Finger lakes trip, Part 1 – Itinerary, Botavia

Once upon a time I visited Finger Lakes area in United States of America.  There were only 2 places that I visited: Letchworth State park and Watkin’s Glen State Park.  I was so blown away and stunned by the beauty of those parks that I made a promise that I will come back with another visit.  It took me 8 years, but finally my dream came true and I fulfilled my promise.

We planned our trip to be a week long.  It took a lot of research, reading reviews, discussions and planning to but finally my family reached an agreement on our itinerary.

We live in Canada around Toronto thus we had to cross Niagara Falls Canada-USA border.

We planned our trip as follows:

Aug. 19 – arrive to Botavia, New York State, stay at the hotel overnight

Aug. 20 – visit Letchworth Park, stay at the hotel overnight

Aug 21 – Aug 24 camping at Watkin’s Glen State Park

Aug 21  – arrive to Watkin’s Glen campground, relax, go fishing, go to the pool etc.

Aug 22 – visit Watkin’s Glen, explore, go fishing, go to the pool.

Aug 23 – relax at the camping site

Aug 24 – leave Watkin’s Glen, visit Taughannock Falls State Park, arrive to Ithaca, New York State, stay at the hotel overnight

Aug 25 – Visit R. H. Treman State Park, visit Buttermilk Falls State Park, drive around Cornell University, stay at the hotel overnight

Aug. 26 – leave United States and head home (Toronto, Canada)

 

August 19, 2017

I booked Best Western Hotel online through expedia.ca and paid around $158.00 per night.  I looked through many reviews of different hotels online and found that this hotel had the best price to quality ratio and it is also very close to Letchworth State Park (less than 30 min drive).

The hotel exceeded my expectations.  It is very clean and upgraded.  There is a swimming pool and small jacuzzi which are also very clean.  Hotel staff is super helpful and friendly.  Hotel price includes free continental breakfast, which I found was nothing fancy but yet very satisfying.  Breakfast is buffet style and variety of food is served: waffles, yogurt, boiled eggs, toasts, sausages, bacon, omelet, different flavours of oatmeal, cereal, fruit, coffee, tea, juices.   Breakfast is served until 10 am, but the unique thing about this hotel is that kitchen is not closed after breakfast is over.  Kitchen remains open 24 hours, you can order a takeout and eat it in the kitchen at any time.  You can also get a cap of coffee, tea, bowl of oatmeal and fruit at any time as this food is not taken away and readily available at no cost.  I’ve never seen anything like that.

Booking.com

The hotel is next to race track, major highways and shopping malls.

We asked the girl at the reception which place she would recommend for dinner and she named Alex’s place without a doubt.  So we decided to try it.  The place is famous for its stakes; meat is prepared over real fire wood.  I was not much impressed with the choice of salads, but otherwise I would recommend this place to anyone passing by the town.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.