Things To Do In The Finger Lakes Besides The Wineries

The Finger Lakes earned their reputation on Riesling, but the region was a vacation destination long before the tasting rooms multiplied. The same deep glacial lakes that keep the vineyards frost-free also carve gorges, feed waterfalls, and hold enough water for cruises, kayaking, and swimming. The towns between the lakes, from Hammondsport to Ithaca, hold their own as day trips.

This guide covers the non-wine side of a Finger Lakes trip in full: the two state parks that anchor most itineraries, the on-the-water options, the towns, the food and cheese stops, and how to fold a single wine day into a mixed itinerary without letting it take over. Wine is one option here, not the focus.

What Is There To Do In The Finger Lakes Besides Wine Tasting?

The non-wine anchors are Watkins Glen State Park and Taughannock Falls State Park, two of the most-visited state parks in New York, plus lake cruises, kayak rentals, the Finger Lakes cheese trail, and a string of walkable small towns including Hammondsport, Canandaigua, Skaneateles, and Ithaca. Most visitors can fill three days without entering a single tasting room.

The region's geography does most of the work. Eleven long, narrow lakes run north to south across central New York, and the retreating glaciers that carved them also cut steep gorges into the soft shale. Watkins Glen's Gorge Trail threads past a long series of waterfalls stacked into a canyon, some of them close enough to the path that you walk behind the falling water; Taughannock Falls drops into a broad rocky amphitheater that you can view from a rim overlook or reach on a flat gorge-floor path.

The lakes themselves are the other half of the draw. Seneca Lake runs roughly 618 to 634 feet deep and rarely freezes over, holding a deep-water temperature near 39°F year-round, which is the same thermal mass that makes the surrounding slopes viable vineyard land. In summer that means swimming, boating, and lakeside dinners; in fall it means the foliage drive along the west side of Seneca, when the slopes that hold the vineyards turn color and the tasting-room crowds thin out midweek.

Which State Parks Should Top A Non-Wine Itinerary?

Watkins Glen State Park and Taughannock Falls State Park are the two parks worth building a day around. Watkins Glen's Gorge Trail threads a long chain of waterfalls through a slot canyon on a stone stairway that climbs most of the way up the gorge; Taughannock Falls drops into a wide amphitheater with both a rim trail and a flat gorge-floor walk. Both are day trips from any lake.

Watkins Glen sits at the southern tip of Seneca Lake, which makes it the natural anchor for a Seneca-based trip. The Gorge Trail climbs stone steps past waterfalls you walk behind, and it connects to the village of Watkins Glen at one end, so a morning in the gorge flows into lunch in town. The park fills on summer weekends, and the trail closes in winter when ice makes the stone steps unsafe, so check the park's seasonal status before planning a cold-weather visit.

Taughannock Falls State Park sits on the west side of Cayuga Lake, just north of Ithaca. The falls there are taller than Niagara, but the experience is the opposite of Watkins Glen: the gorge-floor path to the base is flat and short, which makes it one of the few marquee Finger Lakes hikes that works for strollers and slower walkers. The rim overlook on the west shore road gives the full view for anyone who wants it without the walk.

For trip planning, the two parks pair badly with each other in a single day and well on consecutive days: Watkins Glen anchors the Seneca side, Taughannock anchors the Cayuga side, and the drive between them crosses the width of the region. If you are basing in Watkins Glen, the village itself rewards an extra evening, with a lakefront walk and dinner options within a few blocks of the park entrance.

What Can You Do On The Water In The Finger Lakes?

Lake cruises, kayak and pontoon rentals, swimming at the state-park beaches, and lakefront dining are the main on-the-water options. Sightseeing cruises run on several of the lakes in season, and the same deep water that keeps Seneca from freezing makes it the region's boating center. Rentals and cruise schedules are seasonal, concentrated between late spring and early fall.

Cruises are the easiest version. Sightseeing boats run on Seneca, Cayuga, Skaneateles, and Canandaigua in the warm months, ranging from short sightseeing loops to dinner cruises. The Finger Lakes wine tours by boat and lake cruises guide covers the cruise options in detail, including the boats that combine a sail with a winery stop.

Under your own power, kayak and stand-up-paddleboard rentals cluster at the lakefront villages, and the long, narrow shape of the lakes means you can almost always find a shoreline within reach no matter which way the wind blows. Swimming is concentrated at the state-park beaches: Buttermilk Falls and Taughannock on the Cayuga side, and the Seneca Lake waterfront at Watkins Glen.

For groups who want one structured day on the water-adjacent side of the region, a guided outing saves the driving and the parking, which is the real constraint at the popular lakefront spots in July and August.

What Towns And Small-City Stops Are Worth A Half Day?

Hammondsport, Canandaigua, Skaneateles, and Ithaca are the four stops that justify a half day each. Hammondsport sits at the head of Keuka Lake with a village square that anchors the wine region's prettiest town; Canandaigua pairs a lakefront walk with a walkable main street; Ithaca adds a real small city's food scene to the Cayuga side.

Hammondsport wraps around a park at the south end of Keuka Lake, with the Glenn H. Curtiss museum nearby for aviation history and a village square that regularly lands on small-town lists. The town also sits minutes from the wineries on the Keuka west side, which makes it the natural compromise base when a group is split between wine and everything else.

Canandaigua, at the north end of its lake, gives you the widest walkable lakefront in the region, a pier, and a main street with restaurants within a few blocks of each other. It is also the departure point for the region's best-reviewed structured day out: the Canandaigua Wine Trail Experience, a shared small-group tour running 5 to 6 hours, rated 4.9 across 112 reviews, from $258 per person, with tastings included in the price. Even on a mostly non-wine trip, it is the one wine day that leaves the morning free for the lakefront.

Ithaca, at the south end of Cayuga Lake, is the region's one genuine small city, with a college-town food scene, the Commons pedestrian mall, and both Buttermilk Falls and Taughannock Falls within a short drive. Skaneateles, on its own small lake east of the main wine country, is the day-trip for anyone whose priority is a lakefront lunch over an itinerary of stops. The three days in the Finger Lakes itinerary covers how these towns chain together.

Where Do The Cheese Trail, Food Stops, And Farms Fit In?

The Finger Lakes Cheese Trail links roughly a dozen farmstead cheesemakers across the region, and the farm and food stops between the lakes, cideries, breweries, and farm stands included, fill the gaps in a non-wine itinerary better than any single attraction. They cluster on the back roads between Seneca and Keuka, which makes them a natural slow-day drive.

The cheese trail is the region's most underrated structure. Farmstead creameries across the Finger Lakes open their tasting rooms on set days, many of them on the same rural roads the winery traffic never touches. The Finger Lakes cheese trail and food pairing stops guide maps the creameries and the pairings, and a cheese-trail day pairs naturally with a brewery or cidery stop, since the craft-beer side of the region has grown alongside the wine industry.

For a low-commitment stop that costs almost nothing, Fulkerson Winery in Dundee, on the west side of Seneca, runs a walk-in standard tasting from $9 per person, rated 4.4 across 19 reviews. It is a 25-minute self-guided tasting rather than a tour, no pickup and no guide, which makes it a companion stop on a cheese-trail or back-road day rather than a planned event. It is the cheapest real item in the region's tasting landscape by a wide margin.

The farm-and-food day works best on the Seneca west side and the Keuka loop, where creameries, cideries, and farm stands sit within a short drive of one another. Treat it as the slow day of the trip: no reservations, no schedule, and a hard stop at whichever lakefront town has the dinner table.

Can You Mix One Wine Day Into A Non-Wine Trip Without It Taking Over?

Yes, and the structure matters more than the wineries. A shared small-group tour of five to six hours leaves the morning free, keeps the driving off your group, and costs from $258 to $269 per person with tastings included. A private van from around $389 per group, up to 4, with tastings paid at the door, fits groups who want to pick their own stops.

The honest framing: a mixed group does not need to skip the wine country, it needs to contain it. One guided day, booked for a fixed date, does the containment. The shared small-group format is the default because it bundles transport, tastings, and a set schedule into a single block, and the region's dominant operator, Crush Beer and Wine Tours, caps its vans at 12 travelers.

The Seneca Lake Wine Tasting Tour is the region's most-reviewed listing: 4.7 across 220 reviews, from $263 per person, 5 to 6 hours, tastings included, departing from a Geneva lakefront hotel. Note the cancellation policy before booking: the main listing is non-refundable, while the same operator's newer parallel listing of the identical tour, from $259 per person, allows free cancellation, which matters on a trip built around weather-dependent park days.

The Canandaigua Wine Trail Experience is the better single wine day for a trip based on the west side of the region, since it starts and ends in Canandaigua, near the lakefront and the town's non-wine attractions. It runs 5 to 6 hours, capped at 12, tastings included, from $258 per person, rated 4.9 across 112 reviews. It is non-refundable, so lock it to a day your group is certain about.

For groups that want the wine day on their own terms, a private customizable van, such as the Seneca Lake version from $389 per group, up to 4, lets the group pick the wineries, with tastings paid at the door and up to four stops of about an hour each per the operator's stated format. The trade is simple: private costs more per head for small groups but buys control of the schedule, which suits a trip where the wine day has to bend around a hike or a cruise.

How Do You Plan A Three-Day Trip That Balances Both Sides?

Split by lake, not by activity. Day one: Watkins Glen gorge plus the village and the Seneca west side. Day two: the Cayuga side, Taughannock Falls and Ithaca. Day three: a single structured block, either a cheese-trail drive or one guided wine tour, anchored to whichever lake you are leaving from. This keeps daily driving under an hour each way.

The common mistake is interleaving: a winery morning, a park afternoon, a town evening, repeated daily. That doubles the driving, because the parks, towns, and tasting rooms sit on different lakes. Grouping by geography, one lake per day, cuts the windshield time dramatically and leaves the structured blocks where they belong, at the start or end of a day.

Timing matters more than selection. Winery tasting rooms across the region close early, often by 5 or 6 p.m., which is why the why Finger Lakes wineries close so early explainer is worth a read before you build a schedule: the wine day has to start by noon to fit three stops. The parks, by contrast, reward early morning before the gorge trails fill. For the seasonal question, the best time to visit Finger Lakes wineries guide covers the crowds-and-foliage tradeoffs that apply to the parks too.

The region's own scale backs this plan up. New York's wine and grape foundation counts about 140 wineries in the Finger Lakes, per the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, and the regional tourism association markets the same area on its lakes, gorges, and towns, not just its tasting rooms. A trip that only sees the wineries misses most of what the region is selling. Finger Lakes Wine Tours covers the wine side of this itinerary in depth, but the non-wine days are what make the wine days feel like a choice rather than an obligation.

The short answers: Watkins Glen and Taughannock Falls are the park anchors, cruises and rentals cover the water, the cheese trail and towns fill the slow days, and one guided wine tour, five to six hours from $258 per person, contains the tasting-room side of the trip without taking it over. The details below repeat each answer in full.

Common Questions About Things To Do In The Finger Lakes