Rochester is uniquely centered in the heart of the Northeast Region, centrally located between Washington, New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, Baltimore and Montreal. With great museums and historical attractions, Rochester is great as a stop-off point or as a base for exploring the Northeast by rental car in Rochester. This underrated city contains a fair amount of national travel deals.
Getting there
Greater Rochester International Airport offers daily flights to and from New York City, Buffalo, Albany, and Boston. If you are flying from overseas, both JFK and LaGuardia in New York City offer international services and daily services to Rochester. All major America carriers fly to at least one of these three. This airport offers plenty of national travel deals and car rental choices.
Rochester is located on I-90 east of Buffalo and west of Albany. Elsewhere in the state, I-95 comes up from New Jersey to New York City and goes on up to Boston. I-87 connects the Big Apple with Albany and Buffalo in upstate New York. New York is well connected by rail. New York City is in the high speed Acela corridor between Boston and Washington DC, and the railway offers regular runs to all New Yorkеs major cities.
Key attractions
Rochester’s Main Street has 22 historic markers. Some particularly good pieces representing the city’s place in the Empire Statе are the bold statue of Mercury and famous sculptor Albert Paley’s decorative railings on the Main Street Bridge. Main Street is also a great place for both high end and bargain shopping. Near Main Street is Brown’s Race Historic District. Here can be found a replica water raceway, early 19th-century industrial buildings, an excavated forge site and a massive waterwheel.
Genesee Valley Park contains part of all three major Rochester cycling and hiking trails. These are the Genesee Valley Greenway, Erie Canalway Trail, and Genesee Riverway Trail. Another significant green space, Cobb’s Hill Reservoir Park, boasts a baseball diamond, big duck pond, and hillside trail leading to a stunning panoramic downtown view.
Out and about
West of Rochester on Lake Hudson is the beautiful New York State capital, Albany, a wonderful place for a stroll or car rental day trip. Its French chateau style capitol building is located on renovated Empire State Plaza. This Plaza also hosts the stateеs museum and library. North of the city is breathtaking Niagara Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world. The tiny Thousand Islands group on the St. Lawrence River between New York and Ontario is also easily reachable with a rental car in Rochester.
Leisure options
Rochester contains a fair amount of museums for a fairly small city. Two of the city’s most famous residents, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, are buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery. Photography buffs may enjoy touring the home of the Eastman Kodak founder, the George Eastman House. Visitors can relax among Highland Park’s lilacs and sunken garden in summer or the Lamberton Conservatory’s tropical and desert plants in winter.
Safety
Rochester is a small city generally safe from crime, but the southwest and northeast are the most dangerous areas. Although the city contains four major hospitals, travel insurance should still be purchased in advance to avoid high American health care costs.