The village of Lake Placid is the most boisterous town of the Adirondack Region, sparked with year-round activity. It is in some ways a misnomer because the town actually sits along the shores of Mirror Lake. Lake Placid itself, a much larger body of water, is located directly north.
When it was chosen as the spot for the Winter Olympic Games of 1980, the small and almost forgotten town grew exponentially to meet the demands of the expected crowds. Today, it remains a bustling and happy place with summer and winter sports, fine dining, quaint shops and thickly crowded streets.
The Olympic Center greets visitors at the gateway to the town and offers tourists a place to cool their heels at its huge public skating rink. In its museum, visitors can examine memorabilia from the 1932 and 1980 Winter Games that were held here. The village has a year-round vacation feeling and is never dull. Main Street is long and climbs its way through the town in an upward slant, passing numerous restaurants and shops that are not only quaint, but unique in their wares. Shoppers fill the streets in the summertime in search of trinkets and souvenirs and usually leave quite happy.
If sports are what you like, sports are what you'll get in this rugged little town with fun on its mind. Mountain peaks as high as 5,344 feet (Mount Marcy) beckon climbers and hikers. Year-round bobsled and luge rides zip brave passengers down a very curvy, steep run at the Sports Complex. And, of course, skiing facilities are everywhere ? downhill and cross-country. In the summer months, horseback riding, fishing, swimming, boating, canoeing, and mountain biking are all popular sports in this neck of the woods.
Although Lake Placid is not an easy place to get to because of its withdrawn posture from all major thoroughfares, it is a remarkably scenic and ruggedly beautiful spot of Olympic proportions about 140 miles north of Albany.
