Experience the best of Ithaca

Ithaca sits at the southern end of Cayuga Lake, one of the longest of the Finger Lakes, in a bowl of hills in central New York. Cornell University, founded in 1865, crowns East Hill, and Ithaca College stands on South Hill, so that students form a large part of the town. The compact downtown has a pedestrian Commons, and the town's slogan, Ithaca is Gorges, refers to the deep, waterfall-filled ravines that cut through the hillsides, even through the campus.

The Cascadilla Gorge Trail climbs from downtown to the Cornell campus past waterfalls, and Taughannock Falls, a drop of about 66 metres in a state park on the lake, is higher than Niagara. Buttermilk Falls and Robert H. Treman State Park have swimming holes, the Cornell Botanic Gardens and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Sapsucker Woods are open to walkers, and wineries line the shores of Cayuga Lake.

The Ithaca Farmers Market sells produce, baked goods and crafts beside the inlet, and vegetarian cooking has long been a point of pride in the town's restaurants. Riesling from the lake's vineyards is poured in the tasting rooms. The waterfalls run strongest after the spring melt, and winters are snowy.