Start from 41 curated places around Thousand Islands, NY, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Cavallario's Steak & Seafood
The most established full-service restaurant in Alexandria Bay, a river-view steakhouse and seafood house that has anchored the village's dining scene for decades. The room is traditional and the portions are substantial; this is where locals take family celebrations. Steaks and lake fish get equal attention, and the river-facing tables are the reason to book ahead.
Wood Boat Brewery
A waterfront microbrewery at the edge of the Antique Boat Museum campus in Clayton, pouring house-brewed beers alongside wood-fired pizzas and casual plates on a deck that looks straight out over the St. Lawrence. The beer list rotates seasonally and is made with care; the pizza crust is properly blistered and holds its own. One of Clayton's most reliably good evenings.
Trails & outdoors
Eel Bay Trail — Wellesley Island State Park
The most scenic hiking trail in the state park system of the Thousand Islands, running along a ruggedly beautiful shoreline of turquoise Eel Bay water with the St. Lawrence opening up through the trees. Mostly flat with a few rocky sections where the best river views appear, it is the park's payoff trail and the one that repays slow walking.
Minna Anthony Common Nature Center Trails
Nine miles of interconnected trails through the full habitat range of the Thousand Islands — upland forest, field, wetland boardwalks, and river shoreline — radiating from the nature center at the heart of Wellesley Island State Park. The center itself has natural history displays and a seasonal butterfly house; the trails can be combined into loops from under an hour to a half day.
Things to do
Boldt Castle Boat Tour from Alexandria Bay
The standard way to experience Boldt Castle is the ferry tour from the Alexandria Bay waterfront — typically a two-hour round trip that includes river narration and island commentary along the way, giving the castle context it lacks if you arrive only by private boat. Multiple operators run the route, and the competition keeps the experience reasonably sharp.
St. Lawrence Scenic River Cruise
A longer sightseeing cruise along the St. Lawrence focusing on the full sweep of the Thousand Islands — millionaire cottages, working lighthouses, navigational channels, and the scattered outer islands that ferry tours to single destinations skip. These cruises vary from 90 minutes to two hours and are the best orientation to the geography before you explore independently.
Landmarks & sights
Boldt Castle
A 120-room Rhineland-style castle on Heart Island, built at the turn of the century by Waldorf Astoria proprietor George Boldt as a monument to his wife Louise — construction halted the day she died in 1904 and the unfinished castle stood vacant for 73 years. The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired and restored it, and the five-acre island now holds the castle, a powerhouse, the Alster Tower, and formal gardens. Arrive by ferry from Alexandria Bay or by private boat; the self-guided tour lets you move at your own pace through the remarkable rooms.
Singer Castle
Built on Dark Island for Singer Sewing Machine president Frederick Bourne, with architect Ernest Flagg drawing from a Sir Walter Scott novel for the medieval castle design — complete with secret passages, a dungeon, and a lighthouse tower. It sits mid-river with a decidedly more intimate feel than Boldt, and tours are guided rather than self-directed, which gives the story real texture. Access is by boat only, typically from Alexandria Bay or Rockport, Ontario.