Cooperstown, New York, is all about charm. This serene area on Otsego Lake seems to be small-town America, with Main Street shops and restaurants, and museums devoted to agriculture and art. But the big draw is baseball.
Any true fan of the U.S. national pastime will make a point to stop in Cooperstown on the way from Albany to the Finger Lakes. Home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame—built there because Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game in a nearby field in 1839—Cooperstown is a great place for anyone who understands the sacred mysteries of the ground-rule double.
A separate, unaffiliated Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum in Cooperstown is a neat spot for photo ops.
Cooperstown is easy to reach—it's 75 mi/121 km west of Albany, about midway between Albany and Binghamton, north of Interstate 88, and has a number of nice inns and bed-and-breakfasts (reservations are a must). Free parking is available at lots located on the perimeter of the city, and a low-cost trolley runs into town during the summer months to alleviate parking problems.
If the sporting life doesn't thrill you, Cooperstown is also home to the Glimmerglass Opera Company (and its architecturally acclaimed Alice Busch Opera Theater, which, when completed in 1987, was the first theater in the U.S. built especially for opera since the Met's stage debuted in 1966). Nearby Hyde Hall, a house museum and cultural center, is one of the finest examples of a neoclassic country mansion.
Brewery Ommegang, maker of Belgian-style ales, offers daily tours of its Cooperstown brewing operation. Its Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival, held each summer, sells out months in advance.
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