FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2017
NIAGARA FALLS
Today, Ariel and I signed up for a tour to go to Niagara Falls from Toronto. The bus picked us up at a Starbucks near where we staying and drove us to their company office where we paid for the tour. It looks like other people were picked up earlier and dropped off at this office. Once everyone was sorted, we boarded the bus. We booked through this website here. The tour was pretty good. What made it special was the tour guide. He was really funny and entertaining. Niagara Falls is a good day trip from Toronto, especially if you’ve never been. Two years ago, I went to Niagara Falls on the U.S. side. I loved it. It was so much fun, especially being able to walk so close to the American Falls.
NIAGARA ON THE LAKE
The bus ride from the city to Niagara Falls wasn’t too long. It was probably about an hour and a half, which I’m pretty sure Ariel and I slept for most of it. We arrived around 11:30am and were given about an hour to walk around and explore. Niagara on the Lake is a small town near Niagara Falls. They have pretty colonial style buildings and looks to be a big tourist attraction nowadays. We walked down Queen Street and passed many quaint shops selling all sorts of things. We encountered clothing shops, specialty soap shops, a hat store, and a shop selling lots and lots of Christmas decorations and ornaments. At our tour guide’s recommendation, we got sandwiches at a store called Old Town Goodies. I highly recommend getting lunch here so you don’t have to spend time later looking for food at Niagara Falls.
NIAGARA FALLS
It’s about a 30 minute drive from Niagara on the Lake to Niagara Falls. I will say that I found the two sides quite different. The U.S. side is more untouched, whereas, the Canadian side, there’s a casino, hotel, and lots more things to do. But because the U.S. side is more untouched, the view is better from the Canadian side ( in my opinion). Here are a few things you can do at Niagara Falls.
- HORNBLOWER – I don’t know if you can quite call this a cruise, but basically you get on a boat and the boat takes you up close to the waterfall. The best view is probably on the upper deck in the front. You’ll be able to take pictures of the falls as the boat approaches or stand at the back of the boat when going back. This experience is also available on the American side, called Maid of the Mist. It’s really funny though. The two sides obviously coordinated times for the boats and you’ll definitely pass the other side’s boat at some point. The American side everyone is given blue ponchos and everyone on the Canadian side is given red ponchos. I did find the Canadian boat to be larger than the Maid of the Mist and I also felt that the Hornblower goes a lot closer to the falls than Maid of the Mist does. I remember when I rode the Maid of the Mist, it felt like once the boat reached the falls, it immediately turned back, whereas the Hornblower stayed longer at the falls, giving people more time to take pictures or get soaked. Getting wet is inevitable on both sides. If you’re ever at Niagara Falls, this is a must do, either Maid of the Mist or the Hornblower, do at least one.
- ZIP LINING – We didn’t do this, but it looked fun! Ariel almost did it. I had enough adventure for one day, so I skipped this. But it’s seemed like a cool opportunity to zipline towards the falls. Walking by it didn’t look like it ended close to the falls.
- JOURNEY BEHIND THE FALLS – I really wanted to do this, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. I did the Cave of the Winds (on the U.S. side), which is similar in that you walk on wooden platforms and observation decks to see the waterfalls super close up. I truly enjoyed Cave of the Winds. It was so much fun to walk through the waterfall and anything not covered by the Poncho will definitely get wet.
- BOARDWALK – One of the things that I liked about the Canadian side was the boardwalk. There’s a long boardwalk that starts from the Hornblower area and goes literally next to the top of Niagara Falls. The lady at the information desk said that it’s a 15-20 minute walk, but it felt much longer than that. I think it took us over 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other because we stopped so many times to take pictures. There’s food at both ends and at the end near the waterfall, there’s a Canada sign that’s pretty fun to take pictures.
If you look online there’s plenty of other things to do as well further in on the Canadian side. The attractions mentioned above were just at the falls itself, but there’s a whole “center” with aquariums, shows, hotels, and casinos, you’re bound to have a good time. By the time we walked to the end of the boardwalk and back, it was time for us to return to the bus.
SOUVENIR CITY
The tour guide, who doubled as our bus driver, then drove us to Souvenir City where you can get any souvenir you could possibly want. I saw a lot of maple leafs, syrup, and red plaid.
WINE TASTING
The last stop on our tour was a wine tasting. I’m not sure which vineyard we went to, but that area was become well known for their wine. We got to taste some white wine, red wine, and ice wine. I thought the ice wine was pretty special. It’s super hard to make and it takes a long time to make it. They said that for ice wine, one grape can produce three drops of ice wine. 3 drops! Can you imagine how many grapes it would take to make just a bottle?! They’ve also thought this out packaging. All the wines have are in bottles that make it easy for you to bring home. Only have a carry on? They have an ice wine syrup you can add to your coffee or tea.
BACK TO THE CITY
After the wine tasting, the bus took us back to the city. Not too much traffic on the highway, but a bit of traffic when you’re on the streets in the city. The driver dropped everyone off along the way and we made our way back to David’s apartment.
DUNDAS SQUARE
When we got back, we got some Korean food for dinner with David’s work and college friends and then David showed us Dundas Square, saying it was the “Times Square of Toronto.” It didn’t really look like Times Square, but I can see why he would make the comparison. Dundas Square is a public square and event venue that is used for events of all sizes. There are several activities that go on at the square. There’s shopping, shows, and street performers that make you think of New York. There’s large, bright ads that also remind you of Time Square. All that’s missing are people dressed in creepy costumes looking to photo bomb your photo and then charge you for the picture.
