Drearier by the Minute...but the Falls Never Stop Being Cool
Written: Dec 29 '03 (Updated Dec 29 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: the Falls
Cons: Everything that distracts from the Falls
The Bottom Line: Ignore all the crap; the waterfall is always impressive
|
|
|
| lisatoy's Full Review: Buffalo & Niagara Falls |
Going back to the Niagara Frontier for the holidays with my girlfriend raised one momentous possibility: she had never been to the Falls, and we were about to correct that.
There's some pressure implied here, as anyone from the region knows - if you're from Buffalo or Niagara Falls you automatically find yourself in a defensive position when describing your home to anyone else in the country. A fine marketing job they have not done...everyone and their brother knows a Buffalo joke or two. So leaving aside for a moment the great architecture of Buffalo (a genuine Frank Lloyd Wright home, the stately houses along Delaware avenue), the spectacular wine country of Niagara, the down-on-their-luck Bills and Sabres, I'm going with a trip to Niagara Falls to impress a first-time visitor.
The weather was semi-cooperative, not actively snowing, but cold enough to set a 'winter' mood. We elected to drive up to the Falls from Buffalo via the highway that runs through Grand Island. While that was certainly a direct drive, it is a monumental understatement to say that it doesn't present the best view for the tourist. It represents the first evidence of the difference in philosophy between Niagara Falls USA and Niagara Falls Canada: the historical decision to push industry instead of tourism. The road winds along the majestic Niagara River, but your concentration moves away from the water to the other side of the road, and the rusting hulking shells of factories. It actually prompted my girlfriend to say "Why would anyone come here for a honeymoon?" The only impressive part of the NY drive is noting the ever-increasing rush of the river as the Falls near.
For the visitor interested in a more scenic route (and perhaps a bit smarter about impressing his girlfriend) I would recommend crossing over the river from Buffalo at the Peace Bridge, and driving up to the Falls along the Canadian side. Trust me: it is a much, much more scenic drive.
Once we arrived at the the city of Niagara Falls we were forced to compete with traffic destined for that other attraction: gambling. Once Canada raised the enormous Casino Niagara, you knew the American side wasn't far behind, and now you're treated to the Seneca Niagara Casino, a quickly installed gambling house in the old NF Convention Center. All it meant for us was some additional time worming through traffic before reaching the scenic park overlooking the Falls.
There are actually two slightly separated waterfalls, and as anyone who has visited even once will tell you, the US side is less impressive by far than the Canadian side, which is known (for reasons which are self-evident when you see them) as the Horseshoe Falls.
We spent a few minutes standing in the constant mist watching the roaring water over the American side, and it is always fun to go with someone who's never seen it before. Forget about the factories, the Casino, or the ugly city of Niagara Falls USA - this waterfall is just plain cool to see.
Once we'd taken a few pictures of the American side of the Falls, we hopped into the car, drove quickly over to Canada via the Rainbow Bridge. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be the last of that evening's bad decisions...more on that later. The Canadian side is truly impressive, though - festively decorated with oversized Christmas decorations along the water; tourists aplenty taking pictures, and enough tacky souvenir shops to choke a horse. We got out and walked along the river just in time to see them turn on the red and green lights that illuminate the Falls at night around Holiday time. Got some great pictures of that, spent a few minutes (as everyone does) wondering why any fool would ever decide to go over the Falls, and ran our freezing selves back into the car for the quick ride home.
That's where the wheels fell off (figuratively); because of the heightened terror alert, and supposedly due to some specific threat, we spent the next two hours at the border waiting to get through customs !
Oh well, as my companion noted: we didn't have anything else planned for the night anyway, and this gave her an additional story to tell when we got back home.
So while it may not be prime honeymoon territory anymore, and you have to willfully ignore all the tacky tourism of the Canadian side, and the rusty industrialism of the American side, the lesson I learn every time I see it with someone new is: the Falls themselves never stop being cool.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
lisatoy
|
|
Location: USA
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.