Niagara Falls is at the border of Canada and US. It is about 1.5 hours away from Toronto. It is a popular tourist location and attracts thousands of people each year. Niagara Falls is the larger water fall in the world by volume.
Although Niagara Falls is at the border of US and Canada, it is actually on the Canadian side. Many Canadian likes to go to Niagara Falls for a weekend getaway. The on the next day, they can go to the premium outlet mall to do some shopping, or go across the border to Buffalo to shop in US since US usually offers better deals. The most popular route is through Rainbow Bridge border, which is right beside Niagara Falls. When going through the custom, they would ask a lot of questions about where you have and what you have bought. If you are honest and told them that you went shopping and spent only $100 or less, they don't usually bother to tax you. The worst thing is that they now charge you $3 to cross the border! This is ridiculous!
Okay, enough complaining about the Canadian custom at the border and getting back to Niagara Falls trip. We left early from Toronto and got to Niagara Falls around 10am to avoid the traffic on Queen's Express Way. As many of you from Toronto would know, traffic is Toronto is terrible! One thing I want to warn you is that there is speed trap on the high way near Niagara Falls! When you get off highway 405 onto highway 420, the speed limit reduced dramatically to 50km/h! So pay extra attention here as I have seen a lot of people got pulled over by police and got speeding ticket!
We chose to stay at Best Western this time. It is not a fancy hotel but offers great rate at $95 per night. The hotel is also very close to Niagara Falls water front so I can just leave my car at the hotel and walk over. Fallsview Casino is also just across the street! If you have a dog, it is also the best place for you to stay since they allow pets! When we got to Niagara Falls at 10am in the morning, we simply parked our car at Best Western hotel and walked down to Niagara Falls.
The first place you should go to is walk towards South to the pavilion to check out all the gift shops and read about the history of Niagara Falls. There is even amphitheater for you to watch a short film about a native American story. Once you are done with all the gift shops, you can start walk towards North along the water front. The view is spectacular from the North side as you can have a perfect view of Niagara Falls. Get your camera ready and take lots of pictures!
Another popular tourist attraction is to take the ferry to get close to the water fall. We didn't do this because we are not a big fan of getting ourselves wet. The name of the ferry is Maid of Mist and you can simply just buy the tickets there. When you get onto the ferry, they will give each person a rain coat to wear; however, the rain coat is not going to protect you from getting wet!
At night, you can head to the buffet restaurant at Fallsview Casino for dinner. It is not as luxury as the ones in Las Vegas, but it still offer a lot of sea food selections. After you finish dinner, you can head to Fallsview Casino to try some luck! From my past experience, I have usually won a dollar here and there. So maybe you will be a big winner!
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