Start from 28 curated places around Rochester, NY, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
The original upstate New York barbeque institution, occupying the historic former Lehigh Valley Railroad Station at 99 Court Street overlooking the Genesee River gorge, with a menu built on smoked brisket, ribs, and pulled pork alongside a live blues program that has brought national touring acts through the building for decades. The riverside views from the main dining room are the best from any restaurant in downtown Rochester, and the volume of regulars over the years has kept quality consistent in a way that multi-location barbeque chains rarely manage.
Chortke
A Persian-influenced restaurant on Goodman North that draws regulars from across Rochester for its homemade flatbreads, khachapuri, and a short menu of carefully executed dishes where bread-making is clearly the centerpiece skill. The duck confit flatbread and the khachapuri cheese-filled Georgian bread have developed specific reputations, and the kitchen's portion sizes are generous enough that sharing is both practical and encouraged. It consistently ranks among the highest-rated restaurants in the city.
Trails & outdoors
Corbett's Glen Nature Park
A 2.1-mile easy loop hidden in the suburban Penfield-Brighton area, where Allen's Creek enters through a vaulted stone railway arch into a glacial landscape of rolling moraines, wetland marsh, and several small cascading waterfalls. The stone tunnel entrance creates a genuine threshold effect — you step through it from a suburban neighborhood and emerge into a forested ravine that has no visible development. AllTrails rates it 4.6 from 2,500+ reviews, which is high for a trail this accessible.
Genesee Riverway Trail (Genesee Valley Park)
A 6.9-mile paved loop starting at the south edge of Genesee Valley Park where the Genesee River meets the Erie Canal, following the river on a flat, shaded path with consistent water views. The route is popular enough that it's well-maintained but rarely crowded outside of weekend afternoons, and the flat surface makes it the most practical trail in Rochester for cyclists, strollers, and runners who want genuine distance without terrain. The park itself has significant open meadow and recreation areas that extend the visit beyond the trail.
Things to do
Eastman Theatre
The anchor performance venue of the Eastman School of Music, built in 1922 as one of the great movie palaces of the East, now home to three stages that together host the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, international guest artists, large-scale opera, and Eastman student performances that are often the highest-concentration musical talent in the city. The Kodak Hall main stage is a National Historic Landmark interior that's worth seeing with any programming on stage. Student recitals in the Hatch Recital Hall are free and regularly better than comparable ticketed events elsewhere.
The Little Theatre
The oldest continuously operating independent cinema in the United States, showing American independent films, international cinema, and classic repertory programming on five screens in the East End. The selection function as a cultural editorial, choosing films based on quality and significance rather than commercial potential, and the café/bar in the lobby makes it a social destination rather than just a movie theater. The summer outdoor screening series in the parking courtyard is a seasonal Rochester institution.
Landmarks & sights
George Eastman Museum
The world's oldest photography museum, set on the East Avenue estate of George Eastman, who democratized photography and built the Kodak company that defined Rochester's industrial identity for a century. The collection spans several million objects covering the full arc of photography and cinema, from daguerreotypes to contemporary digital work, displayed in the original mansion and purpose-built museum wings. The formal gardens surrounding the property are maintained to their original early-twentieth-century design, and admission to the grounds is separate from the museum galleries.
The Strong National Museum of Play
The largest collection of toys, games, dolls, and play-related objects in the world, with over 130 interactive exhibits across four floors, including the only National Toy Hall of Fame. The scale is genuinely overwhelming — pinball machines, a full Sesame Street recreation, a working carousel, a butterfly garden, and dozens of recreated play environments across multiple eras. It functions as both a world-class children's museum and a cultural archive of how humans play across different centuries.