This post is brought to you by Tim Horton’s. Not really, but if you’ve been to Canada, you know what I mean. This was my first trip to America’s Hat, despite having grown up 3 hours from the border. As Kim can probably tell you, I was pretty excited to experience Canada. We drove from Fort Wayne, IN through Ontario just to see the Falls. Worth it.

The drive might as well have been in Ohio, except the highway was three lanes and the gas station attendants have accents. One thing to note, if you aren’t familiar with the metric system, brush up. Gas is in liters, distance in kilometers, and the speed limits are kilometers per hour.

After about 6 hours of driving, we arrived at our hotel. We stayed at the Blue Moon motel, a few miles west of the falls. The price was reasonable, for being in a tourist trap. Wherever you stay, if you are going to be late, call ahead and let them know. The lady ended up booking our room, and luckily they had something else available. She tried to call, but alas, we didn’t have any international minutes on our cell plans. The room was pretty lackluster, but it did have a nice pool if you are looking for that luxury.

After a surprisingly decent continental breakfast, we took off to see the Falls. If you are like us and not wanting to pay for anything extra, skip the bus pass and drive down closer and walk. You can probably snake some free parking at another hotel, but there is plenty of 24hr parking for $5 close enough to walk. Again, this town is a trap. Unless you have kids and absolutely need stuff to do, don’t bother going to the attractions, it’s the same as every other tourist destination, i.e. Gatlinburg.

Niagara Falls. Awesome. It is definitely worth seeing. We didn’t have time to check it out from the American side, but everyone says the views are better in Canada and I’m inclined to agree. It’s impressive. Looking down at the “American Falls” that lie just over the bridge, you can see people that are checking out the waterfalls up close and personal, and they are tiny. That is probably the one thing that would be better on the US side, but the visitors center offers a similar view near the “Horseshoe” portion of the falls. I can’t get over the amount of water that pours over that thing.My favorite view is from the top of the horseshoe right where the water goes over. The rush of the water is drastically quieter, and it’s a bit surreal.

At night, they shine some pretty massive spot lights on the whole thing and it looks like a magical rainbow waterfall. If you have the time, it’s worth the trek back to your 24hr parking spot to see it at night. We walked the length of the falls several times, took a lot of pictures, had a nice romantic kiss, you know, because we are cute. If you are looking for a bar, the options are pretty slim. There are a lot of restaurants but they might as well all have been Applebee’s. There are several night clubs if you’re into that scene, but we chose to drive back out to the hotel and walk to a bar a block away called Chip & Charlie’s. It basically summed up every Canadian stereotype that I had. They were nice, had awesome accents, and the cover band made some hockey jokes.

To sum it up, if you get the chance to check it out. We stayed on a pretty tight budget in preparation for a trip to Europe, so don’t feel like it’s going to break the bank. If you have some extra money, the $50 pass for the bus, boat ride, and Niagara’s Fury is probably a cool experience, but I don’t regret passing.

For a better, more accurate, and probably more exciting take on the trip, check out Kim’s posts.

Check out the Photo Gallery for pictures from the trip!