When Joel, Steve, and I first planned this trip, we were going to spend one, maybe two days in Niagara Falls. I also spent two days there with my parents and brother, so we figured that would be enough.
However, after seeing the majestic beauty of the falls and then being very disappointed by our experience in the RV, we scrapped all of our plans and decided to just go spend the week in Niagara Falls. And we are so glad we did!
After returning the RV first thing on Monday morning, we rented a car and drove to Niagara Falls. Joel is an expert at finding good hotel deals and he got us a room for the week at the Vittoria Hotel, right on the main street in the town. The price was suspiciously low…and it turned out to be because they were having some renovation work done. But that didn’t bother us in the least!
When we were checking in, the guy at the front desk, Antonio, made small talk with us about why were here, our plans, etc., and we ended ups haring with him our whole tale of woe about the RV. As a kindness, he then upgraded our room from a Junior Suite to a Family Suite, giving us more space! We thanked him profusely and went upstairs to check out our new home for the week.
But wait, there’s more! Seconds after arriving in our new room, the phone rang. I answer it and it was Antonio inviting us back downstairs. He then upgraded us again, this time to a Family Suite with a view of the falls! We were so excited we took a selfie with Antonio to memorialize his awesomeness, though unfortunately I caught him with this eyes closed. Sorry, Antonio!
The boys went to return the car while I worked on unpacking, and they returned with our first round of Poutine! Smoke’s Poutinerie is right next door to the hotel and they have a fantastic variety of Poutine available. I believe this was the double pork and the bacon cheeseburger!
After we got settled into the room we all showered (in a normal shower, yay!) and got ready for dinner. This was when we decided to throw out the budget and just do all of the fun, cheesy, tourist-y things we could, so we settled on the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Steve had never been to one and I adore this restaurant because it is so cheesy and over the top. The food was decent and the atmosphere makes it so darn fun!
After dinner we wandered around and bought passes that would let us go on several of the rides, the sky wheel, and play a round of mini golf. However, after our long day we were exhausted so we decided to head back to the hotel for a fairly early night. But not before enjoying some of the sights along the way - like this giant Frankenstein on a Burger King! Niagara Falls feels like a cross between a State Fair and a Carnival - I don’t know why it is like this, but I absolutely love it.
Back in our room we discovered the real magic of the falls view room that Antonio gave us - we could watch the fireworks from our room! We were on the 10th floor so we had the most incredible view of the fireworks each night (they go off every night at 10pm for five minutes.) It was incredible.
The next day Joel and I got up bright and early to try and accomplish USA based tasks that were on our list for this trip. He had some things to mail to family and we were hoping to get something fixed on our phones that we needed to be in the US for. You might be thinking, but you returned the rental car yesterday, how are you getting to the US! Well, we walked! You can walk right across the Rainbow Bridge to get from one country to the other.
It wasn’t without its annoyances - it was hot, we had to get change to pay to cross (it wasn’t expensive but they required actual change), and we weren’t able to accomplish everything we wanted to on the other side. But it was still pretty cool to be able to say we walked from Canada to the USA!
We made it back to Canada in time to grab some Tim Hortons for lunch (we ate there a lot on this trip) and then we went to pick up our Niagara Falls Adventure Passes that we had purchased online. These passes get you into a ton of attractions that let you get a better look at the falls (though they don’t include the famous boat ride.) We took advice from the lady we picked up our passes from and headed to the Whitewater Walk as our first stop.
The Whitewater Walk takes you down an elevator ride that gets you to a half-mile long board walk built right along the Niagara River. These are apparently level 6 rapids - I didn’t realize the scale went above 5! Seeing (and hearing!) the water this close was incredible.
I could have enjoyed that view all day but we had more to see! Next up was the Whirlpool Aero Car. This antique cable car (in operation since 1916) takes you over a part of the river where it turns abruptly, creating a constant whirlpool in the water. You also cross over the USA/Canada border 4 times! The guide told us how he used to joke about people needing their passports until one lady actually took hers out and then promptly dropped it into the water below! He doesn’t make that joke anymore.
It doesn’t look like much but it is an incredibly dangerous part of the river and despite the beach right there, no one is allowed in the water. There is a helicopter landing pad nearby for rescues if someone accidentally falls in.
Next up on the list was the Butterfly Conservatory. To be honest, I thought this felt like a bit of a random extra and I wasn’t too excited about it - I have been to butterfly houses before. But Steve and Joel wanted to go so I went along - and I’m glad I did! The camera on my new phone is incredible and let me get pictures of butterflies like never before. Look how amazing!
After that we headed back into town (we did all this traveling on bus passes that came with the adventure passes, by the way) and went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. It was Joel’s choice for dinner and he discovered that the Montana’s just two doors down from the hotel was serving all you can eat ribs! So we went there and stuffed ourselves silly.
The ribs were excellent and the freshly baked cornbread was particularly good - and a delicacy Steve had never tried before! The only downside was we ate so much we were then too tired to do anything that evening other than go back to the hotel and watch the fireworks from our room again. Not that I’m complaining about that!
Stay tuned to hear about all the fun we crammed into the next two days of the trip.
XOXO, Bethany