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Places to go in New York.

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5 places

Main Beach Beaches

Main Beach

East Hampton, NY · Long Island / The Hamptons

Main Beach is the one the rankings keep coming back to: a wide ribbon of grainy quartz sand backed by towering dunes and the old wood-shingle pavilion that has watched over the surf since the turn of the last century. The water runs clean and clear blue, the Atlantic rolls in with real surf, and lifeguards work the stretch from 10 to 5 all summer. Come early, because the Lot 1 spaces out front go fast and the village makes you earn them, but the payoff is a swimming beach that regularly lands in Dr. Beach's national top ten.

Howe Caverns Caves

Howe Caverns

Howes Cave, NY · Mohawk Valley

Ride an elevator six stories down and you land in the largest show cave in the Northeast, where a lantern-lit path runs a mile and a quarter past banded rose-and-cream limestone, the towering Titan's Temple chamber, and formations the old guides named the Bridal Altar and the Sentinels. The walk traces the River Styx, the underground stream that carved all of this over millions of years, before it opens onto the Lake of Venus. There you trade your feet for a flat-bottomed boat and glide across water so still it mirrors the rock overhead, the quiet payoff that makes the trip out to Howes Cave worth it.

Niagara Falls Lakes & rivers

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, NY · Niagara Gorge, Western New York

Niagara Falls is not the tallest waterfall in the country, but it moves more water than any other in North America, and that is the whole point. Three falls make up the set: Horseshoe Falls (about 187 feet and shared with Canada), plus the American Falls and slim Bridal Veil Falls, both entirely on the New York side. Average flow runs around 85,000 cubic feet per second, and you feel it in your chest before you reach the railing. The New York vantage puts you above the American Falls at Prospect Point, then down beside the water on the Cave of the Winds decks, close enough to get soaked. Niagara Falls State Park, the oldest state park in the country (1885, laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted), is free to enter and open year-round. The falls run all winter; the Maid of the Mist boats and Cave of the Winds decks are seasonal, roughly May to October.

Kaaterskill Falls Lakes & rivers

Kaaterskill Falls

Haines Falls, NY · Catskill Mountains, Greene County, New York

Kaaterskill Falls drops in two tiers down a rock amphitheater in the eastern Catskills, about 260 feet in all, an upper plunge of roughly 180 feet into a shallow pool, then a second fall near 80 feet. It ranks among New York's tallest waterfalls, and it carries a painter's pedigree: Thomas Cole sketched here in 1825, helping launch the Hudson River School, and Asher Durand used the falls as the setting for his 1849 Kindred Spirits. Spruce Creek feeds it, so the flow runs hardest in spring snowmelt and after heavy rain, then thins to a ribbon by late summer. Autumn brings color to the clove and lighter crowds. To reach it, park at Laurel House Road or Scutt Road, both fill early, and take the short gravel path to the accessible overlook platform finished in 2016, or hike up from Route 23A to the base. Roadside parking on 23A gets ticketed and towed, so use the lots.

Taughannock Falls Lakes & rivers

Taughannock Falls

Trumansburg, NY · Finger Lakes, New York

Taughannock Falls drops 215 feet in one clean plunge, which makes it the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rockies and about 33 feet higher than Niagara. It falls off a sheer Devonian shale face into a plunge pool ringed by a stone amphitheater, with gorge walls climbing close to 400 feet on either side. Fed by Taughannock Creek, it runs hardest in spring snowmelt and after heavy rain, and thins to a ribbon by late summer. Getting there is easy. The Gorge Trail runs three quarters of a mile along the creek, mostly flat and stroller-friendly, ending at a viewing area near the base. The North and South Rim trails add higher vantage points and connect into a loop, though they close in winter while the Gorge Trail stays open. Day use runs $10 per vehicle, dawn to dusk. Go after a storm for the loudest flow.