Family Travel: Niagara Falls, Canada

We just came from another quick trip to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Toronto, Canada. We loved the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. My son declared that he would like to live in Niagara Falls or Toronto, with the condition of moving all of his toys from Chicago.

This trip was a good experience with our two children, where I tried few practical products and ideas. We flew there on a late flight and arrived at our hotel really late. That made the kids a bit fussy on the first day of our trip. So we ended our excursions early, had dinner and got back to our hotel room before the regular bedtime routine time.

We visited the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. This extending bridge is on the US side. Being on the US side before, I recommend you to plan your trip around the Canadian side. There are so many more things to do and see.

This is the railway from the hotels area to Visitor Center.

This is the visitor center by the Niagara Falls. You can get your tickets to Maid of the Mist and Behind the Falls tours here. On a sunny day, you an always catch a rainbow over the falls.

We did the Maid of the Mist tour all together even though my husband offered to stay on land with my son. I insisted we experience it altogether. My son is not very comfortable on a boat. He doesn’t get seasick but her gets very worried. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for him when we got close to the falls and the water was literally roaring down, spraying us with the mist. They give disposable raincoats to put on, on the boat. Despite that we got quite wet. If the weather is cooler, you might want to bring spare clothes along with you.
W made up to him by get up the Skylon Tower. He wore these snow goggles and carried replica of Skylon during the whole trip.
View from the Skylon Tower was amazing. There were two levels. One is observatory and the other is a revolving restaurant. We went up to the restaurant without reservation for lunch and got seated by the window.

See all that green down there? There are lots of nice parks, a beautiful flower garden and open grassy space so whenever we needed we took breaks from our sightseeing to let the kids run around and have kiddie fun, while we lied down and rested our swollen feet.

My reflection from the windows of the Skylon observatory.

This is the “behind the falls” tour on the US side.

Behind the parks of the Niagara Falls there is an open campus theme park called Clifton Hill. It has all kinds of attractions. They are not cheap but you can hit few places without breaking your budget.

We visited the Brickcity. It ok for young kids. Walking around to see the already made LEGO towns were more interesting to us than kids. They have replicas of famous cities around the world.

They liked it better when they could sit down and play with LEGOs for a bit.

Then we just walked around Clifton Hill and appreciated the weird stuff.

On our way to Butterfly Conservatory we stopped by to see the hydroelectric power plant for the engineer in the house.

Butterfly Conservatory was amazing. kids loved it. There were so many different butterflies and the ones in cocoons.

I really wanted to visit the Bird Kingdom but we didn’t have enough time to fit it in.

For me, the highlight of our visit was a day trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake. That town is the place to be in the Springtime. It was so colorful yet so serene.
There were really pretty houses with beautiful gardens.

The main street of the town is feast to the eyes.

Fancy looking Prince of Wales Hotel.

After walking around and getting an ice cream at Cows, we went by Lake Ontario, ate ripe black Mulberries from trees and threw stones in the water.

On the way back, we stopped at one of the scenic points by the Niagara River and enjoyed the view.

We drove to Great Gorge and got on the Whirlpool Aero Car to cross to the other side of the gorge. This time, my husband stayed behind while I and my 2,5 year old traveled over Niagara Whirlpool.

Then we stopped by at  White Water Walk. You go down to the board walk by an elevator then walk down a tunnel. The boardwalk runs along Niagara River covered with the most lush woods you can ever see. We visited White Water Walk right after rain. The green was literally glowing.
After White Water Walk, we went to have late lunch near Brock’s Monument. Brock’s Monument is in a historic park called Queenston Heights. The restaurant had a really nice view of the river from above.

During our visit in the parks, kids were able to observe lots of animals in the nature such as frogs, snails and birds. They loved stopping to see them close up and personal.

If you are visiting Niagara Falls for 3-4 days, I highly recommend looking into Adventure Pass.

You can see more photos from our trip in our Niagara Falls Album on Flickr.