USA SIDE
South of the Border
(east actually)
Niagara Falls NY Tourist Bureau
Call (800) 338-7890; if box is full, or (716) 439-7300.
Ask for the bureau's well-done 40-page Niagara USA County Visitors Guide . 50% ads. Four great maps of the area from Niagara Falls NY side only. Office is at 310 Fourth Street, Niagara Falls NY, (716) 285-2400.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo NY, (716) 882-8700, for Picasso, Cezanne, Gaugin, van Gogh
Cave of the Winds
Cleveland Rock'n-Roll Hall of Fame
Although a 191-mile drive,
you'll probably never be any closer to Cleveland's new shrine to music that
currently ranks #2 after Graceland in the world. While there, take in an
Indian's, game at their gem of a ballpark, Jacobs Field.
Darien Lake Nightmare at Phantom Cave
8-storey, 1,772ft. long coaster,
+60mph, all in total darkness. Bring a change of underwear. Take NYS
Thruway, get off at exit 48A.
Devil's Hole
Site of a bloody Indian attack on a colonial British wagon train
Goat Island
$4.00 to park
Jan's Smoke Shop
Tonawanda Indian Reservation, quality crafts, smokes &
tax-free gas, +15% cheaper than US pump gas, +30% cheaper than Canadian
gas. Fill'er up.
Love Canal
Between 95/100 Streets and Frontier Avenue/ Colvin Blvd,
Niagara Falls NY, containment facility and block after block of abandoned
houses. Over 50% of children born there had birth defects from toxins produced by
Hooker Chemical, now Occidental Chemical.
Maid of the Mist
(from either side)
Meadow Saddlery Western Store
Popular with Germans, complete cowboy
outfits, $200-to-$500
NYS Park Observation Tower
(not worth it after the Skylon)
NYS Park Viewmobile
NYS Park Visitors Center
Thrill film Niagara Wonders
Oakwood Cemetery's Strangers' Rest
Paupers' graves of snobby Annie
Taylor, at age 63, the first person to go over the Falls in a barrel
(1901), Captain Webb & Carlisle Graham.
OJ's House
a.k.a.'Brentwood East', when the Juice was a Bill
Old Fort Niagara
Niagara State Park, Youngstown NY, (716) 745-7611. Open
9:00 daily, year around.
Prospect Point
Robert Moses Power Plant
Rainbow Bridge
Cross this one on foot and look down. Bring along your
camera and ID.
St. Christopher's of Tonawanda
Where Bills' ex-QB & NFL immortal Jim Kelly
got married.
Schoellkopf Geological Museum
Smokin' Joe's Indian Trading Post
On the Tuscarora Indian Reservation.
Tax-free gas, +15% cheaper than US pump gas, +30% cheaper than Canadian
gas. Fill'er up.
Sunset Drive-In
Call (716) 735-7372 for movies, take Route 31, east off
Military Road or the 190.
Terrapin Point
CANADA SIDE
North of the Border
(west actually)
Niagara Falls ON Tourist Bureau
(800) 563-2557; (905) 356-6062; nfcvcb@niagara.com. You probably shouldn't even bother with the poorly done 20-page The Great Niagara Falls Adventure Vacation Guide . 80% ads. No map of Niagara Falls ON. Tell them to send you free map with the guide. They have them but don't always include them. On the Internet, www.tourismniagara.com.
Not to slight the super-friendly and efficient Tourist Bureau, but the Niagara Falls Recreation Commission in co-operation with Parks, Recreation & Culture, twice-a-year Leisure Guide is a much better Niagara Falls ON guide despite the fact that it's not designed for the tourist trade. Available at (905) 356-7521, extension 4330, fax (905) 356-7404, or by writing Cynthia Roberts, Niagara Falls Recreation, 7565 Lundy's Lane, Niagara Falls ON L2H 1G9. Good map on p.34.
Another halfway decent publication, with good map of the Niagara peninsula, is Niagara's Seasons, published by Rainbow Publications, (800) 263-2988, (905) 984-3626, fax (905) 688-5907.
The Niagara Falls ON Beer Stores
Fresh, fresh beer, like nothing you've ever tasted,
costs +2X more than stale Niagara Falls NY beer,
and there's really no comparison!
Watch out! You can't buy beer in Ontario at the supermarket or corner store. Stock up early.
Ice is available at nearly every motel, or 24 hours at the Canadian Tire, unlike in Europe, where people refuse to spend money on ice.
4670 Bridge Street
6757 Lundy's Lane (extended hours)
3739 Portage Road
Custom Brew Beer Systems Niagara
4129 Stanley Avenue, Niagara Falls
ON, (905) 374-2337
House-brands of beer and wine ready to be bottled, vast array of beer flavors with over 50 recipes, brew your own specific ales, premiums, or chablis, etc., bring your own bottles or buy theirs for beer, plastic, 500 ml, $.40 each or for wine, glass, 750 ml, $.99 each.
Brights Wines' Tour
Butterfly Conservatory
5.5 miles down river from the Falls on the
Niagara Parkway at the School of Horticulture, open every day 9 a.m-5
p.m., except Xmas. $6 adults, $3 kids, under 6, free. Group rates.
Toll-free (888) 235-6667, group rates (800) 263-2558, (905) 356-8119, fax
(905) 356-5488, www.npbg.org.
Clifton Hill
Dazzleland Games Arcade
with Suzuka 8 Hours, Virtua Racing, Outrun;
pinballs: Funhouse, High Speed II, Star Trek, Addams Family, Twilight Zone;
and tons of redemption games for kids
Dufferin Island Paddle Boats Memorial and grave of Laura 'One if by Dark Chocolate,
Two if by Light Chocolate' Secord, Upper Canada's Paul Revere
Drummond Hill Cemetery
Fireworks
over the Falls on Fridays 5/17-8/30
Floral Clock & Lilac Garden
Fort Erie Race Track
Fort George
Hockey Museum and Home of Peter the Puck
Ice Bridge
(Jan-March & closed to pedestrians, campers & vendors since
February 1912)
Illumination of the Falls
year-round, May-Aug 9 p.m.-midnight
IMAX Theatre
6170 Buchanan Street, (905) 358-3611 takes you over the
Falls in your own barrel, see below, Losers, 'suicide capital of the
world.'
Jet Boat
61 Melville Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake, (905) 468-5387.
$48, a wet, thrilling, one-hour ride.
Lundy's Lane Historical Museum & Battlefield
Where Canada defeated
America in the War of 1812
Maid of the Mist
Marineland
Mildred M. Mahoney Dolls House Gallery
Fort Erie
Morgue
NE corner of Park Avenue and Zimmerman Street, in the original
downtown of Nfls ON, seen in Henry Hathway's thriller, Niagara (1953),
starring Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters. Building used in
movie was actually the post office, then later the police station; now
deserted, gutted by fire. Attractive stone structure typical of Canada in
the late-1800s.
Photo-op at the old Nabisco Shredded Wheat Building
The original Niagara Falls
Cereal building, the Falls once pictured on every box, the company now
owned by Kraft, original maker of the Kraft dinner.
Picture Yourself Going Over the Falls in a Barrel
Cheesy but lasting,
two sites, Clifton Hill, across the street from Dazzleland, and the Skylon
Tower.
Niagara Falls Brewing Company Tour
Niagara Falls Museum
Since 1958, formerly the Barnett Museum since 1859/60
Niagara Spanish Aerocar
Over the rapids above the whirlpool
Niagara Square Mall & Family Fun Centre
With pinballs: Space Jam, Scared Stiff,
Waterworld & RoadShow
Queen Victoria Park
Queenston-Chippawa Power Canal
Awesome, running under and across Lundy's Lane
Rainbow Bridge
Cross on foot and look down. Camera recommended, along
with ID.
Rainbow Bridge Carillon Tower
55 bells by the world's most famous bell
maker, John Taylor & Company, UK. For show times, call (905) 354-5641;
weekends 7 p.m-8 is safe. Sit in the park and listen to the bells.
Ride Niagara
Located at 5755 River Rd, Niagara Falls ON, (905) 374-7433.
School of Horticulture
Up there as a gardening training center with Kew
UK and Longwood Gardens CT. If you're into plants and gardening, 2565
N.Niagara Pkwy, (905) 356-8554. Their three-year program turns students
into well-paid, super-green thumbs.
Shaw Festival at Scenic Niagara-on-the-Lake
Only 25 minutes away, with
shuttle bus from downtown terminal, $15 round-trip, departs 11 a.m., 1 & 5
p.m., returns 11 a.m., 2 and 6 p.m. For 35 years boring the pants off
school children, dragged to the performances by over-enthusiastic English
teachers and returning home late, missing baseball, football practice, even
some important games.
Skylon Tower
Since 1964
Sloth
Hard-to-find LPs and CDs, smoke paraphernalia, animal rights
products, hip young fashion, rock books. Make sure to check out the room
downstairs, site of the annual Niagara Falls ON film festival.
Table Rock House & Journey behind the Falls
Welland Canal Viewing Complex at Lock 3
Whirlpool
Tough to find this 400'-long Indian trail unless you stop and
ask somebody at the Niagara Parks Whirlpool Public Golf Course golf course,
a player or a groundsman, on the left on the Niagara Parkway, heading
towards Niagara-on-the Lake. A fabulous whirlpool, on the level of Scylla.
Fishermen: bring along rod'n-reel and camera. Don't eat what you catch.
Take pictures of it instead.
Winter Festival of Lights
From Nov 22, 1997 to Jan 11, 1998,
www.tourismniagara.com/nfcvcb/wfol/wfol.html, (905) 374-1616, fax (905)
374-4683.
YMCA
4261 Fourth Avenue, (905) 356-8760. Five-day free trial membership.
Two free visits a month if you belong to a YMCA in your hometown. Best
swimming pool in town. Reserved lap-lane, 6 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Slide, but
not for fat people. No diving board.