Things to Do In Rochester for Under $5
The Flower City! The Kodak City! The World’s Image Center! Rachacha! I’m a fiercely loyal Rochester, New York native and I adore this city, despite its flaws *cough*lack of public transportation*cough*. But if you can get around Rochester, I highly suggest you do. As a part of WiseBread’s group writing project, here’s a list of things you can do in Rochester, for five dollars or less:
Free!
Mendon Ponds Park: trails, water activities, and sledding in the winter! Also a great place for Geocaching (see below).
Urban Exploration: check out all the weird and wonderful parts of the city - I highly suggest a trip to the Legal Wall if you’ve never been (but wear good shoes, because there tends to be a lot of broken glass).
Geocaching: “The High Tech Easter Egg Hunt” is a ton of fun! A hiking GPS is most useful, but you can get by with one of those talking car ones, if you’ve got it. Don’t have either? Do what we did when I was a broke freshman - look at the satellite image of where the cache is on Google Maps, and use that as your best guess of the location. Harder, but fun, and free!
Festivals: Rochester is a festival town, so there seems to be one every weekend. Each festival is different, so don’t knock them all if you visit one and don’t like it. Might I suggest Park Ave Fest for college students? (It tends to be a bit more, uh, inebriated.)
Rochester Public Art: A guide to all the public art in and around Rochester. If you’re looking for more of a tour-like experience, check out ARTWalk.
Mount Hope Cemetery: Free historic walking tours on weekends from May - October. Twilight tours and other interesting tours are only $4/person.
Self-Guided Walking Tour of High Falls: Print this out and head down to the historic High Falls district! There are even more online walking tours in Rochester.
Bike Ride Along the Canal: Assuming you have a bike, that is. You could also walk!
$5 or Less
Ice Skating at the Ritter Ice Arena at RIT: $5 for most public skate times, but only $3 for noon-time weekday sessions. Skate rentals are $3, if you need them.
Cell Phone Tours: $4.95 gets you one day access to an audio tour of Rochester landmarks, right on your cell phone!
The “Dollar Theater” - Second run movies at cheap prices. Called the “Dollar Theater” because all movies on Tuesdays are only $1. The highest price you’ll pay is only $2.25, so it’s still a steal, and a great way to catch films you thought you missed in the theater!
Abbott’s Frozen Custard: As much a Rochester staple as Wegmans and Kodak!
Buffalo Wild Wings (BDubs): Discount Wings on Tuesday, Legs on Wednesday, and Boneless Wings on Thursday!
Bowl-A-Roll: Lots of specials, including College Night (Sunday & Monday after 9pm, $1 bowling and $1 shoe rental) and FREE bowling if you visit one of a long list of merchants!
$5 or Less with a Student ID
Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion: Pretty much the coolest gardens I’ve ever been to. Trust me, they used to take us there as a field trip every year when I was in elementary school, and I still never tire of going!
The Little Theater: Art house films for only $5 for students, children, and seniors.
George Eastman House: One of those “must see” things in Rochester.
Susan B. Anthony House: Women’s suffrage for the win! $3 admission for students.
Just over $5
Seneca Park Zoo: The prices drop closer to $5 during the winter!
Red Wings Baseball: Reserved seating is just $6!
Find More
This is by no means an exhaustive list, just some suggestions! This list was originally posted in August of 2008 - I’ll try to keep it updated, but I can’t guarantee the long-lasting-ness of this list. Some more places to check for cheap or free things to do in Rochester:
City of Rochester list of Festivals, Parades, Concerts and More
RochesterDowntown.com Entertainment Guide
Photo by _yoshi_
Related posts:
There are so many things do to here, especially in the summer. Great list!
I haven’t checked out Sonnenburg Gardens yet, but it’s definitely on the horizon.
L@spillingbuckets’s last blog post..Consumerism, Entitlements, Debt - Cancer or Indigestion?
Comment by L@spillingbuckets — August 21, 2008 @ 9:00 am
There are many fun places to run/jog such as the around Cobbs Hill Resevoir (my favorite place to run). The Little Theater is perfect if you want to see great indi films, the ones the major theaters ignore!
Comment by Darkally — August 21, 2008 @ 9:26 am
The best man at my wedding was himself married this summer in Rochester, and I got to participate. Rochester is beautiful, and the parks offer good walking and a pleasant view. As it happens, I was at the Cobbs Hill Reservoir, too
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Comment by J — August 22, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
[...] No matter where you’re from though, she gives great food for thought. Check it out: “Things to Do in Rochester” Filed under College Money Network, carnivals [...]
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Pingback by 2008 Olympics Over, Time to Go Back to School — Broke Grad Student — August 26, 2008 @ 7:02 am
The coolest place ever in Rochester is Maple wood Park. It is a huge rose garden with over 1000 types of roses and if you want to walk a bit there is an awesome path down to a view with waterfalls. Check it out
Comment by Michael — August 27, 2008 @ 11:25 am
Don’t forget the Eastman School of Music! They have many free events, and others are dirt cheap for students. Irony of many of the free ones is that, because they are free, people seem to assume they aren’t any good, so you can often park right next to the concert hall at the last moment, and get a primo seat for fantastic music. I saw John Adams, Trevor Pinnock, and a number of other folks for free, whereas normally you would be paying at least $45 in major venues.
And Dinosaur BBQ often has great music (most often blues and jazz) for free.
Comment by Left-Coast Dave — September 26, 2008 @ 7:38 pm