Travel Writer Picks #1 Ice Cream Destination in Upstate New York!

As a travel writer with nearly a dozen guide books pertaining to Upstate New York under my belt, sometimes I feel as if I have been everywhere.  Not true, obviously, but it feels like it!

In the summer during a writing and research trip, nothing pulls me off the road like a good ice cream parlor.  And I think I have found the best one!

What makes a good, or great ice cream parlor?  Well, the ice cream of course.  But there is so much more to these iconic roadside touchstones to the past.  There is a feeling about them.  An aura.  Cool, welcoming, well-lit, clean, fun, historic, and oh so nostalgic.  Bundle them all up and you have the making of a great ice cream parlor.  Like Hoppie's in Oxford, for example, with their "kitchen sink" banana split treat that comes in an actual mini-kitchen sink.  Or, the neon museum-quality of the iconic Martha's near Lake George.  Or gaily colored Purity Ice Cream in downtown Ithaca, with its parlor looking like it was designed by a 1950's movie set director.  Or even the Twist O' the Mist in Niagara Falls, NY, maybe the most popular ice cream selfie spot at the Falls (next to the falls themselves, of course).

And then there is Jerry's Place, in tiny Hartwick, NY.  Located in Otsego County just five miles west of Cooperstown, this is a snow globe of wonderfulness with a smattering of whimsy, some delicious ice cream and food, and a large dose of Baby Boom Americana.

Here it is all about the ice cream, the food, and the amazing collection of iconic metal lunchboxes.  Over 100 of them!

So, for 20 reasons why this travel writer picks this amazing place as the #1 ice cream parlor in Upstate New York, read on!

Jerry's Place Ice Cream

6625 State Highway 28

Hartwick, NY (Otsego County)

(607) 547-1037