Where to Stay in Ithaca

The pedestrian Commons is Ithaca's social and culinary center. On a Saturday morning the air carries the warm, yeasty smell of fresh bread from the Farmers' Market pavilion a few blocks north. By evening the stone-paved lanes echo with conversations spilling out of wine bars and ramen counters. Everything worth eating or drinking in Ithaca is within a ten-minute walk.

East Hill rises sharply from downtown, and the gorge trails begin almost before the campus grid does. The air up here stays cool and damp even in July, carrying the faint mineral smell of mossy stone from Cascadilla and Fall Creek gorges. Their rushing water echoes faintly at night. Collegetown's restaurant row runs along Dryden Road, and the Cornell Arts Quad's honey-colored limestone buildings glow at dusk.

South Hill climbs toward Ithaca College on the city's southern edge, where the air smells of pine and open fields rather than gorge mist. Chain hotels along this corridor offer predictable comfort and free parking at rates that typically run below the downtown average. The trade-off is car dependence. The downhill walk to the Commons takes 25 minutes and returns uphill.

The Route 13 strip on Ithaca's southwest side is car-dependent and utilitarian, lined with budget motels, a Home Depot, and the kind of strip-mall anchors that exist to serve commuters rather than travelers. The upside is the lowest nightly rates in Ithaca and proximity to the Cayuga inlet and the Farmers' Market pavilion, which is a short drive north.