Beyond the Big Apple
New York embodies contrasts in the extreme, from New York City, America’s cultural and financial capital, to Niagara Falls, a world-renowned natural wonder on the Canadian border.  The state is endowed with green forests, mountain streams and major rivers, rolling hills and skiable mountains, lakes Great and small — the stuff of outdoor recreation around the calendar.

History lives on here in small things that appeal to visitors: old country inns, stone houses, historic canals, colonial-era forts, but tourists also come for the pleasures of a 21st century lifestyle, like comfortable resorts, good food and drink, casinos and more.

About New York state
If you want a reprieve from daily stresses, there’s a lot to be said for New York state’s bucolic rural areas or wooded parklands. To get a feel for the scenery of this area, look for examples of paintings in the style of the Hudson Valley School. You’ll want to paint yourself into the picture.

Setting New York City aside for the moment, the larger cities (Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse) offer attractions and entertainment, but these are not vacation destinations. It’s the Catskills, the Adirondacks, the Finger Lakes and Niagara Falls that draw visitors upstate. Tourists come to fish, hike and sample various water sports, or for skiing in winter. They come to visit wineries and eat fresh foods, and by the by, may find themselves intrigued by the area’s history, which encompasses the Underground Railroad, the women’s emancipation movement — and war.

A remarkable portion of the French and Indian War of 1756 to 1763 was fought in New York because the English and the French were in a rough fight over which would control significant chunks of North America, including Quebec, other parts of Canada and even parts of New York itself.  The British won, and nowadays tourists can visit 16 New York sites prominently associated with that conflict. At some forts, they can attend regular living-history events, and through 2010, additional activities will be staged to commemorate the 250th anniversary of specific events in that war.

Mostly, New York state is a venturer’s destination. These are the travelers who want to get away from crowds and who want to bypass banal tourist attractions to find beautiful settings. Travelers from all over the U.S. and elsewhere seek these natural attractions and the small towns in what is a quite large state by the standards of the U.S. Northeast.  And, by any standards, the Adirondack Park is large: At 6 million acres, it is America’s biggest state park outside of Alaska and roughly the size of Vermont.

The resort areas are busiest in the summer, and winter sports fans visit Adirondack sites like Lake Placid December through March.

• Visit Elmira’s National Soaring Museum, home to the largest collection of gliders and sailplanes in the world. Then, take a glider ride at the Harris Hill Soaring Center. Elmira is called the soaring capital of America.

• Bike your way through the Hudson Valley. Or, choose a biking and hiking itinerary along the state’s historic canal system.

• Go whitewater rafting. Options include Cattaraugus Creek or the Genesee River in western New York or the Black River, Moose River or Sacandaga River in the Adirondacks.

• Go cross-country skiing at Lake Placid, site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympics. Or, hone your skills at any of a range of other winter sports: bobsledding, downhill skiing, ice skating. Whiteface Mountain claims the highest vertical drop in the East, 3,430 feet.

• Take a canoe trip through the Adirondacks. You can fashion an itinerary that takes you from lake to lake.

• Go snowmobiling. The state boasts more than 11,000 miles of snowmobile trails. Head north for choices along the Great Lakes Seaway Trail scenic byway, a snowy winter playground. See www.seawaytrail.com.

• Go hot-air ballooning over the Adirondacks or the Catskills, over Long Island or Chautauqua Lake.

• Attend a wine camp on Long Island, offered by the Long Island Wine Country Bed and Breakfast Group.

• Go tubing, or rafting, or canoeing on the Delaware River in the Catskills. You can camp out along the way.

• Rent a canal boat and travel on some of the 500-mile New York State Canal System, between May and mid-November, for a unique perspective on wildlife preserves and settled towns, waterside restaurants and seasonal festivals.

• Stay at a dude ranch and get in some horseback riding, along with cookouts, hayrides, fishing, etc. Some ranches operate year-round and offer ice skating, snowmobiling and skiing, both the downhill and cross-country kinds.

• Try your luck at the tables and see a show at the Oneida nation’s Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y., a short drive from Syracuse.

• Go to the races at Saratoga.

• A number of sites associated with the French and Indian War, such as Fort Ticonderoga (Ticonderoga/www.fort-ticonderoga.org) and Old Fort Niagara (Youngstown/www.oldfortniagara.org), have a regular schedule of living-history programs or other activities. Seek them out for a refresher in American history, photo opportunities and just plain fun.

• Tour the Windy Hill Farms Candle Factory in Port Crane. Then buy wholesale.

• The Finger Lakes region is wine country. Plan a tastings trip along the Cayuga Wine Trail or the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. Time that right and attend the Finger Lakes Wine Festival in July.
When in this neighborhood, also tour the Corning Museum of Glass.

• Rent a houseboat for a week and cruise among the Thousand Islands (really, nearly 2,000 islands) in the St. Lawrence.

• Retrace the route of the Underground Railroad used by escaping slaves in the 19th century. The sites include Harriett Tubman’s home in Auburn and Broderick Park in Buffalo, which each August hosts a reenactment event.

• Go on a beer-tasting expedition in the Cooperstown area (Cooperstown Brewing Company and the Brewery Ommegang). Also, visit the Fly Creek Cider Mill and Orchard where cider is made from New York apples.
If visiting in March, attend one of the Sunday sugaring-off events at the Farmer’s Museum, just outside of Cooperstown. You’ll sample the maple syrup at breakfast. Then, don’t overlook the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

• Include Niagara Falls on any itinerary that takes you anywhere close to the falls, on the Canadian border. It is one of those numerous “eighth wonders of the world” we always hear about.

• Join a walking tour of Huguenot Street, established by 12 Huguenot families in 1678 and forming the core of New Paltz. You will see stone houses (for which New York’s Ulster County is famous) built by the original families.
Examples of other historic stone houses dot the county’s villages, and Kingston, the county seat and first capital of New York state, counts 21 pre-Revolutionary War stone houses despite the fact the British burned the city in 1777.

• Book a series of cooking classes, then build a vacation around the destination.

• Fashion a trip along the Hudson to visit a number of opulent mansions built by the very wealthy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These include homes belonging to the Rockefellers, the Roosevelts and railroad tycoon Jay Gould. The properties also include the homes of author Washington Irving and the eighth president Martin Van Buren. Consult www.hudsonvalley.org.

• Charter a boat for fishing on Lake Ontario.

• Or, try fly-fishing in the Catskills.

• Hoosick Falls was home to the country’s best-known folk artist, Grandma Moses. Visit her grave site on Main Street but enjoy the charming town itself, for its 19th century churches, houses, stone schoolhouse, covered bridge — and nearby Revolutionary War site. Attend a Hoosick Falls Community Band concert in Wood Memorial Park any Wednesday of July or August.

• Attend the National Buffalo Wing Festival, in Buffalo naturally.

• For a unique national park, visit the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in and around Seneca Falls. The park comprises a group of historic sites including the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House in Seneca Falls, home of the legendary leader. No surprise then that the National Women’s Hall of Fame is also in Seneca Falls.

• Plan a family camping trip in the 6 million-acre Adirondack Park. Take guided trail walks, as well.