Fly Creek Cider Mill: A Fall Day Trip from the Catskills

Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard, about three miles outside Cooperstown, was just voted the best cidery in the country. It took No. 1 in the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for 2026, as NewYorkUpstate.com reported on October 7. According to the mill’s September 23 announcement, it is the mill’s second national No. 1 in three years, after a win in 2024 and a third-place finish in 2025.

Rankings are fun. What matters to us is the map: Fly Creek is a day trip from a Catskills cabin, it is pressing apples right now, and the mill stays open through December 20. Here is how to make the drive worth it, with real drive times and a plan that gets you back to the fire pit before dark.

What the ranking is, and what it isn’t

USA Today’s 10Best cidery list starts with nominations from an expert panel; readers then vote on the final order. That makes it a popularity contest among good candidates, not a blind tasting. It also explains the result. Fly Creek is less a tasting room than a whole working farm stop: an 1856 water-powered mill, a store with samples of dips, fudge and cheese, a snack barn and bakery, and a tasting room for hard cider and apple wine overlooking the millpond.

Locals are candid about it. On Reddit’s upstate New York boards this year, Fly Creek comes up whenever someone asks what to do around Cooperstown. One commenter called it “basically a glorified gift shop” in the same breath as calling it quaint, and mentioned the ducks and geese out back. Both are fair. Go for the press and the fresh cider, not for a hushed flight.

The press is the reason to go now

The heart of the mill is an 1889 Boomer & Boschert press, driven by water. Per the mill’s tour page, it puts about 60 tons of pressure on a stack of ground apples to make 100 gallons of sweet cider at a time, and some 20,000 gallons each fall. You watch from the Cider Gallery on the second floor. The tour is free and self-guided.

The catch: pressing runs at no fixed time. The mill presses when the cider sells, so check its “when we are pressing next” link the morning you leave. If the press is idle, a video shows the process. The cider is treated with ultraviolet light rather than heat and has no preservatives, so the mill notes it can still ferment. Keep the jug cold on the drive back.

The drive, measured

From Hunter, the route runs west on Route 23A through Prattsville, then Route 23 through Stamford toward Oneonta, then north on Route 28 to Cooperstown. That is the useful part: Stamford is one of the three Catskills places I LOVE NY singled out for the biggest color changes in its October 7 report, and the same report lists Cooperstown among the biggest movers in Central New York. The drive is the foliage. Our guide to Catskills peak foliage this weekend has the numbers.

Schoharie County is the shorter launch point. From Jefferson, home of our Juniper Ridge build, the mill is under an hour and a half away, which turns Fly Creek into a half-day rather than a full one.

Two hours each way for a jug of cider sounds like a lot. It sounds like less when the road is the foliage.

A day built around cider and Cooperstown

9 a.m. Leave the Town of Hunter. Load maps before Route 214, where service drops. The mill opens at 9 a.m. daily.

Around 11 a.m. Fly Creek. Press first, if it is running. Then the store, the millpond boardwalk and a tasting flight upstairs. Leashed dogs are allowed on the grounds but not inside the mill.

Early afternoon. Cooperstown. Eight minutes away. Main Street, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the Fenimore Art Museum on Otsego Lake. October 10–12 is also New York’s Path Through History Weekend, when historic sites across the state host special events. Check each site’s hours before you plan around it.

By 4 p.m. Head back. Arrive in daylight if you can. The last stretch to Clove Creek is a gravel lot off Route 214, and it is easier to find before dark. The evening half of the day is in our October weekend plan for two: hot tub, fire, nothing else on the list.

Want apples straight off the tree instead of in a jug? Read our apple picking guide after the April freeze before you go, and call the orchard first. And if one long drive is your limit, our Hunter Mountain fall foliage guide keeps the day close to the cabin.

USA Today’s fall lists are worth reading against the Catskills. For how the Catskills stack up against the paper’s 10 best places for fall, see our Catskills fall comparison. For more day trips at this distance, try our upstate New York day trips for adults.

Clove Creek Cabin in Lanesville, Town of Hunter, is our bookable base: two queen bedrooms, a renovated kitchen for that pot of cider, an indoor fireplace, and a hot tub, sauna and Solo Stove fire pit on the deck. Check dates for Clove Creek. Juniper Ridge in Jefferson, Schoharie County, is under construction, coming soon and not yet bookable. Join the Juniper Ridge list to hear when it opens.