With the new updates. These stops are much nicer and cleaner. The updates in the bathrooms are…read morecool. Soap than water and dryer. Food availability is good. A few options for everyone.

This travel plaza has Starbucks, Shake Shack and Chick-fil-A in it. It's very big and clean. They…read morealso are doing a lot of of this electronic purchasing of food and drink with the screen, cutting down on the personal interaction, but feels like it adds to time quite a bit. So I'd have cash with me in case the screens have a line. The cash didn't have lines at any of the places. The restrooms were clean. Parking easy. Well plowed, which matters this year.

We utilized Charles as our driver for a winery tour during our trip through the finger lakes, and…read morehe was wonderful. In setting up our trip, he was very easy going, friendly, and prompt in our discussions. Not knowing our way around the area, we informed him that dry reds were our preference, and he took us to several wineries with outstanding reds. To eat he took us to a little hole in the wall sandwich shop that we would have never discovered on our own and it was exceptional. His recommendation was to plan a 5 hour tour, with the option to add on time if necessary at the same rate. He did a great job of being prepared as he made reservations where they were needed, and had an umbrella for us on the rainy day. Charles also did a great job of paying attention to when we were exiting the wineries and pulling right up to the door. He came prepared with water bottles in the van, and a spare box if needed to hold our purchased wine. When we come to the finger lakes again, Charles will definitely be the first driver we contact for another tour. I would highly recommend trusting Charles as your driver.

Spoke to Charles Holmes the owner to reserve a Caravan to tour 4-5 wineries. When I went to…read moredescribe what we wanted to do he abruptly interrupted and stated that I needed to follow his reservation information exchange process. He came across as very rigid and as a know it all which set off some red flags. In In spite of first impressions I decided to overlook all of this and make a reservation. He sent me a confirmation and asked for the full 4 hour rate payed in full up front. I told him that I would not be comfortable paying in advance in cash and would be willing to pay 1/2 which he agreed. When I had a chance to reflect on spending four hours in a van with someone so rigid I decided to cancel the reservation which is within my right. His response was quote "Please do not contact my company again" What a great way to respond to a customer. My advice to anyone looking to have a nice day touring Fingerlake wine country is not to hire this guy.

Its smaller than the others, but it's fine with the updated bathrooms, several food vendors. Not…read moretoo shabby, just much smaller than the others alomg the pike

Let's get on the road and see the world …read more If your travels take you to New York. This is the convenient store and fuel station organizer that you will encounter. These are the random locations and stops that an individual will not be charged to stop at. They are organized and well thought out . Are you a truck or a car? They will ship the car one way and trucks another way. Depending on where you are on the thruway dictates how large the inside of the store is . This is happens to be a larger one . The rest rooms are inside of here and are open all hours of the day. During regular hours the fast food places are open. Inside of these rest stops is a smaller type of convenience store for soda, coffee, water, candy or whatever you're seeking . They offer little trinkets for you to purchase too. What's not to love ? Let's get out of the car, find some coffee. Freshen up and get the car some fuel and get back on the road again. Our adventure awaits.

Regina's cottage is a great location on Cayuga lake. It comes with two Kayaks and a Canoe and a…read moreraft if you want. The deck is really nice and they have a gas grille for you to make food on the grille. The large screen TV in the living room is nice with a Roku. That being said I feel it is over priced. Duck Inn right next door was similar priced and it's a three bedroom and three bath. Regina's cottage is two small bedrooms and one small bathroom. The second bedroom does not have a closet. The stackable washer dryer is in an alcove in the closet and when we used it it walked into the room. We called to have maintenance move it back but it was too late in the day so we got on the floor and we pushed it partially back with our feet. The master bedroom bed was not too comfortable with a foam pad. The kitchen lacks a dishwasher and the kitchen sink lacks real hot water and water pressure. Funny since both are fine in the bathroom. The dock is in horrible shape while Duck inn next door had a beautiful dock. There is a fire pit and chairs by the lake and we did light a fire one night. The kitchen pots and pans could be better and a salad spinner would be a nice addition too.

This is a neat little airport along the finger lakes and an easy 25 minute flight from Buffalo. The…read moreairport has a courtesy car (a car they let pilots use for free for an hour or two) and it's quite nice to fly into, grab the courtesy car and drive up to the lake for a nice little picnic! It's a little hard to spot from the air, IMHO -- so it's useful to grab a satellite view of the area and look for the lone runway before you depart, although I'm sure with a GPS you'll find it easily enough. There's a pilot lounge with a few computers that you're free to use. You can rent hangars, come here for flight lessons and I believe the Penn Yan flying club recently moved their Cherokee to this field -- so definitely reach out to the flying club if you're interested in some affordable ways of learning how to fly. Not sure how much the hangars cost, but it's a neat little field. Transient parking is free for small planes, but they do charge a premium if you plan to fly in a King Air, etc. Fuel costs are average for the area. The runway is about 5,500ft and the lights on it are pilot operated. If you're a pilot and looking for a place to fly into, have a picnic along the fingerlakes; D38 is a great option! For those in the Buffalo area, it's likely one of the first "cross countries" you'll do as a student since it's just about 50nm away.

Lauren Long is a superb photographer based out of the Syracuse / Geneva / Finger Lakes region…read more Lauren photographed my wedding in 2008, and two years later she photographed my three-day-old baby. I flew Lauren to New York City for the occasion, realizing I needed a pro to capture those incredible moments. Her pictures of people, landscapes, details - all show creativity and incredible technical skill. Lauren was the perfect photographer for my wedding and baby photos because she uses a photojournalistic style that captures events as they happen rather than relying too much on posed portrait shots. That said, she's also incredibly nice and friendly and makes good suggestions, so she was able to herd my family into great group shots when needed, and also came up with unique staging ideas to make pictures come alive with my baby. Reach out to LL for your next wedding, event, or family-picture-for-your-holiday-card. You will be thrilled with your pictures, just like I always am.

Kandie is absolutely fantastic! When yelping a photographer is Geneva, NY I instantly ran across K…read moreDavis Photography and knew she would be an amazing fit for our blended family. Our family of 6 is spread out across the country with 4 of us in Raleigh, NC - 1 in New Jersey - and 1 in Arizona. We needed a true professional also considering we had not taken family pictures in nearly 4 years. I sent Kandi a message and within minutes I received a message back with her contact information. When I contacted her she was so detail oriented and wanted to know about all four of our girls, style in our home, possible colors I was interested in wearing, etc. Honestly, Kandie was easy to talk to and made me feel like I was chatting with an old friend. Kandie stayed in contact sending pictures of possible locations and even making sure we had arrived to NY. The day of our shoot Kandie met us at our hotel promptly on time. She was full of energy and excited to capture our families pictures. During the shoot Kandie was extremely patient and easy going (even with our SUPER energetic 9 year old) she kept a positive upbeat attitude even when our crowd was getting a bit grumpy. I am absolutely positive she captured a lot of amazing photos! We are truly excited to see them ALL!! Thank You, Kandie!

My late partner loved the finger lakes, and she often told me that we needed to come up to see them…read moretogether. Unfortunately, we never made it together, so since I was taking care of some business down in the city, I decided to come up and spend a few days exploring the area. Also today is her birthday, so it made not only this trip, but especially today, extra special.... There are 11 lakes in all each with its own charm. You could easily spend a few days, just exploring one lake or two. I took three days to explore as much of the region as possible, so it gave me a little "taste of the whole thing", so I will remember special places that I can come back to. This welcome center is in the town of Geneva, which is at the very top of Seneca Lake. It's pretty much the middle of the entire finger Lakes region. Geneva, or the town of Watkins Glen, about 45 minutes south of here, at the other end of Seneca Lake, are both great "jumping off spots" for the entire region. This welcome center is beautiful. It sits right next to Seneca Lake, and is a great place to stop and get some information, or even stop and relax for a little while. Just outside the back of the center is the Lake, it's peaceful and has gorgeous views. They even have Adirondack chairs where you can just sit and relax for a little while. They have information about the lakes in the visitor center. There is also a "taste NY" store, which features finger Lakes products. You can get breakfast and lunch items, snacks, bakery items, souvenirs, beer, cider, , and wine. Definitely wine. The finger Lakes is a very large wine region, with between 130 to 150 wineries, the majority of which you can visit. They also have several different designated "wine trails", where you can visit wineries close to each other. (with that many wineries to visit, please make sure you have a designated driver...) This is definitely the right place to stop while you are exploring the region. I enjoyed my visit Thank you.

Saw a sign for a visitor center while driving west.on the thruway, so off we went. NOTE: this was…read morenot a rest stop visitor center off the road, but one 6 miles from the thruway....i recommend that the state notate the distance on the highway sign as well as have signage once off the thruway. Why this place doesn't get 5 stars). However, once there it was a beautiful center on gorgeous Seneca Lake. They sell food, drinks, NY state wines, NY state products, etc. There are several brochures ( what I prefer even though I do lots of online research as well), and a tasting counter which is relatively inexpensive ($4). We had a lovely conversation with Don and his wife Marie, who were at an information booth. There is also a cool children's play structure outside. The photos don't do this center justice, but make sure you stop here before you plan anything!!!