I drive to Montreal almost every Memorial Day to start the summer in one of Dan and my favorite cities (Montreal!). This year, however, we switched it up and drove to Niagara Falls, mainly due to the fact that we had two Hilton resort credits to use through our Hilton Aspire cards. While we still love, love, love Montreal, we were surprised by Niagara Falls and had a really fun time. We will absolutely return! This post details what we did over our long weekend driving from the New York City area.

DAY ONE: A COUNTRY DRIVE, CROSSING THE BORDER, AND A TERRIBLE DINNER AT THE SKYLON TOWER

Our Niagara Falls long weekend began on a Friday morning, leaving the New York City area around 9:30 AM. Our drive took us through Western New York and while it originally consisted of normal highway, the road changed to more country roads for the second half of the drive (and my internet to work no longer worked). We crossed the border via The Peace Bridge in Buffalo, which crossing took no time at all and was quicker than what we are used to at Montreal. You can check times for the border crossing here.  We arrived in the late afternoon to very, very cold weather. Not exactly what we were hoping for for Memorial Day weekend (although the weather was the same in Montreal).

As you probably guessed, we stayed on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, our first two nights at the DoubleTree Fallsview Resort & Spa. The hotel looked like a mountain resort and offered, albeit a bit far, views of the Falls. We enjoyed staying here, but recommend staying closer for better views if you can.

After checking into our hotel, we walked to the Skylon Tower for dinner at its revolving restaurant. The Skylon Tower is an observation tower dating back to 1965. The Tower does offer views of the Falls, as well as the surrounding area. I made a dinner reservation a couple weeks in advance, as I love a revolving restaurant, and it is billed as one of the nicer restaurants in the area. Unfortuntely, however, it is a total tourist trap, complete with mandatory photos offered for purchase after dinner… In addition to being super touristy, the food was nearly inedible. Neither Dan nor I could eat (yes, eat – not “finish”) our steak. We left pretty annoyed with the entire experience. Our dinner did include complimentary access to the observation deck, so that part, while freezing (the deck is open air), was interesting. If you must go to the Skylon Tower, I suggest going for the Early Bird Special, which offers a 3 course dinner for $60 CAN. The views are also better during the day in my opinion, as its too dark to really see anything in the evening.

DAY TWO: JOURNEY BEHIND THE FALLS, THE HORNBLOWER CRUISE, AN IRISH PUB, AND AN ACTUAL GOOD RESTAURANT IN TOURISTY NIAGARA

The next morning, still annoyed from dinner, we walked down to the Falls to see them up close and personal. Unfortunately, it was again quite cold, and we had the “wetter” of our two days planned today… We began our day in the Table Rock Welcome Center, which is right next to the main Falls viewpoint on the Canadian side of the Falls. The Table Rock Welcome Center is home to a couple restaurants, a food court, and a fantastic gift shop. We had coffee and pastries here for breakfast.

After breakfast, it was time to enter Journey Behind the Falls. Journey Behind the Falls is a Canadian-side attraction that permits guests to venture behind the Falls and experience the strength of the Falls up close and personal. The entire experience only took about 15 minutes and while interesting, I don’t think its a “must do”. The tour includes a disposable poncho and guests can get as wet (or stay as dry) as they want.

After Journey Behind the Falls, we walked along the Niagara River to the entry point for the City Cruises (formerly the Hornblower) Niagara Falls boat tour. And for those unfamiliar, this is the exact same thing as the Maid of the Mist, except that it departs from Canada. The only other difference is that City Cruises uses a red theme (instead of blue) and City Cruises have an indoor space where you can avoid getting wet. I was a little nervous about the cruise, as the weather was very chilly and it was slightly rainy, but it worked out find. We got very close to the Falls and took great pictures. I would deem this a “must do” in Niagara Falls!

At this point in the day, we were pretty hungry, so we took an Uber to Doc Magilligan’s Restaurant & Irish Pub – attached to a Best Western hotel. I selected this restaurant because, as we know, I love Guinness, but was not expecting too much as we pulled in. However, we were pleasantly surprised. The pub was authentic and the Guinness was excellent. The food was also pretty great (so good that we returned a second day).

We took a break after lunch, and I made my way back to the Table Rock Visitor’s Center to do some souvenir shopping. The weather was finally starting to turn around, which was a nice change. We also used our hotel credit (we received a credit for either use in the breakfast restaurant or the bar) for a Wayne Gretzky Irish Coffee, which was made with Canadian whiskey and maple syrup, and a local cider.

This evening, we had dinner reservations about 15 minutes outside of Niagara Falls, at a local restaurant located inside a strip mall called Tide & Vine. Tide & Vine is a seafood restaurant, and it was excellent! We were very pleased. A separate review will be coming, but don’t miss Tide & Vine in Niagara Falls. It may be the best restaurant in the entire touristy center!

DAY THREE: WALKING TO AMERICA, EXPLORING NIAGARA FALLS STATE PARK, A NEW HOTEL, AND MORE GUINNESS

Our second full day in Niagara Falls was dedicated to exploring the American side of the Falls. We began the day a bit later than I wanted and walked to a Tim Horton’s (when in Canada!) in the very touristy Clifton Hill. Clifton Hill is an area of Niagara Falls on the Canadian side filled with children’s attractions and chain restaurants. It reminded me a lot of Myrtle Beach. We walked through it, and had breakfast at Tim Horton’s, but I cannot in good faith recommend Clifton Hill unless you are visiting with children.

We eventually made our way to the food border crossing, which consists of a foot bridge – the Rainbow Bridge – connecting Canada and the United States. Entry into the US was pretty quick; we only waited about 10 minutes. We used our Passport Cards to enter the US. Once in the US, we walked through the vast Niagara Falls State Park, which is huge and has so many trails and things to do. Three of the most famous being the Maid on the Mist, the Observation Deck, and the Cave of the Winds. We skipped all of these and simply explored the park. We may have considered some of these attractions, but the lines were insane the day we visited (much busier than the Canadian side). That being said, it was the Sunday before Memorial Day in the US, so a lot of people were out and about.

We got great pictures of Niagara Falls from the US side, including the American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian Falls). We spent about 2 hours on the US side before walking back to Canada, which we also entered using our U.S. Passport Cart.

After returning to Canada, we packed up our room at the DoubleTree and moved hotels for our last night to the Marriott Niagara Falls Marriott Fallsview Hotel & Spa. We received an awesome room here on the 8th Floor with stunning views of Niagara Falls. I would absolutely recommend staying here to anyone. We loved the view so much, we ordered room service lunch and ate it with Falls views.

Another reason that we selected the Niagara Falls Marriott Fallsview Hotel & Spa is that it has a Scandinavian style spa on site. We made a reservation to use it this afternoon. It was OK, and did offer a few hot and cold pools, as well as a sauna and steam room, but it was nowhere near as great as Bota Bota (in Montreal). We ended up cancelling our second reservation the following morning.

We opted to return to Doc Magilligan’s Restaurant & Irish Pub this evening for dinner, as there was really no where else we even wanted to try (yes, the food is that bad). We returned to our hotel room by 10 to watch the nightly fireworks over the Falls!

DAY FOUR: SUNRISE AT THE FALLS & DRIVING HOME

We woke up for sunrise the following morning, just because our room view was that insane.

Due to our early wake up hour, we walked from our hotel down to the Table Rock Visitor Center and out to the Niagara Parks Power Station – an old power station turned tourist attraction (we didn’t go in). It was nice to get in some good views this morning since our main “Canada-side” day had such bad weather. We also took the funicular back to the hotel. It was a cool ride, but not a must-do.

We sadly left our room around noon, after having breakfast at the hotel, and drove back to New York. We barely hit any traffic and arrived in 7 hours!

STEAL OUR TRIP

DoubleTree Fallsview Resort & Spa: 6039 Fallsview Blvd, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 3V6, Canada.

Skylon Tower: 5200 Robinson St, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 2A2, Canada. This is the website for restaurant reservations. You can also visit just the observation deck for 20 CAN. Open 8:30 AM – 12:00 AM. The restaurant serves lunch and dinner.

Table Rock Visitor’s Center: 6650 Niagara River Pkwy, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6T2, Canada.

Journey Behind the Falls: Inside the Table Rock Visitor Center. Open 8 AM – 10 PM. Advance tickets suggested.

City Cruises: 5920 Niagara River Pkwy, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6X8, Canada. Open 9:30 AM – 8 PM.

Doc Magilligan’s Restaurant & Irish Pub: 6400 Lundy`s Lane, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 1T6, Canada. Open 7 AM – 11 PM.

Tide & Vine Oyster House: 3491 Portage Rd, Niagara Falls, ON L2J 2K5, Canada.

Marriott Niagara Falls Marriott Fallsview Hotel & Spa: 6740 Fallsview Blvd, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 3W6, Canada. This is the second hotel we stayed in. Be sure to get the correct Marriott, as there are multiple, including another Marriott right next to this one.