No state in America can claim the degree of contrasts that you find in New York. There’s New York City, of course, which pulses with both density and intensity. Then there’s the rest of the Empire State (mostly referred to as “upstate” by folks in the Big Apple), which dwarfs the city in size and sprawls with beautiful countryside, small towns, mountains and wonders such as Niagara Falls. When you visit New York, you can be hailing a cab on Fifth Avenue in the morning, and be at a pastoral winery in Hudson River Valley or stepping onto the sand in the Hamptons by lunch. New York travel options are filled with bucket-list destinations, from the Broadway theatres in Times Square to visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown or skating on Olympic ice in Lake Placid. Read on in this New York travel guide to chart your course through the Empire State:
Things Not to Miss in New York
• Times Square
• The 9/11 Memorial
• Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
• The Catskills
• Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains
• The Finger Lakes
• Hyde Park, home of FDR, in the Hudson Valley
• The North Fork of Long Island
When to Go to New York
The peak times to travel to New York are the late spring and fall: In the spring, the mountains are awash in vibrant colors of budding flowers, while the classic “Autumn in New York” brings a mosaic of leaves in reds, oranges and gold. New York City can be stifling hot in the summer—but ideal for upstate New York travel options such as hiking, camping and canoeing in the Catskills, Adirondacks or the Finger Lakes.
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