How to Plan an International Trip: Travel Tales and Tips : Canada Trip Report , Days 13, 14: Niagara Falls

Day 13, Sep 6, 2017:

Today was Niagara day! By scheduling Niagara at the end of our trip we had missed out on the fireworks. It stopped on the 4th! It's a matter of regret but we had lovely cool weather, no crowds, no lines anywhere and the Hilton falls view room was very reasonably priced at 200s. Our room 2703 on 27th floor had lovely views and in fact we could have skipped the breakfast in their famed Watermark restaurant as our view was better!

A tip: get a membership when you book online, you can skip lines at checkin.

Casino parking was just $5 and parking level 5 is conveniently connected by a skybridge to Hilton and Sheraton.

Major thing to remember if you are coming from other parts of Canada is the local time is 2 hours ahead of Alberta/3 hours ahead of BC.

Son had set up wake up call on our alarm clock for 9am. Only after waking up he looked at his phone and realised the clock was keeping Calgary time. When we were in BC, he had mentally adjusted the time and set alarm for the correct local time though the clock remained at Alberta time. So instead of 9am, it was actually 11 am local time (Ontario time). Our body clock felt it was 8 am according to British Columbia where we had been the past 5 days.

Anyways we rang up reception, said we needed shuttle to go to airport, got ready and came down at 12, the shuttle had left without us.

Next was after an hour, they said. There were several others sitting in the reception waiting for the shuttle. We too waited. They should just ply shuttles every ½ hour or on demand like other hotels. At 1, we again reminded the reception girl for the shuttle. It came in some 5 minutes and we went to the airport and picked up our car.

Many advise against a car for Toronto and Niagara but we felt the convenience far outweighed the high cost of parking.

We were on our way to Niagara falls. We have seen it from the US side earlier. We avoided the toll highway 407 (it automatically bills the license plate and rentals don't have an easy system of collecting from users. We did not want to pay penalties). Same way we had avoided the Portmann bridge while entering and exiting Vancouver. The toll is only $3 but it gets billed to the rental and there are penalties for late payment. We can log in and pay at once and keep the receipt to show when we are forwarded the penalty notice by the rental but we did not want the hassle

When we reached the town, we stopped at Walmart, stocked up on provisions and then drove on to Hilton some 3 km away.

Hilton Fallsview, Niagara Falls:

We had booked a room with view of both US and Canada falls at Hilton fallsview. We parked the car at the Casino parking and crossed over with our bags on the skybridge from Casino Parking level 5 to Hilton.

With our membership, we did not have to stand in the long line for checkin, but had priority.

We were very happy with our room 2703... awesome view of the falls!

Table Rock, Niagara Falls:

We walked to the Table rock and enjoyed the sight of the falls.

This is the casino in front of our hotel and skylon tower with its yellow lift can also be seen to the left.

American falls and Goat island...

Horseshoe falls on the Canadian side...

The Horseshoe Falls drop about 188 feet (57 m), while the height of the American Falls varies between 70 and 100 feet (21 and 30 m) because of the presence of giant boulders at its base.

The Horseshoe Falls are about 2,600 feet (790 m) wide, while the American Falls are 1,060 feet (320 m) wide. Waterflow rate is 85,000 cu ft/s (2,400 m3/s).

We have had the good fortune of visiting Iguacu falls(Argentina and Brazil) and also Victoria falls Zimbabwe. They are AMAZING experiences and do top the list, however Eleanor Roosevelt was perhaps a bit uncharitable when she exclaimed after seeing Iguacu falls, “Poor Niagara, it's a leaking faucet compared to Iguazu!“

Skylon tower:

Then we walked to the skylon tower,

Skylon tower is 160 metres (520 ft) from street level and 236 metres (775 ft) from the bottom of the falls. The tower features three outside mounted "Yellow Bug" elevators. It has an awesome observation deck.

There was no lines at 7pm, we bought the tickets, went up. We stood near the door in the lift and it's a great sight to see the view through the glass at certain points.

We enjoyed sun set views on the decks. The sky turned lovely hues as the red orb went down and then colorful lights started twinkling from all buildings. The falls got draped in different changing hues as well. Magical sight. We always try to time such tower visits a little before sunset and the experience is AMAZING! It was a clear day and we could see up to Toronto.

There is some lovely glassware at the tower. We bought some souvenirs... wood carvings were very reasonably priced!

We came back to our lovely room and enjoyed the lights on the falls till we fell asleep. It had been a great day!

Video link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1x7LfFur8LWuimtx2

has the video of niagara, skylon tower, hornblower cruise and niagara-on-the-lake.

Day 14, Sep 7. 2017:

Breakfast at Watermark Restaurant, Hilton:

We had breakfast at the Watermark restaurant at a window table with awesome views of the falls. It's on the 32^nd floor, our room on the 27^th floor had better views!!

Hornblower cruise:

We walked over to the Hornblower cruise, bought the tickets and had the cruise.

Lovely experience passing pretty close to the American falls, Bridal veil as well as the thundering Horse shoe.

After the cruise, We walked past the restaurant with great views

When we had visited the US side, we had done the Maid of the mist cruise as well as Cave of the winds where we could stand right at the foot of the Bridal falls. Here we felt the Behind the scenes may not be good enough, so we skipped it. We had done a jetboat ride over the rapids also. So we were good with Hornblower cruise now.

We walked back, enjoying the greenery, flowers and of course the falls views. Hardly anyone around compared to the evening and the lighting is great in the morning.

We came back to the casino, it has a lovely fountain,

We picked up the car.

We had to collect a parking ticket from the kiosk at the casino and it was for just $5. Pretty cheap parking in a place where parking is so expensive!

Botanic gardens:

We had Bird kingdom, Botanic gardens, Butterfly conservatory, flower clock and Niagara on the lake on our agenda. We drove to the Botanic gardens,

Visited the Butterfly conservatory first. The tickets are 15 cad; at Houston the conservatory is $8 and and a much better experience. Anyways this was OK as well. It's mostly covered in our video

We then walked through the garden... it's lovely. Such a picture perfect place! So serene and pretty!

LAVENDER!

Suddenly it started pelting and we ran to our car. There had been a bridal couple taking pics in the garden,

the dress may have been ruined in the sudden rain! It had been a little cold and windy, and the bride had been shivering earlier!

Floral clock:

We had our lunch and drove on to the floral clock. Quite pretty and keeping perfect time!! Nice to see the second hand ticking away on the flower bed. There was a bus load of people when we arrived there but we managed to get pics without random strangers in the frame.

Bird kingdom:

We had to backtrack to the Bird kingdom. It combines both an antique display and birds. It's the largest free flying indoor aviary. It's covered in our video:

This is an 18th century Javanese house made of teak wood with no nails. So richly carved!

We had loved the free flying aviary in Brazil Foz de Iguazu and also at the Disney world at Orlando. Even the Vancouver Blodel conservatory is awesome. Here there is a musty smell throughout and so we could not enjoy thoroughly.

We did not avail of the included Lorikeet feeding as I had developed a sinus headache and needed fresh air.

Niagara-on-the-lake drive:

We drove on to Niagara on the lake. It's a scenic drive just 20 km from Niagara falls passing through vineyards. We had a couple of stops for goofy pics. This souvenir place looked great, but we had no time to visit the interior. We had already bought our fill!

What a sweet idea to make these blowups!!

Smallest chapel in the world:

This is the smallest chapel in the world, seats just 7!

Niagara-on-the-Lake:

In Canada's wine country, Niagara-on-the-Lake presents a well-preserved 19th-century village and its charms. Niagara-on-the-Lake is where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. It's a lovely town with quaint colonial-style buildings.

The area is full of vineyards and is so beautiful. We parked at the metered parking and walked around a bit.

Here's Victorian elegance... Built in 1864, this three storey 110 room hotel was renamed Prince of Wales hotel in 1901 after royal guests The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (afterwards known as The Prince and Princess of Wales until 1910) stayed. Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the hotel during her visit to the area in 1973