Rochester is the third-largest city in New York State, perched on the south shore of Lake Ontario where the Genesee River drops over three waterfalls on its way to the lake. It was once the world headquarters of Eastman Kodak, Bausch + Lomb, and Xerox — a trio that made it one of the richest cities per capita in America through much of the 20th century. The decline of film photography hit hard, but Rochester has reinvented itself around its universities (the University of Rochester, RIT), its medical sector, and a creative economy that benefits from cheap real estate and a formidable cultural infrastructure left behind by the Kodak era.
The George Eastman Museum, housed in Kodak founder George Eastman's 1905 Colonial Revival mansion, is the world's oldest photography museum and one of the best — an essential stop for anyone interested in the history of the medium, with a collection spanning daguerreotypes to digital. The Memorial Art Gallery on the University of Rochester campus is a strong small encyclopedic museum, and the Strong National Museum of Play is an enormous, interactive celebration of toys, games, and play that houses the National Toy Hall of Fame and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games — genuinely fun for adults as well as children.
Rochester's most unexpected asset is the Genesee River, which cuts through the city centre and drops over the High Falls — 96 feet, visible from a pedestrian bridge in the middle of downtown. It's an unusual sight for an American city of this size: dramatic geology right in the urban core. The river gorge below the falls, accessible from trails in Genesee Gorge Park, is surprisingly wild. In May, the Lilac Festival in Highland Park — the largest free lilac festival in North America — draws hundreds of thousands; in winter, Rochester gets buried in lake-effect snow off Ontario, which the city accepts with stoic good humour and well-maintained cross-country ski trails.
The Rochester Public Market on Union Street, operating since 1905, is one of the best farmers' markets in the northeast — it runs year-round on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Eat a Garbage Plate at Nick Tahou Hots (a Rochester institution: a plate of macaroni salad, home fries, hot dogs, hamburgers, and meat sauce), drink a Genny Cream Ale (Genesee has been brewing here since 1878), and you'll have a decent read on what makes this mid-sized American city worth spending time in.