17 Best Places to Shop in The Finger Lakes, New York

Stores in the five-block area known as Armory Square feature clothing, jewelry, crafts, antiques, and other wares.

Bet the Farm sells its own wines—made at Damiani Wine Cellars in Hector—as wells as unique dips, sauces, cheeses, chocolates, and more in an adorable shingle-house shop.

Penn Yan is home one of the largest buckwheat producers in the country, Birkett Mills. You can buy its products—kasha, its own buckwheat cookbook, buckwheat pillows—from its headquarters on Main Street.

Cheshire Union Gift Shop & Antique Center, 5 mi south of Canandaigua, occupies a 1915 schoolhouse with tin ceilings and black-and-white photos of former students on the walls. A deli and grocery store are downstairs; antiques and a wide selection of gifts fill the former classrooms upstairs.

The merchandise at the Cinnamon Stick includes Christmas ornaments, teddy bears, candles, glassware, jewelry, chimes, and fancy-food items.

Syracuse's top tourist attraction is its 1.6-million-square-foot Carousel Center Mall. And it's getting even bigger. A project is underway to nearly double the size of the mall, part of a new 75-million-square foot "green" retail complex called Destiny USA.

Ithaca Commons, the historic center of Ithaca, is a pedestrian mall with specialty book and clothing stores as well as dozens of restaurants. Sculptures and gardens give the former motorway some texture and provide an inviting backdrop for festivals and itinerant musicians.

The open-air Ithaca Farmer's Market is perhaps Ithaca's hottest ticket on a weekend morning. Artwork, food, plants, and flowers, all local, fill the 80-plus stalls. The market is open seasonally. Weekends (May–October, Saturday 9–3, Sunday 10–3; April, Saturday 9–3; November and December, Sat. 10–3) are at Steamboat Landing, off Route 13, a mile north of downtown. A Tuesday market (May–October, 9–2) is held at Dewitt Park, at Cayuga and Buffalo streets.

Jane Morgan's Little House stocks good-quality women's slacks, sweaters, skirts, dresses, and tasteful accessories. The staff is very helpful. The store is in a two-story brick building in the center of Aurora.

Northfield Common, adjacent to Shoen Place, houses a mix of crafters, restaurants, and art galleries.

Opera House Antiques is a multi-dealer shop in a 1901 opera house off the Village Square. Furniture, jewelry, silverware, and linens are among the offerings. From January through March it's just open weekends.

The upscale eclectic mix at Parkleigh includes everything from greeting cards and soaps to freshly ground coffee and Clarks shoes.

The village of Pittsford, about 6 mi southeast of downtown, is the city's most upscale neighborhood and has some of its best shopping. Farther east, in the village proper, the two blocks south of the intersection of Main Street and Monroe Avenue are lined with restaurants and shops.

Schoen Place encompasses a row of jewelry and artisan shops across from the Erie Canal.

Sauder's Store is an authentic Mennonite market, with Pennsylvania Dutch meats and cheeses and hundreds of bulk containers brimming with baking supplies, candies, and spices. The eclectic inventory mix includes fresh produce, children's books, simple toys, and wooden sheds. Young people in traditional Mennonite garb staff the store, which John Sauder's family has run for decades. A farmers' market with 15 or so vendors selling fresh flowers, plants, crafts, produce, and other goods is held Friday 9 to 7.

Crunchy, caramel-coated popcorn in a paper box is the signature walk-around food in downtown Syracuse. Syracuse's Original Carmelcorn Shoppe has been popping on this block in the Armory Square district since 1930.

Polo Ralph Lauren, Coach, Calvin Klein, Brooks Brothers, London Fog, J. Crew—you'll recognize most of the names you see at the Waterloo Premium Outlets. Laid out in arcs forming a loose circle, the stores have exterior entrances connected by a covered walkway.

When the Windmill Farm & Craft Market opened in 1987 as an outlet for local producers and craftspeople, it had fewer than 100 vendors. Today this 29-acre farm and crafts market is host to more than 200 vendors and craftspeople, many of them members of the Mennonite and Amish community. Offerings include farm-fresh produce, quilts, furniture, and sweets. It's open Saturday 8–4:30 from late April through mid-December.