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AAA Drive Trips: New York's Finger Lakes Wine Country and Niagara Falls

Submitted by Community Manager, July 2, 2009

     American Indian folklore holds that the Finger Lakes were formed when the Great Spirit placed his handprint on some of the most beautiful land ever created. The area is blessed with natural beauty as well as fertile soil and a climate extremely conducive to growing grapes. Viticulture—the cultivation of grapes—was introduced here in the mid-1800s on the sloping hills beside the lakes.

Today, Upstate New York's Finger Lakes region is second only to California's Napa Valley in commercial wine production in the United States. With more than 65 wineries, vineyards and cellars surrounding the major lakes, you will find many opportunities along this route to tour and taste the best that the Finger Lakes Wine Region has to offer. The AAA Finger Lakes Drive Trip takes you from Rochester to Corning, Watlins Glen, Ithaca, Syracuse and back to Rochester in a 378-mile circle tour.

    Going a little further west, the AAA Niagara Falls-Lake Ontario Drive Trip features one of the country most beautiful natural sites, Niagara Falls. Young in geologic time, Niagara Falls were created by the recession and melting of a mammoth ice sheet. As the ice retreated some 50,000 years ago the land rose behind it, forming such ridges as the Niagara Escarpment. The melting ice formed a vast lake in what is now Lake Erie and its surrounding lowlands; the lake overflowed about 12,000 years ago, creating Niagara Falls. This 189-mile trip is from Rochester to Buffalo and the nearby Falls.
AAA Drive Trips® are two- to five-day driving itineraries for popular U.S. and Canadian destinations. These ready-to-go itineraries include an overview map, estimated drive time, mileage, photos, links to information on cities, attractions and events, as well as hotel booking. You can plan your own drive trip using TripTik Travel Planner, AAA’s online interactive mapping, routing and travel planning tool.
[Drive Trips], [New York]
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About the Author

  • Image Community Manager The Community Manager typically blogs about holiday travel forecasts, travel documentation, Diamond Ratings, other general AAA travel information, etc

Comments (1)

Submitted by J Severns, July 5. 2009 17:38
About 8 years ago we traveled to Niagara Falls from Chicago with daughter, son-in-law and 4 year-old granddaughter. One of the highlights of the trip after Niagara Falls was the Finger Lakes area. Niagara set the mood and we did a tour of waterfalls in state parks at the southern end of several of the Finger Lakes on the homeward leg of the trip. The granddaughter seemed to enjoy the smaller waterfalls better than Niagara and we all especially enjoyed Watkins Glens State Park and the gorge and falls in the Robert Treman State Park. There is also an old mill there as well. I have some nice pictures of the granddaughter wading a shallow stream leading away from one of the falls. I always remember that trip as our waterfall trip. I would highly recommend, especially for mid-westerners. This area of NY was a huge surprise for us. Gorgeous!

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