Where to Stay in Syracuse, New York

What is Syracuse known for?

Syracuse is known as a canal and university city in central New York, a place whose downtown grew where the Erie Canal once passed through. The Erie Canal Museum keeps that record. Art and learning shape its draw, with the Everson Museum of Art holding a noted ceramics collection and Syracuse University crowning the hill above the center, where Hendricks Chapel and the Syracuse University Art Museum stand, while the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology round out the city's public life.

What are the main landmarks in Syracuse?

The main landmarks of Syracuse split between the downtown center and the university hill. Museums lead downtown. The Erie Canal Museum stands in the old weighlock building, the Everson Museum of Art holds its ceramics near the civic core, and the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology sits by the inner harbor, while up the hill Hendricks Chapel and the Syracuse University Art Museum mark the campus, and the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and the Onondaga Historical Association keep the city's wildlife and past to the west.

What is the history of Syracuse?

Syracuse grew from the salt springs and the canal country of central New York, founded in 1848 as the settlements around the marsh drew together into one city. Salt and the canal made it. The town rose where the Erie Canal crossed the Onondaga lowland, and the brine boiled from the springs gave the early city its first trade before the canal traffic and the railroads carried its goods across the state.

Buildings and institutions from the founding century still stand across the center and the hill. The Erie Canal Museum keeps the old weighlock where boats were once weighed for their tolls, and the Onondaga Historical Association records the salt years and the growth of the city. Grace Episcopal Church and Trinity Episcopal Church mark the early congregations, while Syracuse University crowned the southeast hill in the decades after the founding, adding Hendricks Chapel to the skyline above the town.

Where is Syracuse?

Syracuse sits in the lowland of central New York, where the flat downtown gives way to the hills that rise to the south and east. The land climbs from the center. The old canal line ran across the level ground where the city core now stands, and the university hill lifts above it to the southeast, while the park lakes and the Rosamond Gifford Zoo lie west of downtown on the lower ground.

What is the climate of Syracuse?

Syracuse has a cold temperate climate in central New York, with long snowy winters and warm summers. Snow defines the winter. Heavy lake-driven snowfall settles over the city through the cold months, one of the snowiest records among American cities, while the summers turn warm and green across the lowland and the hills, and the spring thaw runs off the higher ground toward the center.

How do you get to Syracuse?

Syracuse is reached by road, rail, and air, a hub of central New York where the state routes cross. Most visitors roll in off the interstate corridors that cross near the city. Interstate corridors meet near the city where the east-west route crosses the road running north and south, and the downtown center with the Erie Canal Museum sits a short distance from the interchange and the approaches into the city.