My fiance and I are looking for a weekend getaway from the city this weekend. We like beautiful, scenic drives and have heard there are lots of vineyards in the Finger Lakes area. Does anyone have suggestions on particular vineyards/places to stay (150-250/night, if possible)/routes to take? Also open to other areas of travel. We'd like to get between 2-3 hours away. Thanks!

The Finger Lakes are much more than 2-3 hours away!
You might try the Hudson Valley much closer (pretty area, but the few vineyards that are there aren't really exceptional)--Rhinebeck area, for example, or eastern Long island .
You posted this message as a "day trip" , a simple mistake, I assume?

oops yes, we're planning on spending saturday night away- and I did just realize how far away the finger lakes are! can you suggest things to do in the Hudson Valley area? We like nice restaurants, hiking, exploring cute towns, taking in some scenery, etc.

Go to the North Fork of Long Island. It's much closer to the city and quite beautiful, with excellent wines (by NY standards at least).

http://www.liwines.com/

http://www.liwineguide.com/

http://www.northfork.org/wineries.html

For fun, you could visit Vintage in SoHo to taste the North Fork wines before you drive out.

http://www.vintagenewyork.com/homepage.html

If you want vineyards, the North Fork or the Hamptons are a lot closer but the leaves will not be as pretty. It's still pretty green.

If you want leaves, head upstate or into Mass. Good information

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...1&tid=34895961

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...1&tid=35077565

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...1&tid=34879525

thanks for the suggestions. any tips on what roads would be scenic or roads to avoid due to weekend congestion? how about specific areas of the berkshires? or the poconos? sorry- we haven't lived in the city very long so i have no idea what's around!

There's loads of information in the links I gave you above, but one suggestion is the Manor House in Norfolk Ct. It's in the northwest corner of the state and very close to the MA border.
http://www.manorhouse-norfolk.com/index.htm

okay we decided to take our time driving to Williamstown, Ma on Saturday, spend the night there and come back Sunday. My Mapquest directions say to take the Taconic State Parkway most of the way, and then work our way over to Rt. 7 for a few miles to get to our hotel. Any suggestions about possible different routes to take back on Sunday/better (prettier) ways to go? TIA!

You could take Route 22 back, it has some pretty views along the way, good farms to stop at and a great bar-b-que place in Wingdale if you plan to stop for lunch.

Rte. 7 is very pretty. Depends on whether you want to drive faster and maybe make a stop at Hyde Park or elsewhere or whether you'd rather do a slow but steady drive.