Chautauqua County is New York's Gateway to the West with lakes, wineries, scenic trails and migratory flyways. In a survey by Golf Digest Magazine in November 2002, Chautauqua brought home the title, "The Best Little Golf Town in America". Quote "Western New York has some of the most spectacular seasonal forest and water views anywhere."
Known for its picturesque Victorian villages, unique museums, festivals, and wildlife sanctuaries, Chautauqua is located less than three hours from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, State College, Corning, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Toronto and within an easy drive from Erie and Buffalo.
A very popular destination is the Chautauqua Institution which is renowned world-wide as a cultural experience that promotes religion, performing arts, and learning in a community setting.
Noted dignitaries from around the world have traveled to Chautauqua to experience what it has to offer. In fact nine US Presidents (William Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William McKinley, Rutherford B. Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Gerald R. Ford, Bill Clinton) have visited Chautauqua.
A dramatic lakeside setting make the Chautauqua Institution a thriving community where visitors come to find intellectual and spiritual growth and renewal.
Chautauqua County is the largest grape producing county in the country outside of California. Over 20,000 acres of grapes are grown for juice and wine making. The diversity of varieties grown here including several Labruscas, French-American wines, and European style Chardonnays and Rieslings is unequaled anywhere in the world.
The Chautauqua County Wine Trail is about 20 miles long and runs amid the vineyards dotting the shores of Lake Erie... All 12 award-winning wineries participate in 3 to 5 events each year from Wine & Chocolate Weekend in Feb. to a Vintage Holiday Wine Experience in November.
If downhill skiing, snowboarding or snowmobiling is your thing, then the 200+ inches of white powder each winter makes this the place to be. The Great Tree Inn boasts of direct access from the property to the 600 miles of well groomed trails.
The Great Tree Inn is also within a short drive from four ski resorts, each offering all the modern amenities skiers and boarders could ask for. Some are big, some small, and everything in between. Holiday Valley is perennially the largest ski resort in New York, and Holimont is the largest private resort in North America. Other resorts include Cockaigne and Peak-n-Peek (27 slopes & trails serviced by nine chairlifts) is a mere 20 minutes from the Inn.
