Days That End in Y

We unfortunately hit a few snags on our little trip through Finger Lakes wine country. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from them! While I sort through my tasting notes and photos, I’ll leave you with ten tips that’ll make any trip along the Cayuga Wine Trail (or really, any wine trail) better.

1. Don’t speed around Richmondville, NY on I-88.I received a ticket on this barren highway late at night, and I have no idea from where that cop came! Unfortunately, I may be forced to plead guilty due to the inconvenience of possibly having to go there to fight the ticket.
2. Buy the Vino Visa in person at one of the wineries.There’s a very annoying handling charge that exists online, but it can be avoided by buying it in person at Americana, Knapp, Montezuma, or Six Mile Creek. Even if they’re out, they should be able to give you a voucher in place of the actual Vino Visa, which is what happened to us. We did get some weird looks at some wineries, but the voucher worked fine.
3. Don’t buy Vino Visas if you’re planning on buying lots of wine.First, a couple of the wineries don’t charge for tastings. Second, most of the wineries (if not all of them) refund tasting fees if you buy wine.
4. Take at least two days to travel along the Cayuga Wine Trail.While it may be feasible to do all of the trail in one day, you’d have to rush it and you’d probably have to skip lunch. Neither is good for safely tasting all that wine! Plus, your taste buds will start to get tired. After a while, everything starts to taste the same, or worse, everything starts to taste better than it really is.
5. Don’t go during special events unless you really love crowds.This weekend was the Grapehound Wine Tour. We avoided most of it, but we didn’t realize that they would hit up two of the wineries we went to on Friday! We were surrounded by wet dogs and their owners and had to wait for what seemed like forever in order to do tastings. The winery staff all seemed rather stressed, and the experience was pretty bad. Plus, hotel prices go through the roof during special events and weekends. Paltry one-star and two-star hotels were easily charing $100+ for Friday night. We decided to move our schedule up by a day to avoid paying through the nose.
6. Learn Priceline bidding strategies early.We booked one of the hotels via Priceline for a pretty decent price. How? I read up on bidding strategies at BiddingForTravel.com. Something that’s very interesting, especially for rural areas, is that you can sometimes enter in nearby locations to get immediate rebids on hotels. For example, if you want to stay in Ithaca at a 2½-star hotel but lose your first bid, then just start a new bid for nearby Cayuta or Spencer! This will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration.
7. See some of the other nearby attractions.Whether or not you believe me, there are a lot of other cool things in rural New York. There are museums, shops, restaurants, etc. While wine is definitely the main attraction, it’s worth it to see a gorge, eat some vegan food in Ithaca, or play some mini golf.
8. Spit. Don’t swallow.Generally, I frown on the entire idea of spitting, but let’s examine this one logically. We visited twelve wineries on Wednesday. At each winery, I sampled about six wines. Each sample was about one ounce. That means that I easily could have drunk 12 servings of wine! Let’s face it. That’s a lot, and that’s way more than you should have while driving. I could have easily ended up with not only a speeding ticket but also a DUI.
9. Stop for lunch.There are some amazing restaurants in the area, especially in Ithaca. I’m slowly posting pictures to Food Porn on DTEIY. The three restaurants that we went to were Moosewood, Lost Dog Cafe, and Simply Red Lakeside Bistro. They were all excellent and come highly recommended. Besides, not only can you satisfy your epicurean craving, but you can prevent yourself from getting too drunk too fast this way.
10. Check the weather beforehand.The weather was horrible on Friday! There were torrential downpours that made driving incredibly unsafe and that made visiting a couple of the wineries somewhat miserable. While rain is great for the crops, it’s not so great for the tourists who prefer lovely views of Cayuga from the scenic byway.

Oh, and don’t take your kids. Seriously, WTF? I actually saw parents with their kids at wineries. What are the kids supposed to do? Swirl your wine glass for you?

All right, here’s one bonus, which I forgot to write originally. For gas, go straight to the Lake Side Trading gas station on Route 89 in Seneca Falls. It is much, much cheaper there than elsewhere in NY. It’s run by the Cayuga Indians, and I assume they’re exempt from certain taxes as a result.

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