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Originally Posted by CaliNative
I'm from California and I've been to all the cities you mention, plus Ithaca & Binghamton & Syracuse & even Utica & Olean & Elmira & Cooperstown! Maybe I'm the exception. The finger lakes area is very beguiling.
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Finger Lakes area has to be some of the most underrated natural scenery east of the Mississippi. It's too far from the NE corridor for weekending, and the road connections aren't very direct, and winters suck, but it's extremely pretty and atmospheric half the year.
You have wine, deep forests, waterfalls, gorges, scenic towns and a foodie scene. Plus Cornell. And it's still fairly cheap.
Upstate NY, on the whole, is very pretty, though the western half a bit less. The good thing is that anywhere more than 2.5-3 hours from Manhattan is still cheap and not crowded. And there's a benefit to the fact that the region has been stagnant for a half century - the rural towns are well preserved, there's little sprawl, and it's still quite wild in parts.