The landscape in and around this friendly upstate New York town is so jampacked with falls — more than 150 within a 10-mile radius — that you don’t have to go far before coming upon another one, often more impressive than the last.
Water cascades through the gorges that give this town its punny tagline — “Ithaca is gorges” — a phrase that’s 100% accurate, but doesn’t fully capture the variety of this terrain.
A showstopper when it comes to scenery, Ithaca sits at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, the longest of New York’s Finger Lakes, surrounded by fertile land that’s home to wineries, cider houses and farms that stock produce-forward restaurants downtown.
Ithaca is also a vibrant college town — home to Cornell University and Ithaca College — with more cultural offerings than its size would suggest, thanks in large part to the people those institutions attract.
Taken altogether, its high scores for natural wow-factor, outdoor activities, wine and cider, and college-town culture have landed Ithaca atop CNN’s top 10 list of America’s Best Towns to Visit for 2025.Ithaca’s not the kind of place where you drive for an hour, hike for miles, then finally lay eyes on an underwhelming trickle of a waterfall
