Lets face it, many of us are not traveling right now and haven’t been for months. If we had travel plans during the early part of 2020, chances are they have been canceled. In addition, with a second wave of COVID 19 surging this summer, planning new travel adventures is out of the question for many of us.
Like most of you, I have been reliving my past travel adventures by browsing my photos and videos of my favorite locations and reminiscing about our sightseeing. My hope is that we will all be planning some new escapades in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, I will share our visit to Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada from June 2017.
Being that we live in Central Ohio, we decided to drive and thus set out for a five hour trek north towards Cleveland following along the most northern border of Ohio on I-90 heading towards Buffalo, NY. After doing some research beforehand, we decided to stay on the Canadian side of the falls. After all, we knew Canada was a friendly place Eh.
We would cross over the Canadian Border at the Rainbow International Bridge.
We planned for a three day trip leaving home early on a Sunday morning. We arrive in Canada and checked into our Hotel mid afternoon. We stayed at the Holiday Inn – By the Falls and loved being within walking distance of the Falls. This gave us plenty of time to check out the local surroundings and visit the Falls before settling in for dinner.
If you have never been to Niagara Falls, I can say with certainly the Falls really are impressive whether you are witnessing them from the Canadian Side or the U.S. side. In addition, there are plenty of tourist attractions to let everyone in your travel party experience Niagara Falls as close up or from afar as you desire regardless of which side you choose to visit. Some attractions on the Canadian side include:
- Skylon Tower Restaurant and Observation Tower
- Hornblower Niagara Cruises
- Journey Behind the Falls
- Whirlpool Aero Car *Not for the faith of heart
- Butterfly Conservatory
- Numerous Wineries & Wine Tasting
- Niagara Skywheel
- Niagara on the Lake
After settling into our hotel (which offers free guest parking and WiFi), we headed out on foot to the Skylon Tower. The Tower has a revolving dining room as well as the Observation Deck. We opted for just the legendary views from the Observation Deck. We loved having an self guided 360 degree view (stay as long as you like) of the Canadian county side, including an unobstructed view of Niagara Falls. Even from that elevation, we could still hear the roar of the rushing fall waters and feel the mist created from the falls. It was worth every Canadian dollar ($12/person) for this adventure.
After enjoying the view, we then decided to head down to ground level and experience the Falls and see the sights up close and personal. Being that we visited in the summer, there were a lot of tourists which made for optimal viewing a bit tricky. There are plenty of walk ways and viewing advantage points so just needed to be patient for all the selfies and videos. Parking was at a premium, however, since we were on foot, we made our way around Queen Victoria Park and the Parkway fairly easy. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we decided to turn in and plan our excursions for the next day.
You can read about our 24 km (15 miles) drive north along the Niagara Parkway here. Our scenic drive included visits along the way to the Niagara Whirlpool, the Queenston Heights Park, the Botanical Gardens with an afternoon stop for lunch in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Canada.
