Quoted By:
My brother has a farm Upstate, sort of by Ithaca. I take the train up from NYC, and the scenery is amazing. The tracks follow the Hudson River Valley almost the entire way, and there are rolling hills and mountains, and often sailboats on the river.
Ithaca is cute. Not a lot going on there aside from hippies and Cornell University. Cool cafes, and surprisingly lots of Asians (I think they come for the Cornell)
Syracuse (where I get off the train) is a shit show. There's absolutely nothing to do there. Nice architecture downtown, but the rest of the city looks like a desolate wasteland/ghost town.
The area around the Fingerlakes is absolutely amazing. Vineyards and farmland. Beautiful scenery. Cute cottage houses in the hills surrounding the lakes.
TL;DR: lots of country living. Not much to do. But if you need a break from the city, Upstate = fuck yeah. Especially in the summer.