So you want to go to Niagara Falls, eh?

The perfect time to go to Niagara in my opinion, is when you’re visiting Toronto. I may also be a little biased, but the falls in Ontario are more beautiful than the ones on the State side. There’s also many other things to do in Niagara than just see the falls but let’s be real, the Falls are the main attraction.

Niagara is super family-friendly and is perfect for children. Besides the Falls, you will find mini-golf, museums, attractions, parks, and plenty of food options for families. I don’t think Niagara is a good place for adults if you are not looking to do a Falls tour. There’s not much to do for adults besides a bunch of casinos on the strip. If getting on a boat and being near the Falls freaks you out, there is also an observatory deck called The Skylon Tower. The Skylon Tower offers 360 views of the entire city + the Falls. Not only will you get an awesome view, but they also have a restaurant inside (which rotates) in which you can enjoy lunch/dinner with a view.

From Toronto, the drive up is about an hour and 45 minutes. If you’re coming from Buffalo, NY the trip is only 30 minutes. There are other options (from Toronto) if you don’t have a car like via train or bus. WanderU offers a 2-hour train ride for $22 one way – a bit more expensive but no hassle of driving and finding/paying for parking. Greyhound offers a 4-hour bus ride for $20 one way – not that much of a difference from the train and it takes longer. This really all depends on what you want to make out of your trip. We ended up driving and it gives you so much more freedom and parking was only $15 at the Skylon Tower. After seeing the Falls we ventured off to a vineyard for a wine tasting and for reasons like this, I’d recommend a car.

So how much does it cost to go on a boat tour at the Falls? It’s actually super affordable for the experience you are getting. Our tickets were about $20 USD through Hornblower Cruises. Make sure you choose the “Voyage to the Falls” tour – this ticket will allow you to get on the boat at any time during the day you booked it on. Once you get in line, you’ll go down to the boat and my tip is to get on the top of the boat – the experience will be much better this way. They do pack the boat up like sardines so make sure when they cut the line off for the next boat, that you’re in the front so you can race to the top.

Enjoy the ride and be prepared to get SOAKED. The trip lasts around 15-20 minutes and once you get to the Canadian side of the Falls you’ll really start to feel the water come in all at once. Not going to lie, the feeling that ran through my body as we were at the Canadian Falls was exhilarating. This is something I would do over and over again if I come back to Niagara. During the tour, you’ll hear all about the Falls such as history and facts if you’re interested in knowing.

After we got soaked, our walk back to our car pretty much dried us off. Heading out of the attractions, we decided to stop by a vineyard. So if you’re into wine, good news for you – Niagara has dozens of them. I thought it was going to be hard to find one but I was wrong. Not only are there dozens of vineyards but they are all so close together so you could do more than one during your trip. We decided to stop by Château des Charmes. They host public tours in English at 1PM and 3PM, French tours are at Noon.

We decided to do three different wine flights:

1. Subtle Sophistication
2. The New Classics
3. Romantic Reds

I chose the Subtle Sophistication and really enjoyed all of them except for one – which was the Merlot and I’m not a Merlot girl at all. Two of our flights came with Icewine. Icewine is a type of dessert wine that is produced by the frozen grapes still on the vine. The sugars do not freeze, but the water does, allowing for a more concentrated juice to develop. The staff at Chateau was beyond helpful, friendly, and seemed to all enjoy their jobs. Sara, who explained the wines to us was a stand-out if you ever visit Chateau ask if she’s around. There is one other staff member (I didn’t catch her name), but she was also friendly and we had a casual conversation with her and it felt natural and not forced at all. We really enjoyed this vineyard. And of course, we ordered a cheese plate because who would we be if we didn’t!

We left feeling refreshed from the madness that was Niagara Falls, as the vineyard was calm and peaceful. It was truly the perfect summer day. I hope to have answered some of your questions about Niagara, as always feel free to shoot me a message if you would like to know something.

Xoxo,

Wynee

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