Finger Lakes New York, United States

 The Iroquois attributed these long, narrow lakes to the Great Spirit, who laid his hands in blessing on this particularly beautiful area of upstate New York, but it’s more likely that glacial activity carved them out eons ago. Most are deep—Cayuga and Seneca, the largest, are 435 and 618 feet deep, respectively, and about 38 miles long. Together, these 11 parallel lakes cover an area no more than 100 miles across in a bucolic region where the sleepy Main Streets of waterfront towns like Geneva, Skaneateles, and Hammondsport invites strolling and antique hunting. 

The Finger Lakes are particularly known for their “boutique” vineyards—today numbering close to 100 and recognized for some of the country’s best Rieslings and chardonnays. The Finger Lakes is a group of eleven long, slender, jaggedly north-south lakes in an area called the Finger Lakes region in New York, in the United States. This part of the world straddles the northern and transitional edge, recognized as the Finger Lakes Uplands and Gorges ecoregion, of the Northern Allegheny Plateau and the Ontario Lowlands ecoregion of the Great Lakes Lowlands.

Of the area’s various trails, the most popular is the Keuka, named for what is widely considered the most beautiful of the lakes. The route takes in the pioneering Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars, outside Hammondsport, and nearby Pleasant Valley Wine Company, whose eight historic stone buildings add up to one of the best tours in the region. Geneva on the Lake, a 1910 Roman villa–inspired hotel, has a beautiful expanse of parterre garden leading down to a pool on the shore of Seneca Lake. 

At Skaneateles Lake—among the cleanest in the country—the Mirbeau Inn and Spa is a Francophile’s dream with a garden that would woo Monet. Along Cayuga Lake Scenic Byway lies Aurora, a tidy little town of 650 that is experiencing a renaissance thanks to Pleasant Rowland, creator of the American Girl dolls. Rowland restored the lakeside Aurora Inn, a redbrick Federal-style inn from 1833, and its neighbor, the 7-room E. B. Morgan House. The Aurora Inn’s dining room opens onto a waterfront veranda, where American classics, like oven-crusted pork tenderloin, are paired with wines from neighboring vineyards.