Canada Hotel Guide

Great Hotels in Canada at Great Rates

Visit Niagara Falls

In 1860 thousands watched as Charles Blondin walked a tightrope across NIAGARA FALLS for the third time; at the midway point he cooked an omelette on a portable grill and then had a marksman shoot a hole through his hat from the Maid of the Mist tug boat, 50m below. As attested by Blondin and the antics of innumerable lunatics and publicity seekers - not to mention several million waterlogged tourist photos - the Falls simply can't be beat as a theatrical setting. Yet the stupendous first impression of the Niagara doesn't last long, especially on jaded modern palates. Consequently, to prevent each year's twelve million visitors becoming bored by the sight of a load of water crashing over a 52-metre cliff, the Niagarans have ensured that the Falls can be seen from every angle imaginable - from boats, viewing towers, helicopters, cable cars and even tunnels in the rock face behind the cascade. The tunnels and the boats are the most exciting, with the entrance to the former right next to the Falls and the latter leaving from the bottom of the cliff at the end of Clifton Hill, 1100m downriver. Both give a real sense of the extraordinary force of the waterfall, a perpetual white-crested thundering pile-up that had Mahler bawling "At last, fortissimo" over the din.

Trains and buses from Toronto and many of southern Ontario's larger towns serve the town of Niagara Falls , 3km to the north of the action; the availability of discount excursion fares makes a day-trip to see the Falls a straightforward proposition, although, if you do decide to spend the night, quaint Niagara-on-the-Lake , 26km downstream beside Lake Ontario, is a much better option than the crassly commercialized town of Niagara Falls itself. Niagara-on-the-Lake can be reached from the Falls by shuttle bus , but note that accommodation there is extremely tight in high season, when you'd be well advised to book up a couple of days in advance. Both the Niagara Parkway road and the Niagara River Recreation Trail , a jogging and cycle path, stretch the length of the Niagara River from Fort Erie, 32km upstream from the Falls, to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Though you can hear the roar of the Falls miles away, nothing quite prepares you for the spectacle; the fearsome white arc shrouded in clouds of dense spray, with the river boats struggling below, mere specks against the surging cauldron. There are two cataracts, the accelerating water being sliced into two channels by tiny Goat Island: on the far side, across the frontier, the river slips over the precipice of the American Falls , 320m wide but still only one-half of the width of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. If anything, it's an even more amazing scene in winter, with snow-covered trees edging a jagged armoury of freezing mist and heaped ice blocks. It looks like a scene of untrammelled nature, but it isn't. Since the 1910s, successive hydroelectric schemes have greatly reduced the water flow, and all sorts of tinkering has spread what's left of the Niagara more evenly over the crest line. As a result, the process of erosion, which has moved the Falls some 11km upstream in 12,000 years, has slowed down from 1m per year to 30cm. This obviously has advantages for the tourist industry, but the environmental consequences of training this deluge for decades on one part of the Niagara riverbed are unclear. At least the cardsharps and charlatans who overran the riverside in Blondin's day are long gone - the Niagara Parks Commission, which controls the area along the river and beside the Falls, ensures that the immaculately tended tree-lined gardens and parkland remain precisely so.

Beside the Horseshoe Falls, Table Rock House has a small, free observation platform and elevators which travel to the base of the cliff, where tunnels , grandiosely named the "Journey Behind the Falls" (year-round daily from 9am to dusk; $6.50), lead to points behind the waterfall. For a more panoramic view, a pint-sized Incline Railway ($1) takes visitors up the hill behind Table Rock House to the Minolta Tower , 6732 Oakes Drive (daily: June-Sept 9am-midnight; Oct-May 9am-11pm; $7), which has observation platforms, though the views are rather better from the Skylon tower.

From Table Rock House, a wide and crowded path leads north along the edge of the river gorge, with the manicured lawns of Queen Victoria Park to the left and views over to the American Falls to the right. After a few minutes, turn left up Murray Street to visit the Skylon tower (daily: June-Aug 8am-1am; Sept-May 10am-10pm; $8), on Robinson Street; or continue along the path to the foot of Clifton Hill, the main drag linking the riverside area with Niagara Falls town. From the jetty below Clifton Hill, Maid of the Mist boats edge out into the river and push up towards the Falls, an exhilarating and extremely damp trip that no one should miss (April-June & Sept to late Oct Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; July-Aug daily 9am-8pm; boats leave every 15min in high season, otherwise every 30min; $10.65 per person, including waterproofs, $6.55 for children aged 6-12). Clifton Hill itself is a tawdry collection of fast-food joints and bizarre attractions, from the innocuous House of Frankenstein to the absurdity of the Believe It or Not Museum, where, amongst other wonders, you can spy a dog with human teeth and a man with double the normal number of eye pupils. Just off Clifton Hill is the area's second-biggest crowd puller, the 24 hr casino (tel 1-888/946-3255, www.casinoniagara.com ), a gleamingly modern structure where - to use the old cliché - college kids can watch their parents fritter away their school fees. The casino is near the Rainbow Bridge leading over to the States. If you're keen to avoid all this commercialization, then stick to the riverside where the Niagara Parks Commission ( www.niagaraparks.com ) keeps everything in order. There are several outstanding attractions further downstream - beginning with the Great Gorge Adventure, 3km away - and they are all easily reached either by bike or on foot along the Niagara River Recreation Trail, or by car and People Mover bus (as far as Queenston ) via the Niagara Parkway road.

Looking for a hotel in Niagara Falls?