Photo Credit: Jim Montanus
Rochester Reunions
Trip Ideas & Itinerary
Rochester is the perfect backdrop for you next reunion—family, school, fraternal, and many more. Visit Rochester for a reunion and rediscover all that the community has to offer. Major events during the year to consider planning your reunion around include the Rochester International Jazz Festival (June), the Rochester Summer Soul Music Festival (August), and the Rochester Fringe Festival (September).
Day 1
Learn about some of Rochester’s rich civil rights history. Start with a visit to the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House, and then visit the “Let’s Have Tea” Statue in Susan B. Anthony Square, which depicts the lifelong friendship of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.
Tour Rochester’s historic Mount Hope Cemetery, which is the final resting place of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony.
After seeing the original statue in Highland Park, take a self-guided Douglass Tour using 13 replicas of the Douglass monument scattered across the City of Rochester as your guide. In 2018, thirteen replica statues of the Frederick Douglass Monument were built and installed in locations around Rochester that were significant to Douglass’s life. Each statue installation includes a QR code that when scanned brings viewers to a website with more information on the significance of the site and the Douglass legacy. The website also includes a map leading viewers to the other Douglass statues.
Continue to explore Rochester's rich African American history with an Akwaaba Underground Railroad Tour. Akwaaba offers several different historic tours, and will also customize a tour for your family or reunion group.
Finish your day with family at Artisan Works, a not-for-profit art space of over 40,000 square feet in a renovated factory with nearly 500,000 pieces of artwork, antiques, automobiles and memorabilia.
Looking for evening entertainment? Consider a performance by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra or the Eastman School of Music.
Day 2
Unleash your inner child at The Strong National Museum of Play. Enjoy a nostalgic visit in the National Toy Hall of Fame and watch family members of all ages be delighted with exhibits like American Comic Book Heroes, the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden and eGameRevolution.
Take a tour at the George Eastman Museum, the world's oldest photography museum and one of the oldest film archives.
Visit Seabreeze Amusement Park, and enjoy family fun for all ages with roller coasters, adult and family rides, a waterpark and midway.
Hop in the car and take a short 25-minute drive to the southern shore of Lake Ontario at Ontario Beach Park. Walk the pier, take a ride on the historic Dentzel Carousel (constructed in 1905!) and end a day with family with a Rochester original, Abbott’s Frozen Custard. The original location on the lakeshore first opened in 1926.