Hanover vs. Middletown vs. Ithaca

TheGreyKing
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 22:29:47 +0000

I have visited all three towns.

Middletown has a suburban feel. It has plenty of “civilization” (restaurants and stores, including chain restaurants and big stores), and is pretty close to Hartford and an easy weekend drive to New York City as well.

Hanover, like Ithaca, is rural and beautiful, but Hanover is a much quieter town, more akin to a Williamstown type of vibe. Hanover is really very pretty, with good Appalachian Trail access, too.

Ithaca combines incredible scenic beauty with Lake Cayuga and its many waterfalls and gorges (“Ithaca is gorges,” as the bumper stickers say), with an active, culturally saturated, lively college town with multiple restaurants and stores. It has not only the huge Cornell University but also the mid-sized Ithaca College. It is an incredible college town.