Free & Cheap Things to Do in Ithaca

Parks & Nature

A 100-foot waterfall 150 feet wide, with cliffs rising another 100 feet above it - and it sits inside the city limits, a two-minute walk from a street parking lot. The last and largest of six falls on Fall Creek, and the easiest big waterfall to reach in the Finger Lakes.

Address: Lake Street at Falls Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: Park in the Lake Street lot; the walk in is 0.1 miles but the path is loose stone and uneven. Swimming is prohibited - the currents below the falls are dangerous. Open year round and dog-friendly on a leash.

Parks & Nature

Buttermilk Creek drops more than 500 feet in a chain of cascades and sculpted pools on its way to Cayuga Lake, and the gorge trail climbs the whole thing on stone steps past Pinnacle Rock. There is a natural swimming hole at the bottom, right by the car park.

Address: 106 E. Buttermilk Falls Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: The vehicle fee is collected April 1 to November 30, 6am to 6:30pm - come outside those hours or in winter and parking is free. The gorge trail climbs about 600 feet on many stone steps, so it is harder than it looks. An $80 Empire Pass covers this and every other New York state park for a year.

Parks & Nature

Twelve waterfalls along a single gorge trail, ending at the 115-foot Lucifer Falls, with a narrow rocky upper section and a wide wooded lower one. The stream-fed swimming hole below a waterfall, with lifeguards in summer, is the reason locals come back.

Address: 105 Enfield Falls Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: Swimming runs daily 11am-7pm from late June through Labor Day, but closes for water quality, weather or lifeguard availability - check before you build a day around it. The vehicle fee applies April 1 to November 30, 6am to 6:30pm.

Parks & Nature

At 215 feet, Taughannock is the tallest single-drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains - taller than Niagara - falling past cliffs that rise nearly 400 feet above the gorge floor. The gorge trail to the base is flat and easy, which is rare for a waterfall this size.

Address: 1740 Taughannock Boulevard, Trumansburg, NY 14886

Tip: The gorge trail is level the whole way, so it works with strollers and small children. The overlook at the upper entrance is the classic photograph. Ten miles north of Ithaca along the west shore of Cayuga Lake.

Parks & Gardens

Cornell's botanical garden, arboretum and natural areas are open free every day from dawn to dusk - the Robison Herb Garden, the Treman Woodland Walk, a flowering arboretum and the Cascadilla Gorge trail that climbs from downtown to campus. One of the largest university botanic collections in the country and none of it is ticketed.

Address: 124 Comstock Knoll Drive, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: Parking at the Nevin Welcome Center is metered $1.50 an hour on weekdays 7:30am-5pm, but free evenings and weekends - and the arboretum lots are free all the time. The welcome center is open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm.

Arts & Culture

Cornell's art museum holds more than 40,000 works spanning Asian, American and European collections, and admission is free for everyone, always. The building itself is the draw for many visitors - a concrete tower on the edge of the Arts Quad with a top-floor gallery looking down the length of Cayuga Lake.

Address: 114 Central Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14853

Tip: Open Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm and weekends noon-4pm, closed Mondays. Hours change around Cornell's holidays and break weeks, so check before a special trip. Free admission means it is an easy twenty-minute stop rather than a half-day commitment.

Family & Wildlife

The world's leading bird research centre keeps a free visitor centre with interactive exhibits, a hands-on Bird Discovery Lab, viewing scopes over a pond and a live feeder garden - plus more than five miles of free trails through Sapsucker Woods. Birders come from everywhere; families come because it costs nothing.

Address: 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: The visitor centre is open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-4pm and the trails are open dawn to dusk every day. No dogs or bicycles on the trails. Borrow binoculars at the desk rather than buying a pair for one visit.

Shopping & Strolling

Four pedestrian blocks in the middle of downtown, closed to cars and lined with independent shops, bookstores and restaurants - Buffalo Street Books, Odyssey Bookstore, a dozen kitchens and a rotating programme of free events run by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance.

Address: The Commons, East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: Free things worth timing a visit around: the summer concert series, the Sidewalk Showcase street performances and Gallery Night Ithaca on the first Friday of the month. Garages a block off the Commons are cheaper than metered street parking.

Markets & Food

Running since 1973 and held in an open-sided wooden pavilion right on the water at Steamboat Landing, this is one of the biggest markets in upstate New York - producers only, with prepared food from a dozen kitchens and live music most weekends.

Address: Steamboat Landing, 545 Third Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: Saturdays 9am-3pm from early April to the end of October, Sundays 10am-3pm May through October, plus a Wednesday afternoon market at East Hill. A winter market moves indoors to Triphammer Marketplace in January.

Parks & Waterfront

Eight paved miles along the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, wide enough for walkers, cyclists and skaters side by side, linking Stewart Park's lakefront lawns and playground to Cass Park, the boathouses and the farmers market. Five trailheads, all free.

Address: Stewart Park Trailhead, 1 James L. Gibbs Drive, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: Stewart Park is the best of the five access points - lakefront lawn, a big playground and birdwatching at the inlet. The trail is flat and fully paved, so it suits strollers and wheelchairs the whole way.

Family Fun

A hands-on science museum with more than 250 interactive exhibits - engineering benches, animal encounters, a Mars rover you programme yourself - plus an outdoor science park and a Curiosity Corner for under-fives. Small, cheap and built entirely for children to touch things.

Address: 601 First Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: EBT cardholders pay $3 a person through Museums for All, and under-twos are free. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm. Mini-golf outside costs extra. New York K-8 teachers from nearby counties get one free visit a year.

Museums & Galleries

The Paleontological Research Institution's museum walks 4.5 billion years of Earth history past a Hyde Park mastodon skeleton, a Stegosaurus, a right whale hanging overhead and a 500-foot mural of deep time. Serious science for the price of a cinema ticket.

Address: 1259 Trumansburg Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

Tip: EBT cardholders pay $1, reserved in person, and under-fours are free. Open Thursday to Monday 10am-5pm; the Dino Zone shuts at 4:30. The Cayuga Nature Center up the road is run by the same institution.