My recommendations/opinions/comments
1. Do not eat near the casino area. TGIF meal for 4 with no alcohol and only sandwiches ran us ~$110CN before the tip. OUCH!!!
We found this place after our first day for a break in prepping meals. Extremely reasonable, excellant food and service. Fresh Peach Pie!!! Their Fish and Chips - Top Notch. Less than $60CN for the family.
http://www.bettysrestaurant.com/pages/menu.html
2. Discovery Pass for the Canadian Side. Maid of the Mist is bigger and gets closer to the falls. Plan your day and you may need to use the People shuttle only once. We liked the Butterflies and the Journey behind the falls. US side - Cave of the Winds and tour of tower and goat island main things missing. We just paid for entrance
3. Fire Works at the Falls. Make sure you're down stream of the falls if you want the firewarks in your pictures with the falls in the background. Table Rock is too close to the falls for the pics but gives a great view of the fireworks.
4. Take time to go to Lock 3 (Wellington Canal) in St. Catherines to see the large ships "lock" up or down stream. You can call ahead and see what is scheduled and the size of the ships.
5. Took some time to visit Lockport NY and ride an excuriosn ship on the Erie Canal and through the locks. There is also a tour of the caves and an indoor boat ride. (The weather was good for the lock ride but we didn't get to tour the caves. It was the same storm that spawned totnadoes in New England.
6. Beer is expensive ~$25CN for a 12pk for plain beer.
7. At least drive through Clifton Hills at night. Looks like Myrtle Beach all lit up.
From Tent to PopUp to Travel Trailer... What's next?
Doing this for almost 20 years and still love it.
Kuntry Kampers
Marc Newkirk
2003 2500 4WD 8.1L Suburban LT
2002 27BH Four Winds Lite
23" Samsung HDTV
Ultralube/Dual Cam/Prodigy/Saniflush
I too just returned from a trip to the falls. We didn't actually participate in any of the daytime things at the falls, just walked along and took pics. Just as much fun, and we stayed dry!We went to Lockport, again, we didn't do the ride(no time) but wished we had seen a boat going thru the lock just to witness it! My buddy says Clifton Hills looks like Vegas, not Myrtle Beach!
Glad we decided against TGIF, we went to Mama Mia's on Falls Blvd. Great Italian food, not too pricy for the food. A soda however was $2.95 Canadian.
Did you make it to Niagara-on-the-Lake? Quaint little harbor town with lots of specialty shops. We had a blast there.
Thanks very much for the information. We are headed there soon.
Do any of you have stories about the border crossings in either direction? I've done my research and have a idea about what to expect. I'd rather have real life recent experience information.
Hmmm...do I have a story! One crossing I had was on a tour bus with lots of other people. Bus picked us up from hotel. Canadian immigration agent got on the bus, asked the driver lots of questions, where did he pick us up, how many people, etc. Then she asked how many of us were American citizens. He had no clue, but instead of the agent stepping onto the bus and asking us directly, she just ordered everyone off the bus. We had to go through the immigration office. Took about 10 minutes for about 50 of us, but just a hassle.
Other than the lines, which can move slow in either direction, we had no other hassles. Just showed our birth certificates and DL and had no prob.
If you are just interested in the Falls, I would suggest the Rainbow Bridge. Drops you right in the heart of the Falls area and tends to not be as crowded as the other two bridges.
Oh, and my experience was last Friday night. If your going by car, you shouldn't have to experience the other thing we did, which was two buses ahead of us having to unload completely people and luggage! Caused an extra hour going back to the US.
Oh, and if you decide to visit the casino on the Canada side, I found the slots to be not very friendly!!!LOL!
Just left the area. We drove across the Rainbow Bridge one day with 2 Americans, 1 Thai, 1 Australian and 3 Brits in the car. No issues coming or going. Did have to get out of the car going into Canada and have Visas checked. We walked across another day and it was even easier. What was strange was having to pay $.50 to go through a turnstile on the Canada side on the way back to the US.
We watched the fireworks from up river and were able to get the American Falls and the fireworks into the pictures. Did the Cave of the Winds and it was great fun. Maid of the Mist from the US side was just fine. You get so close to the Horseshoe Falls you cant see a thing anyway.
We stayed at Four Mile Creek State Park. Great place. Great people. BIG sites.
Jim & Sim - Fulltiming. - - Follow our adventures at: JimandSim.com
98 Foretravel U320 40', Cummins 450 HP/1450 lb-ft, HD4060 Allison, w/rtrder
2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo / M & G Braking / Demco Excali-Bar Current location
Was in Niagra Falls, Ont. last July. Stayed at the local KOA. Bus service into the falls area was a snap. Did the Cave of the Winds (US side), Maid of the Mist, the cable car across the horseshoe bend and had dinner one evening in the tower (can't think of the name right now.)
I suppose it depends on what you want but for me, Clifton Hill was absolutely horrible. Noise, noise and more noise along with flashing lights all designed to separate the tourist from their money. It was very much like the Ocean City, MD boardwalk....and I don't like that either!
Highlight of the trip was the Oh, Canada! dinner show. Great show, great food and lots of fun. I think they performed every song that was ever recorded by a Canadian! Lots of fun, eh!
My wife and I were traveling with our twelve year old granddaughter, Ellen. We all had passports and we had a notorized letter from Ellen's parents granting permission to take her out of the U.S. Crossing into Canada, we had a real terd for a border officer. Suffice it to say that he was not happy to see us. He gave me the impression that he wouldn't have been happy to see anyone!
Crossing back into the U.S. was great. The female border agent was thorough yet pleasant. She ended the inspection with a nice touch by saying "Welcome Home!"
The Falls were certainly impressive but not impressive enough to make me want to go back anytime soon.........
2002 F-250 full size ext. cab Powerstroke
2005 31' Prowler Bunk House TT (for the grandkids)
Always try to be the person your dog thinks you are!
Coming into NY from Niagra, roads are a bit hairy but the signage is good and there are lots of tunnels with arched shapes - stay in the middle lane.
Also, you will get a receipt at the first toll. You pay when you get off the road. We were charged $29.50 and DH is still grumbling about it.
the only thing I do at niagara falls is,,,, avoid the city all together,,,LOL!! seen it all done it all, but then have spent 40 of my 42 years living between 10 and 14 miles west of it.
I can say you folks missed alot, there is so much to do here and sites to tour and enjoy not just in the falls but the surounding area that you could easily spend 3 weeks to a month here. for future travelers one of the big no-no's is to shop or dine in any "tourist" area unless you like to waiste your money, even though you'll see restaurants advetising stuff that may seem cheap the quality goes down with the price, the majority of the trinkets or souveneirs is cheap imported junk imported from you know where. if your willing to spend a big dollar for dinner in niagara get what you pay for and seak out some of the real fine dining establishments, it will cost about the same (some a couple bucks more) but the quality of the meal and service are what you would expect for the money, there are only a couple real quality restaurants in the falls and there are a few in the surounding towns (niagara on the lake, st.Catharines, Fonthill). if you want souveniers, check out the surounding areas and small towns and hamlets, theres alot of antique, collectables shops, and craft stores, where you can pick up something that might not end up in a junk dware or attic a year later. wineries abound in niagara, thats one thing that france is P-O'ed at us for is a few of our wines have beaten theirs in international competions, from large scale to micro wineries, a few small enough that theirs never make it to the store shelf because of low volume, they sell only to a couple restaurants and out of their own store on location. there is so much more to niagara than the falls, for other places to tour some of it is free to see, some have a low maintance fee type charge to get in. The welland canal has a rich history which alot of it is hidden from public veiw, there are still sections of some of the previous canals (no longer in use) that can be veiwed if you know where to find them, the canal use to zig zag all over the place (before rail travel and the motor vehicle was introduced in the area) and its nearly 200 y/o remnants can still be seen if you know where to look, search "wikipedia" for some interesting reading and pictures, if you want to see the places for real where the pics were taken some of locals including myself can tell you where to find the spots., and yes I saw the aftermath of the 1974 and 2001 bridge crashes, the 1974 was more spectacular by far as it completely wiped out the bridge (have pics somewhere of that one).
Don't take this post the wrong way as I am only trying to encourage the thurough true enjoyment of a visit to niagara and avoid the tourist trap price gouging that discourages people, or if not takes your money to fast with little return, and preventing you from seeing and doing more with it.
Relaxin, hikin, canoin, enjoyin life
headin down the road with a 25 foot starcraft, canoe, camera & fishing rod,'86 gmc 1 ton crew cab 454 "Sheila" a few pics from 2004
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