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Town Guide Cayuga Lake

Your Guide to Ithaca, NY

Ithaca sits at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, a college town with big-city culture, stunning gorges, and a food scene that has drawn national attention for decades. If the Finger Lakes had a creative capital, this would be it.

Ithaca is the Finger Lakes town that needs the least introduction — and the one that still manages to surprise people when they actually visit. Tucked into the dramatic gorge-carved landscape at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, it is a place where natural beauty and cultural energy overlap in a way that feels effortless. Cornell University and Ithaca College bring tens of thousands of students, faculty, and researchers, which translates into a town with world-class libraries, lecture series, art galleries, and a population that is genuinely curious about everything.

The gorges are the headline, and they earn it. The local bumper sticker says Ithaca Is Gorges, and it is not just wordplay. Buttermilk Falls, Robert H. Treman State Park, and Cascadilla Gorge are all within or adjacent to town, and Taughannock Falls — a 215-foot plunge that is taller than Niagara — is just a short drive up the west side of Cayuga Lake. You can hike past waterfalls before lunch and be back downtown for a cocktail. That combination is rare anywhere in the Northeast.

The food scene in Ithaca has depth that belies the towns size. Moosewood Restaurant helped launch the vegetarian cooking movement in America and is still going strong. Restaurant Row along Aurora Street offers everything from Korean to farm-to-table American, and the Ithaca Farmers Market on the waterfront is one of the best in New York State — part market, part community gathering, part weekend ritual. The commitment to local food here is not a marketing angle; it is woven into how the town operates.

What makes Ithaca matter to the broader Finger Lakes story is its role as a cultural anchor. It is the most cosmopolitan town in the region, the one with live music on a Tuesday night and a film festival that draws real crowds. It is also a gateway — from here you can head north along either side of Cayuga Lake into wine country, or south into the forested hills of the Southern Tier. Ithaca is not just a stop on the Finger Lakes itinerary. For a lot of people, it is the reason they come in the first place.

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