The Thousand Islands area offers a variety of boat tours, including narrated tours of the islands on large tour boats or on a private chartered tour on a small antique boat rented through the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton. Attractions like Boldt Castle and Singer Castle are accessible only via boat.
Sites along the Erie Canal include the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Visitor Center in Waterford, the Erie Canal Heritage Center in Lockport and Sims Canalside Store Museum in Camillus. Tourists can rent a boat through the Erie Canal Cruise Lines and explore canal communities on their own.
Many beautiful mansions that are now historic-house museums dot the Hudson River's banks, including the Rockefeller family's Kykuit in Sleepy Hollow, Samuel Morse's Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie and Frederic Church's Olana in Hudson.
Lake Erie attractions in Buffalo include harbor and lighthouse cruises. Lake Ontario offers camping at New Haven, Fort Ontario in Oswego and Sandy Island Beach State Park in Pulaski.
The Finger Lakes area is well-known for its more than 100 wineries. The lakes are interconnected, so boaters can easily tour such communities as Geneva, Watkins Glen and Ithaca.
