I just came back from a quick trip to upstate New York with my husband and we had the best time. I wanted to share a full review of the trip and if I’d recommend it (spoiler: I totally would).
Planning
It took awhile for us to decide that this is the trip we wanted to do. When I was researching I looked long and hard for really any and all options. I knew I wanted to do a fairly close trip (i.e didn’t want to go overseas) but otherwise I was totally open to going really anywhere. My overall vibes I was thinking was like coastal relaxing beach house. I had the hardest time trying to find a place. I looked at resorts, hotels, airbnbs and vrbos. I was flexible between the US and Canada (originally was looking for the east coast of Canada but couldn’t find anywhere that would really match what I was looking for/ was available).
I ended up tightening my search to somewhere we could drive to so we could save a bit of money on flights (why is flying in Canada so expensive!?). After back and forth on a couple of options (near Ottawa? Muskoka? Collingwood?), we landed on Aurora, NY and specifically the Inns of Aurora.
I’ll mention here, in terms of price this not a cheap accommodation. My rationale was that we’d be saving by not taking a flight and only staying 2 nights.
Accommodation
The little town of Aurora New York is mostly made up of the Inns of Aurora with some locals/ residences on the lake. It is in the region of the Finger Lakes (yes, of The Office fame haha) specifically on Cayuga Lake. The Finger Lakes were created by the movement of glaciers which gives the lakes that unique look.
The Inns of Aurora is made up of a few different ‘houses’ you can stay at. I booked decently last minute and the only one available at this time was the Zabriskie House. We were extremely pleased with the house and honestly would stay at this exact house again, We liked that it was a bit set back from the main st/ inn which I feel added a tad more seclusion. This to say the town is EXTREMELY quiet so I don’t think there would be much of an issue with noise, but in terms of parking and just foot traffic, Zabriskie is set back just slightly (literally a 2 minute walk from the restaurants and main building).
The inside of the house is grand without being too stuffy. It definitely fits the bill for my ‘coastal vibes’ request. The main areas have lots of sitting room with tables and a full bathroom. Zabriskie has an elevator but since this is set up as an inn, the stairs were very accessible and what we used most of our stay.
Honestly the accommodations were exactly what I was expecting and wanted. It was extremely quiet and had a relaxing aura all over. The Inns of Aurora is adults only and I did appreciate that all guests were probably looking for the same thing. Due to the price point and overall vibes this definitely attracted an older crowd (we did see a few people that were in our age range though).
The room itself was quaint, clean, and definitely had enough space for our needs. The majority of the rooms in all houses are only two person rooms with very few having the ability for three. Zabriskie was renovated in 2019 and it really doesn’t show much wear at all. The bathroom was very spacious with heated floors which was a nice touch. The only very minor item that we noticed was the bed wasn’t to our taste and had a bit of a creak. This to say it was not nearly been the worst bed I’ve been on in a hotel, but something both my husband and I mentioned to each other!
Activities
One key thing I was looking for was a place with resort-style activities and the Inns of Aurora delivered. The main draw is the spa. As much as I love the spas, there were so many other things we wanted to do and it was a bit pricey. I didn’t want to risk insurance not paying for it (since in the states), so we decided to skip.
Otherwise we made use out of the free kayak rentals that are available right at the lakefront. It’s first come first serve, they include life jackets and they also have canoes and stand up paddle boards for rent. This was definitely a highlight and we did this early in the morning as the weather was supposed to be bad in the afternoon.
The activities calendar had lots to do, but something that wasn’t mentioned much in my research was the free craft kits. They had a watercolour kit which I happily checked out and spent an afternoon with!
There were also a few nice amenities the inn offered, one of them being s’mores kits! Each evening, each inn has a fire pit which the staff light each night. Inside your house they set out a little s’mores kit and marshmallow roasting sticks. We made use of them the first night. The bugs were biting so we didn’t stay out long, but just something really cute and fun to do.
Food
Speaking of food, I thought I’d do a quick overview of this! This is not an all inclusive so the food was not included. They did provide homemade granola bars that could be picked up in the morning which was a nice touch. It was more of a ‘baked’ bar style which was nice to have in the morning.
Otherwise on property there were two restaurants, Fargo which is more of a bar style with casual eats and 1833 which was much more formal. We did dinner both nights we were there at Fargo and we did brunch at 1833.
Both were quite good. I enjoyed the variety of the food at both locations. With the town being small, these are really the only places to eat. If you were staying for more than a couple of days I could see you wanting some variety, but Ithaca is only a 30 min drive away.
Things to Do
We definitely didn’t just stay at the inns, and also went on a few hikes. The day we drove in, we did Watkins Glen State Park. Honestly this was a huge highlight. The park was spectacular. The rock cut outs and all the waterfalls were just a sight to behold.
We also went to Buttermilk Falls State park this. Was honestly one of the most challenging hikes we had done. There was a significant portion at a steep incline for a long portion of the trail. The scenery wasn’t as overtly spectacular as Watkins Glen, but still so nice to walk through (and got a very good workout haha).
In Conclusion
All in all we had a really wonderful time. It’s been awhile since we did a roadtrip to stay over night, so this was a great change of pace. We had an excellent time at the Inns of Aurora. I’d definitely look into it again for the fall when all the leaves would be changing!
Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
*Purchased
