Upstate NY

When you get to Niagara Falls, stay on the Canadian side. Or even better, Niagara on the Lake for a bit of little England, and for what Niagara Falls calls The Prettiest Town in Ontario.

In no particular order, based on my living in Syracuse for several years, and not allowing for distance from the Thruway,

Seneca Falls
Ithaca
Lake Placid - or anywhere nice in the Adirondacks - the only place in Upstate that I was truly sad to leave and still kick myself that we never got back
Oswego

Definitely not Syracuse....

Good luck......

If you want the first day's drive to be around 8 hrs, I would agree with Nigel and pick Seneca Falls or Ithaca and my choice would be Ithaca. It's on a lake and it's a fantastic college town (Cornell University) and I loved it there. However, if you want a little less driving on the first day you could stay at Cooperstown. It's historic, it's on a lake, and if either of you enjoy baseball there's always the hall of fame. If you want to linger in Conway and have the first day's drive to be shorter (<5hrs), you could stop in Lake George, Glens Falls or Saratoga Springs. Lake George is gorgeous; very touristy in summer and fall but worth going to.

Cazenovia is quite lovely, on a lake, and just a bit to the SE of Syracuse.

Thanks all - gives me a little research to do (I love planning!).

I have been to Niagara Falls twice - once when I was a child and once with my husband....wayyyy back in 2001. So it will be nice to go back to Toronto after 15 years! My memories of NF are a lot of chintzy - what would you call them - places like Ripleys Believe it or not and haunted buildings. Hoping to avoid all that stuff. I know we will spend a day seeing the Falls - maybe we will hit Niagara on the Lake for a day to cleanse our palate ;)

Cooperstown! Cute little town on the shore of Otsego Lake. Visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and museum.

Hi Nicole,

I'll add my thoughts to this. I'm from Cooperstown! For a town with one stoplight and less than 2000 people, there's tons to do. However, from the NYS Thruway (I-90) we are about a 45min to 1 hr away, on back roads. Then, you'd have to retrace your steps the next morning. But, if that doesn't seem too far out of the way, check it out:

What to do there:

1. The National Baseball Hall of Fame if you are Baseball Fans! Even if you aren't huge fans, there is a usually something here for everyone.

2. The Farmer's Museum is there. It's a living history museum with a smithy, tavern, mercantile, etc.

3. The Fenimore House is the home of the NYS Historical Association. It is novelist James Fenimore Cooper's family home (his father founded the town). It is a small, but very well done art museum with a focus on folk art and a terrific Native American Indian exhibit!

4. Ommegang Brewery, an award-winning brewery is located a few minutes outside of town, it opened after I went to college, so I've never done the tour, so I can't comment on that.

5. We are located on Otsego Lake, referred to as Glimmerglass in the Fenimore novels. So, you can always get a nice view of that too.

I should mention that if you choose C' town, you should book your reservations early. There are few hotels and many B & B's but once the summer hit, it is overrun with baseball teams coming to play and visit the Hall of Fame.

If you think C'town is too far from the Thruway, I also would recommend Cazenovia. It's a beautiful little town near Syracuse on the edge of a lake. There is a small college there, so they may have some goings--on at that time of year.

If you need meore info, feel free to PM me. Have fun on your trip!

I went to Ithaca College (another good school in same town as Cornell. Lovely town, lovely lake. Also recommend Cooperstown. If you are going to be there in the summer, there's also a great opera company!

I went to Ithaca College (another good school in same town as Cornell. Lovely town, lovely lake. Also recommend Cooperstown. If you are going to be there in the summer, there's also a great opera company!

I'm from Schenectady (and people often seem to get lost there). I would recommend that over Albany, especially the newly revitalized downtown. As an Ithaca College alum, I can also recommend that town, as well as Seneca Falls and Cooperstown.

Cynthia...I will say, at the time we did get lost in Schn...that was before the days of GPS (2001)...we were trying to follow the signs for the route on the phone poles and I don't know if we missed one, but all of a sudden we stopped seeing signs and ended up in a rather rundown part of town. Now with our GPS, I think we'd be OK ;)

I am now toying with us driving down to Boston for a few nights, flying to Chicago, fly from Chi to Toronto and from TO back to BOS, then driving home after visiting some friends in Maine for a few nights.

I did a quick check on expedia and we can do those 3 flights in May for about $600 total! If I tried doing it from Halifax, it's running about $800 per person. Never been to Chi but interested to go. So will run that by the hubby and see what he thinks.

I agree with above poster that the New York Thruway is pretty bleak, but if you don't mind a slower trip, you could parallel it on Route 20 - much nicer, closer to Cooperstown, and would take you directly to Cazenovia.