Niagara Falls: The Falls Themselves and What’s Actually Worth Your Time

There is a persistent argument that the American side of Niagara Falls offers a more “authentic” experience because it’s less commercialised. The argument is wrong. The Canadian side in Ontario gives you the better view – the Horseshoe Falls, by far the largest and most dramatic of the three falls, curves in a horseshoe shape visible along its full width from the Canadian bank. From the American side, you face the straight-edged American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls but cannot see Horseshoe Falls properly at all. If you’re choosing a side, choose Canada.

The Horseshoe Falls is 57 metres high and 790 metres wide, and approximately 2,400 cubic metres of water per second flows over it during peak season – a volume and a noise that photographs do not prepare you for. The experience of standing at the Table Rock railing directly beside the falls is genuinely memorable. Everything else in Niagara Falls Town – the casino strip, the wax museums, Clifton Hill’s collection of tourist kitsch – is entirely separable from the falls experience, and you should treat it as such.

The Falls: How to See Them

Table Rock is the observation platform at the lip of Horseshoe Falls, free to access and open around the clock. This is the best ground-level view. The spray is real and the scale registers properly from this position.

Niagara Parks Hornblower Cruise takes you by boat from the Canadian dock into the Horseshoe Falls basin. The boats get close enough that the falls occupy most of your visual field. The provided ponchos are inadequate; you will be genuinely wet. Adults CAD $31, operates May through October. Worth doing once for the experience.

Journey Behind the Falls (Niagara Parks, adults CAD $22): an elevator descends inside the Table Rock building to tunnels behind and beside the falls, with portals that look through the falling water. The visual effect – the water as a thick green curtain backlit by sky – is unusual, and the noise inside the tunnels is remarkable. Advance booking is recommended in July and August.

Niagara Parkway cycling north from the falls to Queenston covers 20 kilometres of riverside path past the Whirlpool (where the river makes an abrupt 90-degree turn, creating a large permanent whirlpool), Queenston Heights (the site of the 1812 Battle of Queenston Heights, where American forces were repelled in one of the more significant actions of the War of 1812), and several gorge viewpoints.

Clifton Hill: Avoid

Walk past it on the way to Table Rock and back. There is no reason to spend time on this tourist strip if you’re interested in the actual falls.

The Niagara Wine Region

The Niagara Peninsula between Niagara Falls and Hamilton – roughly 50 kilometres along the Niagara Escarpment – is Canada’s most important wine-producing region. The escarpment moderates temperature and extends the growing season; Riesling, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Franc are the strong suits.

More specifically: the Niagara Peninsula produces some of the world’s best ice wine (Eiswein). Grapes are left on the vine until they freeze naturally in January or February, then pressed while frozen to yield a concentrated, intensely sweet juice. Canadian ice wine legislation requires the freezing to be natural – no artificial refrigeration – and the resulting product is expensive, extremely sweet, and worth trying once as a dessert wine experience. Inniskillin, Peller Estates, and Jackson-Triggs (all near Niagara-on-the-Lake, 20 km north) offer visitor tastings for CAD $5-15.

Niagara-on-the-Lake itself is a well-preserved British colonial town with the Shaw Festival (April through November, serious theatre programming) and several good restaurants.

Where to Stay and Getting There

The Sheraton Fallsview Hotel has rooms on upper floors with direct Horseshoe Falls views worth paying for. Niagara-on-the-Lake accommodation is more pleasant as a base despite being 20 minutes from the falls. The Prince of Wales Hotel on Picton Street runs doubles from around CAD $200-300.

Niagara Falls is 130 kilometres southwest of Toronto: 90 minutes by car on the Queen Elizabeth Way, or 2 hours by GO Transit from Toronto Union Station (CAD $15-20). The Rainbow Bridge pedestrian crossing between the Ontario and New York sides costs USD $1; seeing both sides requires a border crossing and appropriate documents.