Today we headed to Niagara Falls, Canada for a weekend trip to obtain the Niagara Falls, NY Hard Rock Cafe shot glass! I collected the Niagara Falls, Canada Hard Rock Cafe shot glass on my Toronto trip, when we stopped at Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, we were unable to spend time on the American side of the falls and I did not get to collect the NY shot glass. My dad and I left New Concord, Ohio around 9:30 AM. Along the way, we went through Pennsylvania and New York. We crossed over to Canada near Buffalo, New York. It was a nice sized town. We went across the Peace Bridge and into Canada. Border Control was pretty easy, so that was good! It was about a 30 minute drive from Buffalo to Niagara Falls. We arrived in Niagara Falls around 3 PM.
Our first stop was to check-in to our hotel. We stayed the the Crowne Plaza – Fallsview. It was a really nice hotel. We upgraded to a fallsview room, so that we could see the falls from our room. The hotel is located right next to the Clifton Hill tourist area and is attached to the Hard Rock Cafe, the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark, and the Niagara Casino. After checking-in, we decided to walk down to the Table Rock Visitor Center near the Horseshoe Falls to do the Journey Behind the Falls. It took us about 25 minutes to walk there, including multiple pit-stops to take pictures. 😉
We decided to do the Journey Behind the Falls trip, since it was raining. It was a lot of fun! We went down an elevator and came to a long hallway behind the Horseshoe Falls. The hallway had two viewing points where you could see the water from the falls tumbling down in front of you. That was really cool!! The water was moving very quickly and it would sometimes come into the portal. After the hallway, you could go down to a viewing platform near the base of the falls. It was neat to be that close to the falls! We didn’t get too wet, so that was good!
After the Journey Behind the Falls, we walked back to our hotel to get cleaned up before we headed on the driving tour of the holiday light displays and to dinner. On our way back, it was dark enough for us to see the Horseshoe and American Falls lit up. The started with white lights and later changed to colorful lights. The holiday light display was beautiful! There were so many lights and near Dufferin Islands, you could get out of your car and walk around by the lights. One of the coolest displays was the Canadian flag that transitioned into an American flag.
After the driving tour, we had some time before our dinner reservations, so we decided to go to the Niagara Brewing Company on Clifton Hill. Our hotel gave us a pass for discounted beer tasting, so we did that. I really liked the first beer I had, Honeymoon Peach. I also had Honey Wheat, Spiced Ale, and Beerdevil IPA (from left to right in the picture). I didn’t care for the Spiced Ale and the Beerdevil IPA; they were a little bitter for me. Then we headed to the Skylon Tower for our dinner. The view from the restaurant was amazing! The restaurant revolved and it took about an hour for us to go all the way around. They had facts about Niagara Falls on plaques around the edge, which were cool to read. We were hoping to be able to see the fireworks from the restaurant, but unfortunately, our table was facing the opposite direction while the fireworks were happening. After dinner, we went up to the Observation Deck and looked down on the falls. It was FREEZING up there!! It is an outside observation deck, and when we came around one of the sides, we were hit in the face with 30 mph winds and rain! We didn’t stay outside very long, but we did look from the inside.
After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow we are going to go on the Hornblower Niagara Cruise and then head over to the American side to get my Hard Rock Cafe shot glass!
Brittany's Travel Adventures 