Watkins Glen Favorite Tips by M0B1US Top 5 Page for this destination

Real snow and bad weather!

Favorite thing: A Batavia pic after all! ;-)

Look OK, I'm from London - we hardly ever get snow and that which does fall usually melts away within a day...

That said, whatever snow does fall usually causes terminal gridlock and traffic chaos to our transport system - heaven forbid if the temperature actually falls below freezing! LOL!

Anyway, on the first day out of Newark by car we drove headlong into a blizzard once we hit New York State on the way up to Niagara Falls and Canada - cool!

I'd never driven in a blizzard before, especially with nighttime descending and not being able to see further than about 20 metres! Still, it only lasted for about an hour so it didn't delay us too much and we ended up staying at a very nice Day's Inn in Henrietta - the rooms were lovely and cozy and the nice receptionist was so taken by my english accent that we got a discount... :-)

Anyway, it was bloody cold and snow was everywhere to the extent that driving a white car in those conditions wasn't maybe the best idea - especially when in broad daylight on day two with my lights on for extra safety a car decided to drive across my right of way in the outskirts of Niagara and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid a smash!

Still, nothing like a near death experience to keep you on your toes!

Fondest memory: So anyway, although the Henrietta Day's Inn was very nice, the Batavia one looks very old and empty - the only people that were there other than us were old people...

I don't suppose that is a recommendation really - at least the car started OK that morning and we were able to steal away to Watkins Glen post haste...

Road Trip USA 2002: Watkins Glen, 5-7 February

Favorite thing: My epic overland journey of the US from landing in New York on January 28th 2002 to my departure from Oahu on April 7th 2002 for New Zealand:

Starting out in Toronto, Canada, we spent the day seeing the sights of Toronto before starting the long journey back through Niagara Falls and into the US.

Our first night's stop was spent at a Day's Inn in Batavia just off Interstate 90 about 40 miles east of Buffalo.

Batavia was classic 'small town USA' and actually a place I had stayed at before in my previous trip to Niagara Falls from Boston.

My previous memories included seeing the film 'The Negotiator' at the tiny town cinema and a trip to a local diner where none of the waitresses appeared to understand the meaning of the word 'cutlery'... ;-)

This time we were hungry and decided to hunt out a suitable restaurant and picked several from the hotel literature as possibilities - however as we passed each one they seemed deserted and unappealing.

Finally we ended up at Alex's Place, which is a Steakhouse and Seafood restaurant and judging by appearances - this was where the entire population of Batavia seemed to be hanging out!

We got a few stares of the 'strangers in town' variety, but apart from that we had a lovely meal in a great restaurant!

Apart from this great place, Batavia is not a memorable town, hence no pictures!

The next morning had us up bright and early for the journey to Hershey, PA via Watkins Glen.

To get to the glen we took Route 63 to join I 390 near Geneseo before turning of onto Route 414 at Corning.

Once at Watkins Glen, we took a trip up to the State Park, followed by a drive along the western shore of Seneca Lake as far as the Glenora Winery for a delicious lunch.

Fondest memory: After lunch we were again on the road, taking Route 14 south out of Watkins Glen, past Elmira and all the way into PA towards Williamsport and through the beautifully picturesque hilly country of the Tladaghton State Forest.

We then took Highway 15 along the mighty Susquehanna river as far as Harrisburg where after getting slightly lost in an interesting one way system for about 10 mins we took Highway 322 to Hershey and a night in a nice Holiday Inn Express.