Visit Syracuse Encourages Locals to Discover Nearby ‘Simple Wonders’

This summer, you don’t need to travel far to discover something new.

That’s the message behind Visit Syracuse’s campaign, ‘Simple Wonders.’

“We really just want to get visitors and locals alike out exploring the area, maybe find a hidden (or not so hidden) gem they never knew existed,” said Liz Judge, marketing portfolio director. “I think so many people, even those that have grown up around here, don’t know about all the spots that are even maybe just a 20-minute drive from where they live.”

They recently invited me to experience the campaign for myself.

The first thing you should know is there’s an app you can download from the Apple and Google Play stores. It has eight different self-guided tours, covering everything from arts and culture to local history to family fun (I followed part of this one). There’s even a button that sends you to Google Maps for directions. Just make sure you download the tour before you leave in case you lose service somewhere along the way.

“The goal of the app was to simplify the trip planning experience and make it as easy as possible for visitors to explore all that Syracuse has to offer,” said Colleen Senglaub, digital account manager for Travel Alliance Partnership. “By following one of the tours on the app, their route is planned out for them, and they can learn about each location they visit.”

Locals will find it helpful, too, especially the short description of each stop.

My mom, who moved to the area in October, joined me for the first part of the day. It started with breakfast at Cake Bar, a café in downtown Syracuse known for its coffee and bakery items. I highly recommend the almond croissant, or, if you’re craving something a little more savory, the spinach and cheese croissant.

With our stomachs full, we made the 20-minute drive to Beaver Lake Nature Center.

It has nine trails, most of which have an easy difficulty level. We walked on two of them: the Bog Trail (0.6 miles; elevated boardwalk, observation tower) and the Lakeview Trail (0.3 miles; views of the 200-acre glacial lake).

Before leaving for your next destination, stop by the visitor center; it features a children’s room, a wildlife viewing area, and exhibits about the nature center’s plants and animals.

Next on the itinerary was another county park: Onondaga Lake Park.

Aside from a drive through Lights on the Lake four years ago, I have never visited the east side of the park (we usually take our dog to the West Shore Trail, which is closer to where we live, in Camillus).

You’ll find no shortage of things to do — there’s even a museum that is open seasonally! If your kids are with you, make some time to visit Wegman’s Landing; it has a boundless playground, a skatepark, and pickleball courts. Again, we opted for a walk along one of the trails, enjoying the views of Onondaga Lake and downtown Syracuse.

After lunch at Pastabilities, I headed to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

The zoo is small enough to explore in a couple of hours, yet it houses a wide variety of animals — more than 200 different species, to be exact. You can see some of them, including camels, elephants, a tiger, and a snow leopard, during a walk on the Wildlife Trail (and bonus, it’s stroller-friendly!).

By this point in the day, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Fortunately, the zoo also has four indoor exhibits, and several of the outdoor exhibits have covered areas, so as long as you have a raincoat or an umbrella, it’s a good rainy day activity. One last tip: check the zoo’s website the day of your visit to see if any of the animals aren’t on display.

The final stop took me east of town to Green Lakes State Park, best known for its two meromictic lakes (this means their surface and bottom waters do not mix during the fall and spring).

I walked my usual route, the 1.9-mile Green Lakes Trail, which meanders around one of them — but this time, I discovered something new: the Environmental Education Center. Inside, there are educational displays, a 3D map of the park, and a fish tank. It’s worth a stop before heading out on your hike. There’s also a beach and some picnic tables right next to the main parking lot if you need a break from walking.

I always forget how beautiful the park is. It was the perfect place to end the day, even in the rain.

I should mention that the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology (MOST) is also part of the ‘Family Fun’ tour, though it was closed the day I was following it. The museum has 35,000 square feet of science and technology exhibits, plus a state-of-the-art domed theatre with five daily screenings.

I was able to make it through about half of the tour in one day (it helped that everything was no more than 25 minutes apart), but if you’re bringing small children or prefer a slower pace, you might need a little more time. The full itinerary has even more stops — like Greek Peak Outdoor Adventure Center, The Wild Animal Park, and Highland Forest.

My mom didn’t realize there were so many parks to walk in, and even I found a few things along the way that I didn’t know about. That is, after all, what the campaign is all about.