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Buffalo

Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2025

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Overview

The winters may be long and cold, but Buffalo stays warm with a vibrant creative community and strong local pride. Settled by the French in 1758, the city is believed to derive its name from beau fleuve (beautiful river). With power from nearby Niagara Falls, it boomed in the early 1900s; Pierce-Arrow cars were made here, and it was the first American city to have electric streetlights. One of its nicknames – Queen City – was because it was the largest city along the Great Lakes.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Martin House Complex

    Martin House Complex

    Buffalo

    This 15,000-sq-ft house, completed in 1905, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for his friend and patron Darwin D Martin. Representing Wright's Prairie…

  • Albright-Knox Art Gallery

    Albright-Knox Art Gallery

    Buffalo

    The gallery's superb collection, which ranges from Degas and Picasso to Ruscha, Rauschenberg and other abstract expressionists, occupies a neoclassical…

  • Buffalo City Hall

    Buffalo City Hall

    Buffalo

    This 32-story art deco masterpiece, opened in 1931 and beautifully detailed inside and out, towers over downtown. It's worth joining the free tour at noon…

  • Outer Harbor

    Outer Harbor

    Buffalo

    This narrow, 400-acre strip of land between the Buffalo River and Lake Erie serves as the city’s Central Park. The heart of the space is Wilkeson Pointe,…

  • Buffalo, New York - May 8, 2016: The Guaranty Building, now Prudential Building, a historic skyscraper in Buffalo, New York completed in 1896 and designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler.

    Guaranty Building

    Buffalo

    Completed in 1896 for the Guaranty Construction company, this gorgeous piece of architecture has a facade covered in detailed terra-cotta tiles and a…

  • Buffalo, New York, United States, North America

    Graycliff Estate

    Buffalo

    Occupying a dramatic clifftop location on Lake Erie, 16 miles south of downtown Buffalo, this 1920s vacation home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for…

  • Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

    Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

    Buffalo

    Guided tours of the Ansley-Wilcox house tell the dramatic tale of Teddy's emergency swearing-in here in 1901, after President William McKinley was…

  • Delaware Park

    Delaware Park

    Buffalo

    This 350-acre park is one of three in the city designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. It includes meadows, forests, lakes, rose and Japanese-style gardens,…

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