Niagara Falls Travel Answers

That really depends on how long you want to stay. 5 minutes to a couple of hours once you reach the falls themselves. You can stroll from in front of the American Falls to the edge of the Canadian Falls in 5-10 minutes. It really depends on how long you care to linger. If you are there during a when it is not too busy and you can park near the falls, rather than at one of the parking lots with shuttle service, you could be in and out within 1/2 an hour.

Thanks for the response. At this stage we are looking at arriving from an overnight bus from New York at about 8am. From here we will pick up a hire car and go out to the falls from there seeing the falls and then leaving again mid afternoon to start our journey towards DC Between Niagara Falls and DC, where is the best and safest place to stay overnight? We are looking at hiring a car and stopping overnight about half way as we can't find an overnight bus from the falls to DC. Lisa

Are you sure you're going to be on the Canadian side? If you don't have a lot of time and you're going to be picking up a car hire, it might be easier to stick the the US side - there's a nice state park you could walk around and take pictures of the Falls - you might even get to see the Festival of Lights. I was originally going to say you shouldn't need to stop over night on the way to DC, but the roads in December might be icy. Do you have a specific route in mind? I can think of a couple different ones.

We've heard that it is nicer to see the falls from the Canadian side and greyhound have a bus that gets in from New York at about 8am. We are open to suggestions and there is a possibility of staying overnight at the falls as well. We are just aware that the more time we spend at the falls and DC, the less time we have in New York city As for routes to DC, due to icy roads it is definitely prepareable to catch a train or bus, however I can't seem to find anything that operates through the nights hence hiring a car Cheers Lisa

It is better from the Canadian side. It's almost certainly going to be really, really cold when you go, but it sounds as though you're aware of this. If you bring some very warm clothes (coats, gloves, hats: the whole deal) then it still really depends on your tolerance. I think I could handle about 15 minutes of that but I'm not really a cold person. On the plus side, I've been told that the falls are gorgeous at this time of year. I've only been in the summer, but, the last time, I probably stood there for a good hour, just enjoying the people watching, beauty of the falls, and the activity down below in the gorge. It's very awe-inspiring. "Do": aside from looking at the falls, there are some tacky, touristy ways to spend money just up the hill. There are also some museums and more urban attractions in the city as well. Maybe take a peek at the wikiTravel page: wikitravel.org/en/Niagara_Fa...

There is infinitely more to do on the Canadian side... but my family and I just went to the state park on the New York side over Easter weekend and had a really nice walk. It just doesn't take forever to look at the falls, and considering most of the best views are outside and it will be winter... does the bus from NYC stop on the US side to let people off? Are you going back to NYC after visiting Washington D.C.? I mostly wanted to know if you had looked at a map after deciding to rent a car... if you take I-90 from Niagara Falls to Erie, PA, the next road you would take would be I-79. That's where the different routes come into play - you could stay on I-79 until you reach Morgantown, WV and then take I-68 through West Virginia and Maryland... I believe you'd have to pick up another highway after I-68, but I don't know which one off the top of my head. Probably I-95. If you took that route, you could stop in Pittsburgh for a night. Another route would be to only take I-79 to I-80, and shoot across PA, picking up I-95 in Philadelphia. I don't know where the most desirable place would be to stay... When my friend and I drove over to Philadelphia in January, we started about 40 miles south of Erie, in Meadville, and it took us about seven hours. You could stop in Philly for the night, and then get an early start so you'd have more time in D.C. the next day. Or you could ride back to NYC and take a train from there to D.C. Is there something specific you want to see in D.C., or are you going just to sightsee?

Cold is definitely not my thing (although I did survive a miserable Vancouver/whistler Christmas 3 years back), however I've only been wanting to go to this part of the world my whole life so as they say here in Australia, I'll just have to suck it up. Apart from the Falls, we are not really interested in the tacky touristy things and spending money that could be used somewhere else. Are the falls worth seeing at night? If they are then we may plan to stay overnight and leave early for DC the following morning

I haven't been to Festival of Lights in years, but it was very pretty when I went. If you're going to be there while it's happening, then I'd say it would be worth it.

I have looked at a map about 100 times, however because I am not familiar with the east side of the states like I am the west side, I am finding it really hard to make the best decisions and cost effective also. We plan to do a big circle, but it doesn't really matter what direction we take it in. We arrive in NYC and as soon as we land go from there to DC - Niagara Falls - back to NYC for 5/6 nights (we could also go the other way as well and go Niagara Falls - DC - New York, either way doesn't matter). We have a total of 10 nights once we land in New York and some of those will be spent in DC and Niagara. We want to see the whitehouse and my partner wants to also see the space museme. I think they are about the only two things we want to do in DC. I am not sure what else there is to see??? Whilst it is still 7 months away before we arrive, we want to book accommodation and transport now whilst the US dollar is good for us over here

Well...its one of the place you must go if you are adventurous and love to see natural beauty..you know There is an international boundary between the United States and Canada and In the evenings, intense spotlights bathe the falls with different shades of color.and you must know Twenty percent of the worlds freshwater lies in the Great Lakes, and most flows over Niagara Falls..so..i think its enough to go for Niagara Falls.. ferienhaus spanien Costa Brava

I have to say that I have seen some online photo's and the photo's themselves look amazing, so I can only imagine what it looks like from the naked eye. I am definitely starting to think that staying overnight is the best option. We are coming all the way from Australia and it's not like it's something we are going to see again any time soon. I am just hoping that 5 nights will be enough in New York

I was almost going to recommend flying between D.C. and Niagara, just to cut some time off the trip. The Niagara Falls airport's website is completely useless - it doesn't have a list of the airlines that fly in/out... it has a link to one airline and it has very limited destinations. I also didn't see the rental car counter, but it does have a few agencies listed so they just might not be on the airport map. You could try the Buffalo airport - it's not far from Niagara Falls, you probably could get a bus or taxi from the Falls. There are a few direct flights to D.C., it might wind up being cheaper than hiring a car, since there's usually a hefty fee for picking them up and dropping them off in different locations, especially different states.

Checking Kayak, just to see, US Airways has several flights a day, with a stop in Philadelphia, for90. There are a few more on other airlines; a few of them go west before going east, I would avoid those ones.

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I am glad you know where to look. I just looked at delta and american airways and got no where. I'll have a look at the website you looked at and see what I come up with. I'm not ruling out flying either, if it's a cheap and better option, we are more than happy to go that way as well. If we fly in to DC, which airport is best to fly in to?

Yes, I think I am sold on staying overnight in Niagara Falls

Kayak is a much better website. Thanks for that. I am loving all the feedback from everyone

I believe there are Metro options into the city from all of the airports... if you use Kayak.com, it lets you search all the airports in Washington.

The cheapest option seems to be Baltimore, however it's an hour from Washington where we want to be staying. The other option is only 40 minutes from where we want to be staying, a little more expensive (not by much though) but a longer flight. Very confusing, but much appreciative for all the help

One hour from airport to hotel is quite a bit less than 10 in a car ;) Here are the ground transportation options: bwiairport.com/en/travel/gro... I only had to fly into the area once, but I took the train into D.C. from near Fort Meade, MD, a couple times... it's not a bad ride. The Washington Post travel team does a live Q&A, here's a link to the archives: washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co... I don't remember exactly when, but BWI comes up quite often as a suggestion for people in D.C. looking for a cheaper flight to other places. As an aside, I would love to have the option to take a metro to/from an airport only an hour away: I rarely check the prices out of Erie, because there are very few direct flights to anywhere I would need to go; we usually price big trips from either Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Buffalo, all approximately two hours away.

An hour trip from the airport as apposed to 10 hours in the car, you make a very good point. I've heard that washington has one of the highest crime rates in the USA. So my next question is, do you know the best area to stay? I'll put a post in the washington forum also

The only point I would like to add is that you are looking at two border crossings - one into Canada and then back into the USA. Depending on what is happening, this could cause some delays. If you are planning to drive, check with the car rental company on any issues taking the car out of the US. I perfer the Falls in the daytime, but a night-time view is quite nice too. Niagara Falls is in a bit of a micro-climate, so it is warmer than much of the rest of Canada (not that dissimilar from Vancouver), but the area around the Falls themselves can be quite damp (mist from the water), so can be quite unpleasant if there is a strong wind.

From my experience with Vancouver it was wet and miserable most of the time (Vancouver in the summer however is beautiful) and I am a little concerned it will be the same at Niagara as well, however you can't predict the weather). I have thought about the border crossing also. It has been a long time since I last crossed a boarder driving and that was done on a bus and for memory wasn't too painful (it could be different every where you go). At this stage, with the more help and research I do I am leaning towards buses and flying and even trains if I can find a service to fit in with our travel times.

Yes - Vancouver has a maritime climate and going there any time between November and February can be dicey. Niagara Falls is not going to give you that kind of weather, but it is winter and things could be great or thoroughly unpleasant. One of the most memorable views I remember of the Falls was in the middle of winter (January / February) on a cold and sunny morning, all of the trees were covered with a thick coating of ice and the sun just lit things up beautifully. Chances of seeing that in December are a bit more remote (ususally not cold enough).

The Festival of Lights (wfol.com) will be on in Niagara Falls,ON during your visit and features millions of lights throughout Queen Victoria Park as well as Fireworks Over the Falls on Friday nights. Table Rock Centre is right at the brink of the Falls so you can enjoy the view from inside too if it gets too cold. http://www.niagaraparks.com/

Frozen Niagara Falls, now there's something I've never heard of. Last time we were in the states in the winter, we went all the way from Vegas to the Grand Canyon for it to snow and be clouded over and not see anything (let me say it was a wasted two days getting there and back to LA). So, as we are planning just a day trip by flying in one day and out the next, my question is how worth it is it really as I don't want a repeat of the Grand Canyon. But at the same time I don't want to come from the other side of the world to miss out if it's not frozen either. Decisions, decisions. As much as we want to see them, my gut feeling tells me to come back closer to the summer period where we can do Maid of Mist also. How often do the falls freeze over in early December? Lisa

Early December and frozen falls are a very, very long shot. It's still far too mild in that part of the world, and the Falls area is in a micro-climate where temperatures are a bit milder than one would normally expect at that latitude. Middle of January through middle of February are far more likely. You need a prolonged cold snap that allows layers of ice to build up, and the falls are not totally frozen. There can be deposits of thick ice coming off the rocks that can build up a bit. I remember seeing them that way a number of times, many years ago when we would drive to Niagara Falls several times a year to visit my aunt who used to live there.

Ok, then I shouldn't hesitate on booking transport in and out of the falls as well as accommodation? It would be nice to travel at a time that is not winter, however we unfortunately don't have that option

Technically, you will be there in late fall. That being said, the Falls kick a lot of humidity into the air = cold and damp. If the weather is nice, you could have a fine visit. On the other hand if the wind and temperatures are wrong, you could have a downright miserable day. November and December are generally not great months weather wise.