Niagara Falls (the Canadian side)

We debated whether or not to actually go here, since the Maid Of The Mist ship that takes you to the bottom of the falls stopped running in October. But in the end we decided that it's still worth the trip. Our information told us that the Canadian side is much nicer than the US side, so we crossed the border into Canada once again.

This time it was much less hassle, we didn't even need to get out of the car and there was virtually no wait. The Canadian border patrol person just asked us the standard questions and where we had been in the US, cause "you sure didn't come to visit Buffalo, right?" Hehe. Yeah we drove through Buffalo on the way to the border bridge and it didn't look like much. There are four bridges you can use to cross into Ontario, Canada at Niagara Falls and in summer there can be considerable wait time. But for us we could almost drive straight through.

Our hotel was a little bit away from the actual river side and falls, maybe a mile or so. The area around the falls and river is totally screaming "this is a tourist destination!", there are chain restaurants, souvenir shops, arcades, kids places everywhere. I don't think it would be very enjoyable in the summer season when this area is packed with tourists. There were still a bunch of visitors here but very manageable and you don't have to wait to go anywhere or do anything.

The two falls themselves are really cool and you do get a better view of them from the Canadian side, as you can view them front on. The US side only allows a side view and they had to build a special platform to get a better side view.

The main falls are mostly covered by a constant, 24h mist, created by the water crashing onto some rocks and spraying upwards. During the day the wind blows this mist onto the road and footpath, so there are sections where you get completely soaked in a matter of seconds. During the night without winds the spray just goes straight up and you get to see more of the falls.

Pics.

From behind the main falls.

River leading into the falls on the left.

Fall colours!

The smaller falls on the US side.

US falls with the viewing platform on the left.

The main falls.

The Rainbow Bridge :)

One of the tourist attractions in the tourist district. Upside down house!

Panorama shot of both falls!

I didn't take any photos at night as we just basically did a slow drive by. But the side of the road where the grass and footpath is was decorated with lots of lit up christmas and tourist displays, looked really nice at night. The falls were lit up too by giant spotlights from the road.

So even without the Maid Of The Mist tour this is well worth going to, we spent a couple of nights here. We then crossed over to the US side, the wait at the border was considerably longer and we were only asked a single question by the US border person. The US side is much more run down and less developed, but I had bought tickets to a concert in the area and I didn't want to have to cross the border twice to get there and back. So we spent one night on the US side of Niagara Falls.

The motel person was well dodgy, but we had no incidents and a good night's rest.