USA Guide
The Mid-Atlantic
New York State
However much exists to attract visitors, the vast state of New York stands inevitably in the shadow of America's most celebrated city. The words "New York" bring to mind soaring skyscrapers and congested streets, not the beaches of Long Island to the east or 50,000 square miles of rolling dairy farmland, colonial villages, workaday towns, lakes, waterfalls, and towering mountains that fan out north and west from New York City and constitute upstate New York. Just an hour's drive north of Manhattan, the valley of the Hudson River, with the moody Catskill Mountains rising stealthily from the west bank, offers a respite from the intensity of the city. Much wilder and more rugged are the peaks of the vast Adirondack Mountains further north, which hold some of eastern America's most enticing scenery. Of the larger cities, only Buffalo really holds much of interest, but some of the smaller towns, such as Ivy-League Ithaca, can be quite captivating.
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