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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Niagara Falls - US or Canada?
I also posted this in Travel, but I trust your opinions...
H and I are looking to go for our anniversary (10/20-10/24). Which side would you suggest we stay on?
Also, does the falls cover a couple days or activities? If not, what other places should we check out?
My in-laws stayed on the Canada side and said the B&B they were at was wonderful, but I can't find any none-chain places on a search. Suggestions?
TIA!
Re: Niagara Falls - US or Canada?
I don't think it matters if you stay on the US or Canada side, but I think the Canada side has a much better view.
There are lots of fun places near the falls so I think you could spend two days there. I would recommend eating dinner at the Red Coach Inn. It is romantic and delicious and I believe it is located on the US side. I believe the Red Coach Inn is also a B & B, but we didn;t stay there so I am not sure.
Try searching on www.bedandbreakfast.com
Otherwise I know nothing about Niagara Falls, so I'm no help with that. Sorry.
We were just there earlier this month.
We stayed on the Canadian side. The view of the Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian falls ... the big one!) is much better from the Canada side. There's also the American Falls, which you can actually see better from the Canadian side, but you can hike up the side of the falls if you're on the American side.
Honestly, the town of Niagara Falls isn't that great. It's very touristy. Like tacky kitschy touristy: Ripley's Believe It Or Not, the wax museum, a haunted house, casinos, chain restaurants like TGI Fridays. Not great. Pretty much the only thing we were interested in was the falls itself, which is totally worth seeing. We did the Maid of the Mist boat tour, which is totally worth the $16. That's the one thing you HAVE to do there. A great experience.
We arrived in Niagara Falls on a Sunday afternoon (about 4:00) and left at noon on Monday. We felt like we saw everything we needed to see there.
I would wholeheartedly suggest driving up the Niagara Parkway to Niagara-on-the-Lake. It's about 20 miles from Niagara Falls. The drive up is beautiful, and along the way, you'll pass the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, the Niagara River Recreational Trail, a butterfly conservatory, etc.
Niagara-on-the-Lake is a really cute little town. It's kind of touristy too, but in a different way than Niagara Falls. NOTL is more like downtown Stillwater touristy - carriage rides, antique shops, gift shops, lots of cute little ice cream parlors, bakeries and restaurants, etc.
There are a ton of wineries around NOTL, and I wish we had more time to explore more of them, we only went to three. We went to Peller Estates and it was great, it's one of the bigger wineries around there. Peller has a restaurant, and we had lunch there. It was probably the best meal I've ever had in my life. It was amazing. Jason Parsons is the chef there. Totally worth a stop! We also went to Hillebrand and Coyote's Run. You have to try ice wine. Seriously. It's so good. Expensive, but very very good.
Mr. Sammy Dog
We discovered a little trick for saving money on Canadian wine, unfortunately I wish we would have figured it out earlier. If you buy wine at the duty-free shop at the border crossing, it's cheaper than buying it at the winery.
We didn't stop at the duty free shop on our way into Canada, but on our way out, we had about $60 in Canadian cash so we decided to stop and buy stuff at the duty-free shop before crossing into Michigan so we wouldn't have to exchange the money when we got home. The wine was about 25% cheaper at the duty-free shop. For example, a bottle of cabernet franc ice wine at Peller is $90, but at the duty-free shop, the same wine was $65. Because of the "good deals", we ended up spending another $200 on wine at the duty-free shop, even though we had already bought a bunch when we visited the wineries
Some of the smaller wineries don't sell their wine at the duty-free shops, but all the larger ones do (Peller, Hillebrand, Inniskillin, Pilliterri, etc.).
The regular wines (not ice wine) are pretty reasonably priced in the region, most bottles are $25 or less, many are under $20.
Ice wine is usually $60 and up per bottle, but Coyote's Run had a nice riesling ice wine for $40. Ice wine usually comes in 375ml bottles (a normal bottle of wine is 750ml), but you only drink a small amount of ice wine, so a 375ml bottle is supposed to be 6 servings.
Enough about wine. It's making me want to drink at work.
Mr. Sammy Dog
I was there about 8 years ago, so my memory isn't exactly fresh. We were in Toronto for my brother's hockey team, so we made the day trip from Toronto to Niagara Falls, so we were on the Canadian side. I didn't see it from the US side, but everyone with us who had said the Canadian side was much better. Like PP's said, the town itself was way touristy. It reminded me of Wisconsin Dells.
I can't remember exactly how far the drive from Toronto was, but I loved Toronto if you have the time to make the drive. The drive was really pretty along the lake, too.
Boy/girl twins born at 37w1d and 37w2d
Niagara Falls, Ontario is about an hour and 45 minutes from Toronto.
Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto is about an hour and 20 minutes.
Mr. Sammy Dog
I went about 3 years ago, and would HIGHLY recommend the Canada side over the US side. There are far more dining and hotel options. The US side is very dumpy and run-down, whereas the Canada side has beautiful, lush parks that go for a couple of miles around the Falls. I recommend just walking from the Canada side across to the US side (bring your passports), and checking on the US side of the falls that way.
I can also recommend an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC B&B. It's called the Eastwood Tourist Lodge on the Canada side. It's right across from the river, and the rooms are comfy and have wi-fi. Joanne is an absolutely fabulous hostess, and there were a variety of breakfast options to choose from each morning. I think this is one of our favority B&B's anywhere, and we travel quite a bit. This B&B is an easy walk to all of the attractions, yet it's nice and quiet at night.
I hope you have a great time. We did. I also second the recommendation to check out the wineries near Niagara on the Lake.