Like the title says, it´s not luxury but it´s cheap. And that was only reason why I stayed there two nights. It wasn´t the worst place where I have ever stayed but I don´t recommend it if you have couple dollars to spare for a better place. It was like 5 block away from the Falls and it was nice but the amenities were bad and our table was ready to break down, our toiletteries were from other hotels and etc. But it is near and it is cheap, only good points that I can think of. :D

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We got up before 4am and walked to metrostop and make our way to Boston Busstation. We had booked our tickets to Niagara Falls from Greyhound and it cost us $65 per person! Not bad.. Our bus leaved 07:10am and we our route was Boston-Albany-Syracuse-Buffalo-Niagara Falls! Luckyly we had to change bus only once. Nothing major happened in during the ride, it went actually pretty fast because I had a good book and it kept me occupied whole journey! We didn´t have any problems at the boarder and soon after that we were at Niagara Falls busstation. From there we took Falls shuttle bus and went straight to the Falls. We walked to our motel which was a interesting experience. It´s called Red Carpet Inn Suites and it´s pretty close the Falls and probably cheapest one. We had a big bed, shower and a tv.  But our table was about to break down and our toiletteries were from other hotels  and motels:D But I have stayed way worst places in my life so no major complains. It was near the American Falls so we walked there and enjoyed the views. We had planned to walk to Canadian Falls but mother nature had other plans. I have never saw clouds moving so fast, it was crazy! And after a minute this huge storm was above us, it was raining and huge lightnings!! It was awesome, I like storms:D So we went back to our motel and there was Celtics-LA Lakers final game on so we watched that and after Celtics lost we went to bed because the storm was just getting stronger and stronger..

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Distance: 1 mile

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The White Water Walk at Niagra Falls is rated #6 rapids which are the most dangerous in the world.  It is also the site of the collapse of the Great Gorge Railway.  We're hoping that our rafting trip in Yellowstone is not rated #6!!!

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Dag 11 donderdag 31-7

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Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls is far more than a natural phenomenon. A world-class destination with something for everyone, the city offers thriving night life, one-of-a-kind sightseeing, and adventure for all ages.

Niagara Falls are massive waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border separating the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. The falls are 17 miles (27 km) north-northwest of Buffalo, New York, 75 miles (120 km) south-southeast of Toronto, Ontario, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York.

Niagara Falls is composed of two major sections separated by Goat Island: Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side of the border and American Falls on the United States side. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls also is located on the American side, separated from the main falls by Luna Island. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly-formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. While not exceptionally high, the Niagara Falls are very wide. More than six million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water fall over the crest line every minute in high flow, and almost 4 million cubic feet (110,000 m³) on average. It is the most powerful waterfall in North America.

The Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Managing the balance between recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 1800s.

Peak numbers of visitors occur in the summertime, when Niagara Falls are both a daytime and evening attraction. From the Canadian side, floodlights illuminate both sides of the Falls for several hours after dark (until midnight). The number of visitors in 2008 is expected to total 20 million and by 2009, the annual rate is expected to top 28 million tourists a year. The oldest and best known tourist attraction at Niagara Falls is the Maid of the Mist boat cruise, named for an ancient Ongiara Indian mythical character, which has carried passengers into the whirlpools beneath the Falls since 1846. Cruise boats operate from boat docks on both sides of the falls.

Movies and television
Already a huge tourist attraction and favorite spot for honeymooners, Niagara Falls visits rose sharply in 1953 after the release of Niagara, a movie starring Marilyn Monroe. Later in the 20th century, the Falls was a featured location in 1980s movie Superman II, and was itself the subject of a popular IMAX movie. Much of the episode Return of the Technodrome in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series take place near the Niagara Falls and its hydroelectric plant. Illusionist David Copperfield performed a trick in which he appeared to travel over the Horseshoe Falls in 1990. The Falls, or more particularly, the tourist-supported complex near the Falls, was the setting of the short-lived Canadian television show Wonderfalls in early 2004. With the recent influx of more international tourists, annual visits exceeded 14 million in 2003. More recently, location footage of the Falls was shot in October 2006 to portray "World's End" of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The movie Canadian Bacon takes place in the Niagara area. In 2007,Chuck & Larry have several scenes showing the falls.

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Left home:  8 am 

Arrived Niagra Falls:  6 pm

It took 10 hours to get here in our Honda Odyssey.

No traffic!  Girls were great in the car!

Passports worked well.

Falls are beautiful--will explore tomorrow.

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Stopped at Niagara Falls.

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Up early and i drove into town along buffalo avenue and parked up on 3rd street  opposite a souvenir shop which has a small 'Dare Devil' museum  in it , i ask the guy and he says that the street parking is free there , which is a result considering it is $10 per day  a few hundred yards along past the Information Centre. I leave the car  and head off  on foot  towards Rainbow bridge  which links the two Niagara Falls  and is a border crossing .It is a 10 minute walk into Canada , the border guard checks my passport , Canada being part of the British Commonwealth , there are invariably good relations  and little hassle with entering such countries , the guard is friendly and chatty , seeing a few India Visas in my passport  he remarks that i am well travelled  to which i jokingly reply that the older i get the more  travel  will be required  until  a stroke or heart attack which might put an end to all of that . As i walk into Canada Niagara falls i can see a number of casinos , some large expensive hotels  and lots of colourful arcades  and fair ground type rides .There is a big Hard Rock Cafe .It  all seems a bit tacky but clean and with no litter  or mess around .  

Not surprisingly there are lots of tourists around , many taking guided tours , there are especially lots of asian indians , most of the women wearing saris , on the american side i had noticed several indian restraraunts and cafes .

I wandered around uphill looking for an internet facility  and there wasnt one , there are many hotels  and it is clear that this town is geared towards tourism  and providing facilities for tourists .I got talked into buying a guided tour ticket for a hop on-hop off bus  which included tickets to several of the attractions  .It was $48 American .One of the other TB blogs had recommended visiting Niagara on the Lake , but when i enquired they said that the bus tour did not go that far west and if i took a taxi from the western most end of the tour , it would cost $30  one way .  There are plenty of tourists and we all just kind of herd around from one attraction to the next one , there are quite a lot of familes with kids .

The accents seem to be the same on both sides of the river , the Canadian falls are best  and generally better views and better tourist facilities on that side .Most of the tourbus drivers  are women , they also provide the commentary , i take the Maid of the mist ferry ride into the spray of the Canadian Falls , we are given blue plastic see-thru raincoats  which are very neccesary ,i do not bring my camera out and we all get nicely wet , its a warm day.We get to keep the rainmacks  if we wish .Here are seabird colonies  nesting on the American side and what looks like Cormorants or Shags  nesting in the few trees on the banks.

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I'll try to remember everything...

Monday

Went into Winnipeg after school,went shopping around Polo Park,found myself a nice red dress to wear to the wedding,stayed at The Sheraton Hotel which is connected to the Winnipeg Airport. It's a pretty decent hotel,but the one thing that sucks is that it doesn't have a pool or hot tub! lol

Tuesday

Woke up early,got ready,went over to the airport to wait for our flight,and John (Julie's Bro),Sherd (Julie's Sis) and Gord (Julie's Dad), showed up just in time. John who is usually quiet,was really loud because he was still drunk,on the way to the airport he had to ask the driver to pull over so he could puke,the driver was glad he asked. As soon as he got on the plane,John asked for a Casear,and the flight attendent said,we have to wait till we get off the ground first! hahah. The plane ride was pretty uneventful,the seats had tv's on the back of the seats which was pretty cool,listened to my ipod,then before we knew it we were in Toronto. As soon as we got off the plane and into the airport of course,John,Sherd,Gord,and my mom had to scamble outside to have a smoke! While me and my grandma collected our luggage. So we walked through the airport,and John bodychecks my mom! haha then he bodychecks his dad,and his dad goes flying and falls onto some ladies suitcase! haha. Ed and Julie picked us up in a van they rented and we made our way to Niagara Falls,stopping at Boston Pizza to eat on the way.And everyone singing kareokee in the van lol.As soon as we got to Niagara we checked into our hotel,and went over to Ed and Julies,because their hotel was basically a tower lol,you could see the falls really good. From my notes I put we went shopping,I don't remember where lol. We went to a wax musuem,it was interesting,but I don't think any of the wax people looked like the real people... Then we went on the Sky Wheel which was pretty cool,it would of been better if the falls were lit up,or if it was daytime...Then everyone was drinking...we went in the hot tub,and it was dark because it was closed...oh well lol, then we went to bed...

Wednesday

We got up and ready,had breakfast at the Golden Griddle,and went shopping at some outlet malls in St.Catherines I think... There were stores like Guess,Urban Planet,Urban Behaviour,etc...Me,and Sherd or Julie had to ride in the trunk of the van! lol,because Julie's mom and Bob wanted to come along.We went on a lovely family outing to the liqour store and the beer store lol Sherd and John got ID'd which is funny because they are both way older than 19! lol We went to get groceries because eating out was soo exspensive!,like $4 for a coke! come on lol And at the grocery store they had milk in bags which I thought was weird lol Then me and my grandma went exploring,and went right up to the falls,looked at the Coke store,The Hershey store/factory,bought a huge $5 chocolate bar,and eating one peice felt like you ate a whole bar! yum! hah,then me,my grandma,and uncle Ed went to eat at Planet Hollywood,it was pretty good. We took a different route back to our hotel we were walking and this guy was punching a shed and he like  broke it ,came running at us,then went running,screaming, into the street,and almost got ran over by a car!

Thursday

The Big Day! Thursday had to be the funnest (if that's a word) day of the whole trip. Got up and ready as per usualy,had breakfast at Golden Griddle. Then got ready for the wedding,and went in a limo to go to the church,had the wedding,and went to a place near or in Niagara-On-The Lake... to take pics outside brr!!..Then we went to some place to have the supper,it was a huge supper,the best part was the strawberry cheesecake! Then we got dressed up,I mean down,and went to Boston Pizza to basically drink hah. And since I wasn't 19 I couldn't have a drink,so I had a Strawberry Maragarita minus the alcohol,and just tried everyone elses drinks. It was a fun time,lots of insider jokes,laughed the most I have in my whole life! Then I was getting ready to go to bed,and John,Sherd,Gord,ask us to come to their room for a drink,so me and my mom go over. John said he would marry me? wtf lol.So it was a pretty great time their too! stayed till about 5am,and they all had to get up at 7 to get ready for their flight,but they ended up getting up at 9am instead! uh oh gonna be late.

Friday

And apparently my uncle left the van keys in our room and woke us up,so I shoulda went for a ride with them to Toronto,because their real fun people to be around..because I ended up not being able to go back to sleep...So got ready,had breakfast at Denny's,we went on this simulated rollercoaster,went exploring,souvenir shopping. I wanted to go to Buffalo,New York to shop,but the taxi cost to much,so that sucked lol.Tried to sleep,but couldn't because I didn't want to leave!

Saturday

Got up at 2am Manitoba time/3 am Ontario time to get ready and go by 4am. On the way to Toronto stopped at Timmy's! aka Tim Hortons. As soon as we got to Winnipeg...hot hot hot! It was like 25 Degrees out,and I was wearing a winter jacked,jeans,and Uggs! So I quickly switched into shorts and sandals,and took off my jacket haha Because in Ontario even in April it was like winter still,snowing,raining,windy,and super cold! and in Winnipeg it was like summer.Ate at Perkins,then off to my hometown,then to Hamiota,where my grandma lives,I was up for 24 hours!

Pretty much the "funnest" week of my life,so much laughing! :)

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"Apparently Niagara Falls is popular with newlyweds and nearly-deads, according to the book" I said. "In fact, it's even been called 'Viagra Falls'". "Really" said Em. "Is that because it gives men erections?" I kid you not, and that's the watered-down version.

That was on the way to the falls on our tour coach. We'd booked on to the evening tour of Niagara Falls so enjoyed a lie-in (much-needed to rest sore heads) and met up with the Tour after lunch at the Westin Hotel, on the Waterfront. Alfred, our guide, drove us west out of Toronto in the pouring rain and despite his fairly interesting commmentary, we were beginnning to fret that the poor weather would impair our day. After an hour or so we reached the Niagara peninsula, Canada's wine-producing region. We learned a bit about wine tasting and sampled some of the produce, including a 'Dan Akroyd' (of Ghostbusters fame of course!) special - he has invested heavily in the 'Lake View' vineyard we were visiting. We also tried 'Ice Wine', which can only be harvested in the middle of the night after the grapes have been frozen solid for three consecutive days. Interesting stuff. In case you're wondering, it's very sweet, used as a dessert wine, and extremely expensive as it takes around ten times the grapes to get the same amount as ordinary wine.

Onward towards Niagara Falls, stopping at the start of the gorge from where the river had eaten its way back to, then to the 'Whirlpool Lake', so called due to the change in direction of the river creating a whirlpool effect. Not too long after that we reached a rain-sodden Niagara Falls. Maid of the Mist was our first stop. We still souldn't even make out the Falls themselves due to the fog (notorious so we were told) and we were beginning to wonder if we'd be able to see anything at all. We donned rather attractive blue 'souvenir' body-condoms and headed on to the boat. Still unable to see anything (although the sound of the falls was incredible), we boarded the boat and headed straight for the top deck whilst we set sail into the unknown. Miraculously, the mist began to clear and we could make out the American falls, and a few minutes later we were getting drenched by the spray Horseshoe/Canadian falls as they came into view. The photos we managed to get do it very little justice - you have to see it for yourselves - but it was fantastic.

Soaking wet we headed back to the coach which swiftly took us around the quite tacky town of Niagara Falls (like the tackiest of British seaside amusements) and then to the falls themselves. The weather had cleared alot by now and we had pretty good views of both the American and the Canadian Falls, both of which are pretty spectacular, and we went a bit snap-happy. When we'd had our fill of that we met up with the rest of the party and went for the included dinner on the 13th floor of the Sheraton hotel where, with even brighter weather, a fantastic view of the falls and the emergence of a Rainbow, we had a bit of a feast.

We'd been given plenty of time to amuse ourselves so rather than walk around the Blackpool-esque part of town we sniffed out the Hersheys shop and the Hard Rock Cafe. We were picked up at around 9pm and driven back along the falls to see them lit-up, but the mist had come in quite heavily and although we had a decent view of the American Falls we could see very little of the Canadian Falls. Nevertheless, we headded back to Toronto very content.

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Question: What's something Canada has that the United States doesn't have?

Answer: A fantastic view of Niagara Falls!

Not only that, but Canada has turned The Falls into the Ultimate Tourist Trap--maybe not as big as Orlando, but certainly with the most Tourist-traps-per-square-meter... In just a a couple of blocks there are 4 wax museums, 4 haunted houses, an indoor zoo, an indoor water park, endless other money eating "attractions"...

Clearly, the US doesn't have a monopoly on over the top capitalism...

But let's go back to the falls...

Great view.  Gives both a sense of the power and majesty of nature and--further downstream--of man's ingenuity in being able to harness that power...

Now let's cross back to the USA, get the car, and cross back into Canada...

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Sure it's not the newest or nicest hotel.But it was good,rooms were big,hotel located right by the action,cheap price (because it was off season), Good restaurant (Golden Griddle),pool,hot tub,good bed.Everything I needed.No complaints.

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My husband and I took a trip to Niagara Falls in 2006. We couldn't decide if we should stay on the United States side, or the Canadian side. So after seeking a lot of opinions from other people, we decided on the Canadian side. I am really glad we took the advice of others. The United States Falls really isn't visible unless you are on the Canadian side. Of course, on the United States side, you can walk down the steps and be "on" the falls pretty much, but as a whole, for a great picture, the Canadian side is better. The Horse Shoe Falls are on the Canadian side, but they are at an angle, so the pictures are awesome of it too. There is an IMAX theater that we went to that showed a movie on Niagara Falls history which was interesting. We also went to the Niagara Falls museum which we really enjoyed. They have a lot of the contraptions there that people made to ride in, to try to survive going over the falls. We skipped the whole Maid of the Mist tour. It looked really cool, but there was a huge line and neither of us really wanted to do it.
We went to the "whirlpool" area that is down stream from the falls because it sounded really cool, but it was kind of a disappointment (see picture for visualization). They have the cable cars you can ride in over the whirlpool, but since it really wasn't cool when I looked at it for free, I decided I didn't really want to pay money to look at it more from higher above. But hey, that's just me.
There was a cool street, I can't remember the name of it, but it's where the Ferris Wheel is, that we really enjoyed. They have quite a few rides beside the Ferris Wheel, they had the reverse bungee ride, etc, etc. We went to one of the 3-D experiences there, it was called Dinosaur Island I think, and it was fun.
One of the nights we went to the Casino. Pretty much every hotel has a shuttle that goes over to the Casino. We had our car there, but we still took the shuttle to the casino. We found that if we left in the car, we had a hard time finding a parking spot at the hotel lot when we got back. I think the hotels are pretty booked in the summer months, so parking can be scarce.
We also went up into the Tower. I can't remember what it's actual name is, but it's looks like the Stratosphere in Las Vegas (Again, see picture for visualization). It was really cool though. We didn't wait long in line to go up. Once up there, you can get unbelievable pictures of the falls. The two shots I have of the falls that are from up above, were taken from the top of the tower. The top of the tower is round, so you can walk around to other side of it and you can see Toronto in the distance.
We had a lot of fun during our stay at the falls, but we were only there for two full days and that was enough!! I would be really bored if I was staying there any longer than that. You only look at the falls for a brief time and then what?? I would only plan on going there for a weekend, maybe three days at the most.

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-Legal Age is 19...so if your under that,then you can't drink in bars,or gamble at the casinos,but if your with a bunch of people in the very crowded boston pizza,you can get quite a few sips of their drinks,no one will notice,but you can't sit in the bar part,after 10pm. You can also always drink in your hotel room -Best places to eat/drink : Breakfast/Lunch/Brunch: Golden Griddle,Denny's Supper:Boston Pizza,Planet Hollywood,Hard Rock Cafe Drinks (alcholic):Boston Pizza Coffee:Tim Horton's Attractions to see: The Falls! -walk up to see them,if it's in season you can go on maid of the mist,and various other boats Sky Wheel,Ripleys,Lots of different wax museums,Local stores,or stores near by,Go over to Buffalo to shop,or go to Toronto to shop. I don't think as a family vacation it would be very fun...but maybe it's because i'm old? (18 lol)... Pick Disney World for the kids!, Niagara Falls is a good place just to party it up really... It is kind of a tourist trap aswell,a meal at a restaurant is exspensive! compared to what I see in my city. You probably wouldn't want to rent a car...it costs $10-$15 to park each day,and everywhere you go. My uncle ended up leaving his rented van parked at our hotel instead of his,because it was $10 at ours and $15 at his.Also everything is within walking distance. Get a hotel right in the action.(Clifton Hill) Ours was the Imperial,not the nicest or newest of hotels, but comfortable to sleep,hot tub,and right by all the action. Although the off season is cheaper,it's not as good as, the falls aren't lit up,and you can't go on the maid of the mist.We went in April and it was freezing as if it was still winter! Better idea to go in the summer! Any questions feel free to ask me!

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