Rochester, New York (Multi-Day Tour)
This tour can be combined with Niagara Falls travel packages

On November 8, 1803, a 100-acre tract of land in Western New York along the Genesee River was purchased by Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, Major Charles Carroll and Colonel William Fitzhugh.  Beginning in 1811 and with a population of 15, the three founders surveyed the land and laid out streets and tracts to form the Village of Rochesterville.  By 1821, Rochesterville was named as the seat of Monroe County.  By 1823, Rochesterville consisted of 1,012-acres and 2,500 residents and the Village of Rochesterville became known as Rochester.

Rochester continues to be a stimulating and inventive metropolitan community of over one million people – the third largest urban area in New York State.  Today it is also known as ‘the World's Image Centre’ due to its unique imaging history, its impressive educational opportunities in imaging sciences and its vast number of businesses engaged in some aspect of imaging technology.  This high-tech community has also preserved so many links to the past that it claims more sites on the National Register of Historic Places than any other city of its size.  Come and explore Rochester’s history, technology, arts and science in a fun-filled, hands-on learning environment featuring world-class museums and attractions.

ARTISAN WORKS

Artisan Works is where art comes to life in the studio, on the walls and in your hands.  Explore seemingly endless corridors displaying the works of some of the most exciting and talented artists and craftspeople.  Watch as resident artists create their latest achievements.  Students can explore their halls and witness a variety of artists at work in any of the 15 studios on site.  At Artisan Works, they excite the imaginations of students through organized tours and hands-on workshops and expose art as a work in progress.

COLONIAL BELLE

Located on the northern edge of the Finger Lakes region famous for its scenic beauty, the Colonial Belle offers the best in an Erie Canal cruise.  Relaxing and enjoying yourself are all part of the tour on the Colonial Belle.  You can opt for lunch or dinner with your cruise or you can purchase snacks on board.  Dinners are made to order by their Harbor House Café as well as several other popular area restaurants.  Enjoy the scenic tranquil waters of the Erie Canal on a two to three hour cruise (seven mile tour) with historical narration along the way.

CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS

The Corning Museum of Glass is home to the world's most comprehensive and celebrated collection of glass with more than 40,000 objects reflecting 3,500 years of glassmaking history.  In addition, an interactive science and technology exhibit tells the story of glass innovations from telescopes to fiber optics.  The Hot Glass Show, live daily, features narrated glassblowing demonstrations to showcase the craft of glassblowing.  In hands-on ‘Walk-in Workshops’ students can make their own glass souvenir to take home, then finish up by shopping the extensive, seven-boutique GlassMarket offering a selection of glass treasures from around the world.  At The Corning Museum of Glass, glass isn't just for looking at or looking through.  At this Museum, students can explore, research, touch, work with and interact with glass.

GANONDAGAN

Just southeast of Rochester lies Ganondagan (ga·NON·da·gan), the site of a Native American community that was a flourishing, vibrant center for the Seneca people.  Americans everywhere owe a debt to the Seneca people.  As one of the six nations comprising the Iroquois Confederacy, their democratic ideals served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution.  If you're a woman, you may be surprised to learn that the Seneca's matriarchal society helped inspire the 1848 declaration of sentiments that eventually lead to a woman's right to vote.  The Seneca also developed one of the worlds most basic and healthy cuisines using natural foods that are still popular today as are many of the natural medicines they used to treat illnesses.  From politics and the environmental movement to food and medicine, the roots of contemporary society can be traced back to this historic site right in Rochester's back yard.  Visit this site where thousands of Seneca lived 300 years ago.  Tour a full-size replica of a 17th century Seneca Bark Longhouse.  Walk miles of self-guided trails or climb the mesa where a huge palisade granary stored hundreds of thousands of bushels of corn and learn about the destruction of Ganondagan, Town of Peace, in 1687.

GENESEE COUNTRY VILLAGE & MUSEUM

Take your place in history at the Genesee Country Village & Museum.  This living history museum is the largest in New York and one of the largest in the nation.  Each of the 19th century buildings has been moved to the site, restored to original condition and furnished with period furniture and decorative arts.  As you stroll through the buildings, ‘villagers’ in period dress tell you about 1800s Genesee Country and American life.  Live demonstrations of crafts and tasks of the 19th century take place every day including blacksmithing, cooking, spinning, tending the gardens and much more.  The Museum also includes the John L. Wehle Art Gallery, North America's premier collection of wildlife and sporting art, and the Genesee Country Nature Center, which has 175-acres featuring five miles of hiking trails through woodlands, wetlands and meadows.

GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE & MUSEUM

A National Historic Landmark, the George Eastman House combines the world’s leading collections of photography and film with the stately pleasures of the landmark Colonial Revival mansion and gardens that Eastman called home from 1905 to 1932.  Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company, is heralded as the father of modern photography and the inventor of motion picture film.  The Eastman House, the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the world’s oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949.  World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the Museum is also a leader in film preservation and photograph conservation.

MEMORIAL ART GALLERY

A visit to the Memorial Art Gallery is a journey through more than 5,000 years of art history.  From the relics of antiquity to works in the vanguard of contemporary movements, the Gallery offers a panorama of the world's art.  The Gallery's permanent collection of more than 12,000 objects has been called the best balanced in the state outside of metropolitan New York City and includes masterworks by artists such as Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Homer and Cassatt.  In addition to its collection, the Gallery offers a year-round schedule of temporary exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours and student activities.

MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY

Formed by glaciers, this cemetery has high hills and deep valleys, winding eskers and almost bottomless kettles.  In stone and bronze are soaring Egyptian obelisks, miniature Greek temples, winged angels of mercy, draped urns, broken columns, Gothic towers and sculptures of everything from Christian saints to favorite pet dogs.  They all gloriously decorate more than 350,000 graves that through the sea of vertical monuments send a mighty chorus of hope heavenward.  Some of its most famous residents include Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb (of Bausch Lomb eyewear fame) and Reverend Thomas James.  Your exploration includes a guided tour of this historic cemetery.

ROCHESTER MUSEUM & SCIENCE CENTER

The Rochester Museum & Science Center creates inspiring, entertaining and educational experiences engaging students in the exploration of science and technology, the natural environment and the region's cultural heritage.  In the Museum, you can work with their knowledgeable and well-trained docents or take your students through the exhibits on your own.  Begin your visit with Freedom Under the Stars.  Here, students will learn what it was like to be a conductor on the Underground Railroad.  Next stroll 19th century Rochester and find out what life was like for early inhabitants.  Observe their recreated shops, businesses and houses.  Visit the Erie Canal and learn about the city’s mills and historic industry.  End your tour with Native Peoples of North America.  See how the Pueblo built their adobe houses.  Learn how the Inuit survive in the extreme conditions of the Arctic.  Observe a traditional family in longhouses of the Native Peoples from the region.  Understand the geography of place and peoples’ adaptation to this influence in their daily lives.  Students explore the lives of major North American groups of Native Americans with emphasis on clothing, housing, food and adaptation to different living environments.

STRASENBURGH PLANETARIUM

The high-tech equipment of the 225 seat, 65 foot dome Strasenburgh Planetarium Star Theatre, one of the world’s largest, has the power to make concepts vivid, memorable and compelling.  The Planetarium’s motion-picture system splashes dramatic cinematic images across the dome, immersing students in scenes from the farthest corners of the world.  The amazing projector, plus dozens of other special effects, transforms the dome into a beautiful starry sky, providing the setting for exploration of our planet’s place in space and the strange and beautiful worlds beyond.

SENECA PARK ZOO

Seneca Park is one of the Rochester area's parks that were designed by the landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted.  The park opened in 1893 and animals were first displayed here a year later.  The Zoo originally featured different species of deer and some birds and had an outdoor aviary next to the trout pond in the lower park.  Today, the Zoo features several natural habitats and landscape immersions that allow students to see what the animals are like in homes reflecting their native ones in the wild.  Students can also visit the new Rocky Coasts exhibit.  This state of the art facility provides many of their animals with more spacious natural homes and offers students an incredible experience of seeing the polar bears and sea lions under water.

STRONG MUSEUM

The Strong Museum is home to the National Toy Hall of Fame and the world’s most comprehensive collection of toys, dolls and other play related artifacts.  At 282,000 square feet, it is the second largest children’s museum in the country and the largest year-round student attraction in Western New York.  Whimsical architectural features complement the Museum’s playful mission and include upstate New York’s only indoor butterfly garden, housed in a building shaped like butterfly wings in flight and a structure resembling a pile of children’s blocks that houses an exhibit on the importance of play.  At 12,000 square feet, the Reading Adventureland exhibit invites students to follow the Yellow Brick Road into five magical literary landscapes.

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