Lake Placid Olympic Village

Lake Placid is best remembered by most people as the location of the “Miracle on Ice”, when the United States Hockey Mirror Lake at Dawnteam made up of amateurs beat the mighty Soviet team during the 1980 Winter Olympics. This small village in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of New York State actually hosted the 1932 Winter Olympics as well, and while the town continues to market their Olympic past to tourists, there are plenty of other reasons to visit the area. Plenty of outdoor sports, restaurants, shopping, and locally crafted brews top the list.

While most would consider winter the best time to visit the area, it’s really quite a great place to visit at any time of the year. With no major airport nearby, you’ll be driving, so make sure to get off the highway and take some of the winding one lane roads through the countryside, following gurgling rivers through forests and mountain vistas waiting to be photographed. Much of this is National Forest land, and plenty of trails are accessible right off the road for hiking or snowshoeing depending on the weather. The small towns in the region make their living off of tourism, so you’ll pass plenty of outfitters offering guided fishing, canoeing and kayaking, snowmobiling and cross country skiing trips.

Mirror LakeOnce you make it to Lake Placid, you’ll be confronted by an out of place conglomeration of chain hotels and outlet stores on the main drag along the banks of a brilliant lake. Strangely this lake is not actually Lake Placid, but the smaller Mirror Lake. Hidden among these trappings of tourism though are some individual shops, hotel and restaurants worth seeking out. One of my favorite shops is the Lake Placid Clock and Watch Company that offers tons of authentic Black Forest Cuckoo clocks, as well as German beer steins, a great place to browse.

We stayed at the Golden Arrow, the only hotel with actual lake frontage (the rest are across the street for some reason). The Golden Arrow is a family owned hotel started by immigrants from Southern Germany, and they even have a clearly stated environmental mission statement that includes building a “green” roof, offering perks for those who travel to the hotel by means other than car, and a recycling program for guests. Our room had a balcony overlooking the lake, and was more moderately priced than most of the other large hotels.

The variety of restaurants in town is extraordinary for the middle of nowhere, with many ethnic cuisines represented, especially if you get off the main drag. Italian is very well represented, and there are five places all owned by the same family emigrated from Bosnia, all of which get great reviews but only one I can attest to personally, Jimmy’s on Main Street with a very traditional Southern Italian menu including a wonderful antipasto. One of my favorite finds was Mykonos, a Greek restaurant with all of the specialties of that ancient cuisine and desserts to go with it. Plenty of vegetarian options are offered, and one of the best Tsatziki’s I’ve ever tasted…garlicky, creamy and lots of it. If you ask the locals where they go, they’d probably say the Caribbean Cowboy, a small, hard to find place with an eclectic fusion of Caribbean and Mexican dishes like Roast Vegetable Tamale Pie, Jerk Chicken or a Southwest Spiced All Natural Pork Loin with a Mole sauce.

The locals would also tell you that central New York has some of the best artisanal hand crafted beers in the States. Whiteface GondolaThe place most tourists go in town is the wood paneled, somewhat stuffy, Great Adirondack Steak & Seafood Company where they make a full lineup of beers including a good Abbey Ale and a seasonal Barleywine, best enjoyed on their large front deck. A couple blocks off of Main Street, in a small house overlooking Mirror Lake, is the lower key and local Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, offering lots of excellent brews alongside traditional pub fare. This place is famous for Ubu Ale, a dark English Strong Ale, but they had a strong seasonal French Farm-style beer while I was there called Biere de Garde that I just had to get a growler of to go.

If eating and drinking isn’t enough to keep you busy, there are actually other things to do. As one would expect of a two-time Winter Olympic host city, there are plenty of facilities for winter sports. This includes a dizzyingly high ski jump that you can take an elevator to the top of, a bobsled run you can pay to ride down with a professional rudder man, and a luge run you can do on your own. There are two hockey rinks in the Olympic facility that host regional hockey, speed skating and figure skating tournaments as well as doubling as a conference center. Touring and Snowmobile trails abound and a small ski area called Whiteface is a few minutes away, which also has a modern gondola up to the second highest peak on the mountain. As is typical these days, it doubles as a mountain bike haven in the non-snow months. You can even take lessons in the biathlon on the shooting range.

When there is no snow on the ground, you can enjoy plenty of hiking or mountain climbing with trails criss-crossing the area. Tons of rivers and lakes offer scenic fishing, canoeing and kayaking. There is a public park in town with tennis courts, a walking and biking path around Mirror Lake, and most of the indoor winter activities are open year round. Fall offers a very special experience with the Adirondacks changing into a huge variety of deep reds and yellows all around you. With all of these options, Lake Placid makes a relaxing and scenic place to visit no matter what you like to do. World Class food, eclectic and outlet shopping and any outdoor activity you can think of in a sleepy mountain village.