5 Finger Lakes Stops New Yorkers Say Aren’t Worth the Detour
A family pulls off Route 14 in New York’s Finger Lakes with a five-stop itinerary printed from someone else’s blog post.
The first stop already disappoints them.
New Yorkers who grew up making this same drive could have told them which stops to skip and why.
These are the Finger Lakes stops New Yorkers say aren’t worth the detour.
1. Watkins Glen State Park
Watkins Glen State Park’s Gorge Trail packs 19 waterfalls into barely a mile, and that reputation is exactly the problem.
People who’ve made this drive more than once know the main lot can fill before many visitors finish their coffee on a busy summer Saturday.
The park runs a shuttle between its three main entrances, and it costs $6 a person each way.
That’s on top of the $10-per-vehicle gate fee, collected from sunrise to sunset for the whole season.
That adds up fast.
Standing in a shuttle line wasn’t the plan anyone printed off a road-trip blog.
The trail only runs May through mid-October.
A weekday morning inside that window beats any weekend afternoon, and a lot of people have learned that the hard way.
2. Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion
Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion in Canandaigua looks like a sure-thing stop on a road-trip list, right up until someone checks the calendar.
The estate shuts down completely from November through April.
Even during its open season, the gardens stay closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
On the days it’s open, the admissions booth closes at 4 p.m., 30 minutes before the grounds do.
No amount of driving fixes a locked gate.
No exceptions.
Visitors who’ve been burned once now call ahead before building a fall or winter afternoon around Sonnenberg.
Sonnenberg Runs a Six-Month Season, Not Everything Else Does
Sonnenberg Gardens isn’t the only Finger Lakes stop that disappears for part of the year.
Sonnenberg’s season runs a full six months, May 1 through October 31.
Keuka Lake State Park’s campsites run about five months, mid-May through mid-October, and Cayuga Lake State Park keeps nearly that same window.
Call the park office or check its website before driving more than twenty minutes for anything with a season attached to it.
3. Buttermilk Falls State Park
Buttermilk Falls State Park draws many families in for one reason: The swimming area at the base of the falls.
The swimming area doesn’t open until July 3, and even then it’s scheduled for Fridays through Mondays, with extra weekdays added only when lifeguard staffing allows it.
Time it right.
The park’s site warns that same swimming area will likely close by mid-August, weeks before many families even start planning a Labor Day trip.
A family that drives out expecting a swim in September finds a beautiful, empty waterfall and nowhere to get in the water.
Locals time a Buttermilk trip for early-to-mid July, once the pool’s open.
Or they skip the swim and just walk the gorge trail instead, since the waterfalls don’t close with the pool.
4. Stony Brook State Park
Stony Brook State Park photographs like the swimming hole of every visitor’s imagination, all mossy rock ledges and clear pools stacked down a narrow gorge.
None of it is legal to swim in.
The park’s rules prohibit swimming and wading in the gorge because of slippery rock and strong currents hiding under a calm surface.
The park funnels everyone who wants a legal swim into one small stream-fed pool near the north entrance instead.
That pool only runs mid-June through early September, with a wading depth of about a foot and a half, more of a kids’ splash zone than a swimming hole.
The upper gorge trail is also closed for the 2026 season, so the classic end-to-end hike isn’t happening this year regardless.
People who know Stony Brook go for the gorge trail views and leave the postcard photo alone.
The gorge wins anyway.
5. Skaneateles
Skaneateles is the postcard lake town that tops nearly every ranking of New York’s prettiest villages.
The village’s parking rules explain why many New Yorkers only stop there for lunch.
Many meters cap out at two hours, and a non-resident pays $6 a day at the municipal lot.
A resident pays just $3 there, but only with a valid village or town resident coupon.
Meters run on quarters, fifteen minutes at a time, enforced Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m.
A slow lakeside afternoon turns into a clock-watching errand.
Bring quarters.
Locals treat Skaneateles as a short stop between other plans, not a whole day’s destination.
Psst! How much do you know about the Finger Lakes? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Finger Lakes IQ
These questions dig into the Finger Lakes region’s history, geology, and geography. Many people miss at least half of them, see how you stack up.
Which Finger Lake is the shallowest, with a maximum depth of only about 30 feet?
Where Locals Send Visitors Instead
Robert H. Treman State Park is where regulars who skip Watkins Glen's crowded gorge usually send visitors instead.
The park sits a short drive from Ithaca, and its gorge holds 12 waterfalls, including the 115-foot Lucifer Falls.
It also has a lifeguarded, stream-fed swimming pool at Enfield Falls, near the park's lower entrance.
The pool stays staffed from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, late June through Labor Day, the same rough swim season as the crowded parks up the road.
Nine miles of trails wind through the gorge, enough to spread out even when a weekend crowd shows up.
Nobody outside the region puts it on a road-trip itinerary.
Fewer people, more waterfalls.
A day-use vehicle pass costs $10, the same gate fee charged at the crowded park down the road.
Walking the full gorge trail takes about an hour and a half, crossing three staircases along the way.
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