Peter ‘Spida’ Everitt and his wife Sheree (who you might know from The Great Australian Doorstep TV show) run fully escorted motorhome convoy tours in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Alaska. Here, Spida takes us to the magnificent Niagara Falls, on the border of the USA and Canada.
Niagara Falls is, for obvious reasons, on everyone’s bucket list. It is one of those places that will be etched in your heart and memories for life. After spending four weeks meandering around Eastern Canada on a motorhome tour, it was very fitting that we saved the best for last – Niagara Falls.
The autumn colours were bursting through as we began our drive from Toronto along the Saint Lawrence River down to Niagara Falls, on the Canada-America border. The roaring Falls make this one of Canada’s most-popular tourist attractions and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.
More than 12 million people visit Niagara Falls every year. It’s a busy place day and night, but don’t get put off by the number of tourists as every business operator is superbly efficient and you won’t line up for long, anywhere you go. To get a real feel for the Falls and everything they offer, you really need to make the trip during both day and night. The Falls are lit up with a laser light show every evening too, and there’s nothing better than strolling down the walkway with a hot chocolate while the Falls light up in the distance.
There’s a multitude of ways to enjoy Niagara Falls, including the Maids in the Mist boat trip that will take you right up to the face of the Falls, the Journey Behind the Falls cave tours, a helicopter flight over the water, or a walk out onto the viewing platforms, down to the water’s edge or up the SkyDeck, to name just a few! Niagara is a town that has been brilliantly built for tourists. It caters for RVs too, with plenty of parking right near the Falls.
It’s a place you can walk around all day and night, feeling very safe and being able to view the Falls easily from just about every nook and cranny. There are three waterfalls at Niagara: the Horseshoe Falls (the largest and most famous of them all, on the border of Canada and the USA) and the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls (which are on the United States’ side), with a walkway you can take between them.
The Falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world – a staggering 2,407 cubic metres per second. They’re 790 metres wide with a 53.6-metre-high vertical drop and at their peak flow, more than 169,900 cubic metres of water fall over the crest line every minute (more than six million cubic feet).
Niagara Falls are not only a major tourist attraction, but also a valuable source of hydro-electric power that services both the United States of America and Canada. With the Falls being smack-bang on the border you can enjoy them from both countries – just don’t do what I did and attempt to get a look from a different angle… and then end up at the border with no passport!
And if you feel as though you need to amuse the grandchildren, don’t miss Dinosaur Adventure Golf. The mini-golf course is located on the main street of Niagara, and the statues are so lifelike that our son Boston was too scared to play there! There’s also an ‘active’ volcano and the best ferris wheel I have ever seen, which of course also gives you views of the Falls.
Walking around the main area of Niagara is easy and stress-free. They have put great effort into their gardens throughout the city with stunningly bright flowers at every turn.
We took such an enormous amount of photos that it was very difficult to choose which ones to show you. It is one of those places that seems to drown out the rest of the world, as if you are in a magical trance where lives come to a total standstill. The mesmerising Falls will have you in a trance, not only at their beauty but also their amazing size and statistics. And believe it or not, there have people who have gone over Niagara Falls – and survived!
The Great Australian Doorstep is on Channel 7Two on Saturday afternoons, or tune in to the radio show every weekend across the TripleM and FlowFM networks – 68 stations, Australia-wide.