel like an occasion. The acoustics and intimacy make it one of the best mid-size venues in upstate New York.

A professional regional theater operating in a converted 1932 aircraft hangar on the Cayuga waterfront, with a summer season of mainstage productions alongside a youth theater program that has produced working actors and directors. The industrial space — high ceilings, exposed structure — creates a theatrical environment that purpose-built venues can't replicate.

The outdoor beer garden at Ithaca Beer Co.'s Elmira Road location becomes the city's social hub from spring through fall, with picnic tables, food from the pub kitchen, and a tap list that showcases the brewery's best seasonal and limited releases. It attracts a cross-section of Ithaca — Cornell students, families, farmers, and faculty — that few venues manage.

Saturday morning at the Ithaca Farmers Market is less an errand and more an event — the 150-vendor lakeside pavilion fills with live music, community gatherings, and the best concentration of Finger Lakes food producers and artisans in one place. It's the axis around which Ithaca's weekend social life revolves.

Cornell's athletic program punches at a level unusual for an Ivy League school, and attending a home game — hockey at Lynah Rink, lacrosse at Schoellkopf Field, or baseball at Berman Field — gives visitors access to a genuinely passionate college sports atmosphere. The men's hockey program in particular draws a devoted local following.

The Cayuga Lake Wine Trail is the oldest wine trail in the United States, wrapping around the lake through rolling vineyard country with stops at small-production wineries whose Rieslings and Cabernet Francs have brought serious attention to Finger Lakes wine over the past two decades. Ithaca sits at the southern tip of the trail.

A nonprofit independent cinema in the heart of the Commons showing arthouse, foreign, and documentary films that the national multiplex chains ignore — the kind of theater that Ithaca's university and arts community has managed to sustain while similar venues in comparable cities have closed. The programming is ambitious and the experience is intimate.

Home to a 215-foot plunge waterfall — three stories taller than Niagara Falls — at the head of a steep glacial gorge on Cayuga Lake's western shore. The overlook platform at road level gives you the full waterfall view without hiking; the gorge trail to the base requires a flat half-mile walk through remarkable canyon walls.

A compact state park on Ithaca's southern edge where the gorge trail passes ten distinct waterfalls in less than a mile, climbing 600 feet through layered shale and limestone carved by Buttermilk Creek. The park's proximity to downtown — just minutes from the Commons — makes it the easiest gorge experience in the area.

The most rugged of Ithaca's gorge parks, with a 2-mile gorge trail that descends through Enfield Glen past 12 waterfalls including Lucifer Falls, a dramatic 115-foot plunge in a slot canyon. The lower park has a swimming hole fed by the creek that is genuinely one of the finest natural swimming spots in New York State.

One of the great American university campuses, built on a dramatic hill above Cayuga Lake with gorges cutting through the grounds and architecture ranging from 1860s stone buildings to modern landmarks. Even visitors with no connection to Cornell come for Beebe Lake, the suspension bridge over Cascadilla Gorge, and views south over the lake from the Arts Quad.

A 4,300-acre network of formal gardens, arboretum, and natural areas threaded with 7 miles of trails running along Fall Creek gorge and through mature woodlands at the northern edge of Cornell's campus. The formal gardens include a rose garden, vegetable garden, and wildflower garden; the natural areas connect into the gorge trail network.

An I.M. Pei-designed museum on Cornell's campus with a collection of over 40,000 works spanning Asian, pre-Columbian, and European and American art, plus rotating exhibitions that bring substantial contemporary shows to Ithaca. The upper-floor panoramic windows frame Cayuga Lake and the surrounding hills — the view is as notable as the collection.

A six-block pedestrian mall in downtown Ithaca lined with independent shops, restaurants, street performers, and public art — the city's living room and the hub around which the restaurant and nightlife scene radiates. The quality of independent retail and dining here is unusually high for a city of Ithaca's size.

A 150-vendor market in a permanent lakeside pavilion on the Cayuga waterfront — produce, prepared foods, crafts, and live music in a setting that makes it as much a social event as a shopping trip. Saturday mornings here are a local ritual, and the pavilion's position on the waterfront trail links it to the broader outdoor scene.

A hands-on science museum near Fall Creek that punches well above its size with a diverse collection of interactive exhibits, an outdoor science park, and programming that makes it as engaging for adults as for kids. It's the kind of local institution that a city twice Ithaca's size would be proud of.

A beloved lakeside park at the foot of Cayuga Lake where the Ithaca community gathers for picnics, kayaking, and one of the finest sunsets in the Finger Lakes region. The restored 1931 carousel, duck pond, and bird sanctuary give it a nostalgic, unhurried character that complements the more rugged outdoor scene elsewhere in the area.