Sure, the winters are snowy in New York’s second largest city, but summers are gorgeous and there’s plenty to do year-round. Lively Buffalo is filled with college students and young families cheering on their favorite team – this town is sports-mad. Buffalo also has lots of parks and some fantastic late 19th & 20th-century American architecture.
A walk through downtown and along the Theater District's Main Street takes you past grand landmark buildings, evidence of the city's prosperous industrial past. Guided tours of Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House are a must. Reclaimed and re-imagined, the city's waterfront, once the western end of the Erie Canal, is now a lovely park. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery and nearby Delaware Park deserve an afternoon. Elmwood Village and Allentown have lively bar scenes and an increasingly diverse and stylish culinary landscape – though the original Buffalo wings at the Anchor Bar are still required.
Niagara Falls is only a short drive to the north and Canada is just over the river – bring your passport.