Classic Lake Placid Sightseeing
On this partly cloudy day we still had 50 miles of visibility from the summit of Whiteface Mountain!
If you’re visiting Lake Placid between late-May through mid-October, there are two quintessential sightseeing stops that we highly recommend.
The walk from the parking lot to the summit (about 250 feet of elevation gain) includes a section with stone stairs and another rocky section. Alternatively, there’s an elevator.
Drive up Whiteface Veterans’ Memorial Highway: My No. 1 recommendation for visitors is to drive to the top of Whiteface and look down on the Lake Placid from above! Whiteface is New York’s 5th highest peak and one of the 46ers (peaks above 4,000 feet elevation). It’s highly accessible with the road and an elevator; it’s dog-friendly, family-friendly; and there’s usually a steward at the top pointing out the sights. The only caveats are you want to pick a day with decent weather to fully enjoy the views, and the toll fee is pretty crazy in my opinion. At least the fees are used for road and trail maintenance, which is top notch.
At the entry of Veterans Memorial Highway toll booth, pricing starts at $20 and increases based on how many people are in your vehicle, but basically $20/person for adults. Ages 6 and younger are free. The highway ends about 250 feet below the summit, where you can park and walk around. From there you have a choice between taking an elevator to the summit or walking. The walk includes some stone stairs and a rocky section, so wear good walking shoes! We recommend you take a picnic lunch and eat out on the summit enjoying the 360 degree views. The toll booth at the base of the mountain is about 16 miles (less than 30 minutes) from our cottage. It opens in mid-May and closes for the winter in mid-October.
Take a boat tour on Lake Placid: At the Lake Placid Marina, right off Mirror Lake Drive, you can catch a boat tour of Lake Placid in the warmer months. Tickets currently cost $20 for adults and $15 for kids 12 and younger. Kids under 3 years old are free. Trips usually kick off in late May around Memorial weekend, and run daily (weather permitting) through mid-October. The boat tour takes you past a lot of beautiful old, multi-million-dollar camps on the lake, and gives you a sense of the lake’s size. Typically the guides share some history, as well as cheeky society gossip of who lives where. Sort of a Hollywood-meets-Lake Placid who’s who tour. It’s a little corny, but fun for kids and offers beautiful views of the lake and surrounding mountains. The tour boats have awnings so this is an option for days when it’s cloudy with a chance of rain.
If you don’t have kids or aren’t into the gossip of who owns the multi-million dollar lakeside “camps,” then you might consider a more custom and private tour of the lake. Honestly, the next time we have friends in town, we’ll probably recommend ADK Aquatics. They’re pricy — starting at $240 for up to 4 passengers — but I think it might be a better fit for those interested in the area, history and nature.
The view of Whiteface Mountain from a boat tour on Lake Placid.
