Guide to Buffalo: how to get there and where to stay, what to see and where to go in the evening. The most interesting in Buffalo: fresh reviews and photos, places to see, branded entertainment and shops.
According to toppharmacyschools, the city of Buffalo, in the east of Lake Erie, is the second largest city in the state of New York. And it’s full of surprises. The city often becomes the butt of American jokes about chicken wings, about snowstorms that seem to bury the city under them every winter, and about ridiculous sports teams. Nevertheless, the locals know what to say: Buffalo is a city with an excellent nightlife, numerous and good museums, as well as an extensive cultural program for the whole year. And also – with the most delicious chicken wings in the USA.
In 1896, Thomas Edison sent his guys to Buffalo to film it – and it was one of the first American cities captured on film. By the way, Edison subsequently filmed the Pan-American Exhibition in 1901. Since then, many different films have been shot in the city.
How to get to Buffalo
Buffalo-Niagara International Airport is one of the busiest in the state. It serves Buffalo and Niagara Falls, northwestern Pennsylvania and southern Ontario. Many local flights fly here: about 110 daily. From the airport you can get to Buffalo on the Metrobus. You can get to Buffalo from New York or Toronto, Boston or Chicago by train. And the Megabus bus service connects the city with Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Toronto and Rochester.
A bit of history
The settlement of Europeans arose here from the end of the 18th century, and after the Erie Canal was dug, the city began to grow and develop rapidly. Buffalo became a large port, industrial city and one of the leading metropolitan areas in this part of the country. True, since the second half of the 20th century, the popularity of Buffalo has declined: the commercial importance of the Erie Canal has greatly diminished. But this had a positive impact on the ecology of the city: today Buffalo is one of the cleanest cities in the United States.
Entertainment and attractions in Buffalo
The city’s ancient architecture is so well preserved that in 2011 entire city suburbs were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In particular, this is Allentown – the first of them, which is located north of downtown. It is lined with small, attractive red-brick houses in the Italian and French Second Empire styles. The most interesting houses here are Tiffts Row, seven buildings that are located on Allen Street, as well as the William Dorsheimer house on Delaware Avenue and the former Catholic Institute building on the corner of Virginia and Main streets, where the University of Scientology is now located.
Another attractive area is off Delaware Avenue and is otherwise known as “Millionaire’s Row”. The area stretches from North Street to Bryant and is home to, as you might guess, some of the city’s wealthiest homes. Most of them are today turned into offices; the most interesting are Butler Mansion, Clement Mansion (today there is a division of the Red Cross), Richmond-Lockwood House and the house of Charles W. Goodyear.
At one time, more millionaires lived in Buffalo than in any other city in the country.
Parkside is a suburb that is located north and east of Delaware Park. Together with the park, the suburb was designed by the famous architect F. Olmsted, and the houses here were built between 1890 and 1920. It is here, where the middle class and its upper classes settled, that you can admire examples of Queen Anne styles, Colonial Revival, bungalows and prairie style. The area’s central tourist attraction is the Darwin D. Martin House, built in 1905 for the president of a soap company; one of the most notable works in the early career of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The complex includes not only the Martin house itself, but also the house of George Burton, where the industrialist’s sister lived with her husband, as well as the gardener’s cottage and three more buildings; all together – a harmonious and integral quarter.
Olmsted, the famous author of Central Park in New York and the famous “Emerald Necklace” in Boston, designed most of the city parks in Buffalo. These are six large parks and six smaller park areas (three of which no longer exist today), which were connected by tree-lined avenues. Chief among these parks are Delaware and South. The first, the largest in the city, provides visitors with amazing views, and the open-air Shakespeare Festival is also held here. South Park is smaller, but it is here that the Buffalo and Erie Botanical Garden, opened in 1898, is located, where today you can see a collection of plants from Panama, an orchid garden and a Victorian rose garden. The city zoo is also located in the same park, the third of the oldest in the country (the zoo was founded in 1875), which receives 400 thousand guests annually.
Buffalo can serve as an excellent starting point for visiting Niagara Falls. Public transport runs from here to Niagara Falls: in particular, these are shuttle buses and trains.
Winters in Buffalo really made him famous all over America. Cold winds blow from Lake Erie, and snowfalls in winter cover the entire city almost to the very roofs. Although, generally speaking, despite the widespread myth, Buffalo is by no means the snowiest and coldest city in the country: not even snowier and colder than New York.
Buffalo’s connection to the American film industry may come as a surprise to some. Meanwhile, in downtown, in the building of Ellicott Square, the first dedicated and permanent theater with film screenings, Vitascope, was located, opened in October 1896. In 1896, Thomas Edison sent his guys to Buffalo to film it – and this was one of the first American cities captured on film. By the way, Edison subsequently filmed the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. Since then, a wide variety of films have been filmed in the city, from 1982’s Best Friends with Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn to 2011’s Henry’s Crime with Keanu Reeves.
5 things to do in Buffalo:
- Be sure to try Buffalo Wings – chicken wings with hot sauce, celery, blue cheese and, of course, beer. Buffalo is America’s Chicken Wing Capital.
- Visit one of the many annual city festivals: the February Winterfest, the spring Polish Dingus festival, the Greek or River festivals in the summer, the autumn Beer or Irish festival, and so on.
- Go to the theater. For a city of its size, Buffalo has an amazing array of theaters and even has its own Theater District.
- Take a look at Hayes Hall, the most remarkable building on the campus of the University of Buffalo, the largest in the state.
- Hang out in Elmwood Village, which is located along the street of the same name. Stop by one of the many independent shops, check out bookstores, buy organic food, or check out paintings by local artists.
Popular hotels in Buffalo
Buffalo Museum
The Buffalo and Erie County Naval Museum is interesting. It opened in 1977 and features three historic warships on display: the Little Rock, which sailed the Mediterranean during the Cold War as a flagship; the ship “Sullivans”, which took an active part during the Second World War in Pacific operations, and the submarine “Croker”, which also participated in the battles of the Second World War. In the warm season, each of these ships can be visited independently.
The Buffalo Science Museum is housed in a beautiful 1929 building. The emphasis in its expositions is on the natural sciences: more than 700 thousand samples and artifacts related to anthropology, botany, entomology, zoology and paleontology are collected here, which brings the museum to the world level.
The Buffalo Pier Arrow Museum of Transportation is also curious, where you can look at a collection of vintage cars and memorabilia associated with the automobile era. And the Ira J. Ross Niagara Aerospace Museum can delight visitors with the spectacle of the first commercially licensed helicopter in the US, the Bell 47, as well as several replicas of other aircraft, including those from the First World War. All of these exhibits are somehow connected to Buffalo’s aviation history, which reached its peak in the first half of the 20th century thanks to the monster companies Bell Aviation and Curtiss-Wright, who opened their headquarters in the city.
In the aerospace museum, you can also see the instrument panel from the Apollo spacecraft.
Other interesting museums in the city are the Fire Museum with a huge collection of old fire engines and the Iron Island Museum – another name for the Buffalo suburb of Lovejoy, which was surrounded by railway lines on all sides. The museum was opened in 2000 and is dedicated to the history of the region’s railways. Characteristically, the museum on the territory of the former cemetery is considered the main haunt of ghosts in Buffalo. This is where ghost hunters gather, and a nighttime visit to the museum to see something paranormal is much more popular than a daytime one.
