One of the most popular weekend trips from where I live would have to be going to Niagara Falls in New York. This is only a 3 hour drive from me so it’s a common weekend destination for people to take when they’re eager to go on a small getaway. Niagara Falls is considered to be one of the natural wonders of the world so I’m grateful to live close enough to drive there. The last time I went to Niagara Falls I went in the month of September.
My trip there started with leaving on a Friday after a full workday. I was going on this mini trip as a fun birthday trip for my boyfriend since he had never been there. We stayed in Newfane in an Airbnb for both nights. The price came out to $177 for 2 nights, granted this was in 2022, but this was the average cost for just 1 night at many of the hotels closer to the falls. We chose to stay in Newfane for 3 reasons, One because there was a popular fishing dam in the area that I wanted to show to my boyfriend, 2 is that we both wanted to make our way to Lake Ontario, and 3 is that it just was much cheaper and we saved a good chunk of money.
Saturday morning we woke up and immediately walked across the street to a small diner for breakfast. We got started with our morning straight away since we wanted to make the most out of the weekend. I don’t remember what diner we went to but it was very close to the Airbnb and the prices were what you’d expect at a diner so it was a good value. After having breakfast we headed to Niagara Falls, this was about a 35 minute drive from Newfane. When we visited it was not very crowded but parking was difficult to find if you didn’t know exactly where to go. It took us a little while to find a good place to park, the issue wasn’t necessarily finding a place to park but it was trying to figure out where to park that wasn’t too far of a walk. The best advice I have for anyone who is planning on going is to look at a map and find a place or two that you would want to park at before getting there. After parking we walked along the water until we reached the falls. The water along the way is very fast moving and loudly roaring so it’s an exciting walk with plenty of photo opportunities. Niagara Falls can be seen from both the American side and the Canadian side. I don’t have a passport or a fancy drivers license that allows me to go to Canada yet so we stayed on the American side to view the falls. I have heard from others’ that the Canadian side has a better view from the rim though. This wasn’t anything I dwelled on while visiting because I had gotten us tickets to go on the Maid of the Mist. I bought the tickets online the week before, the current price of tickets are $28.25 per adult and $17.75 for a child 6-12 years old. The Maid of the Mist is a boat tour that takes you to the base of the falls. They give each guest a rain poncho to try and keep you dry while on the tour. The boat has two levels, we chose to go to the top where the mist from the falls is practically downpouring on you for parts of the boat ride. This was the most fun part of the trip for me, the falls are beautiful from the rim but breathtaking from the boat since you really get to be right in the middle of all the action. Later that day we stopped at Artpark in Lewiston to go for a small hike. I knew about this location because I used to go up to New York for fishing trips and this was a place where I had been fishing before. After working up an appetite we had an Italian dinner at a restaurant close to where we were staying.
The next morning we woke up and drove to a small restaurant called Park Place Restaurant in Olcott. We had breakfast there, the inside of the restaurant was quiet but gave you the small town type of feel. We chose to go there because there weren’t many places open for breakfast around there. We were right by Lake Ontario and were able to walk through a park across the street from the restaurant to an overlook of the lake. We weren’t t able to get down to the beach from the overlook but there were picnic tables set up so we sat there for a bit. We then headed back to the car to drive a little ways down the road where we found some beach access to hang out at. We looked for interesting rocks and relaxed by the lake for a while before starting our slightly further 3 1/2 hour drive home.
Niagara Falls is the perfect weekend trip since seeing the falls does not take up more than half a day. The rest of the weekend can be used to add in other activities that someone want to do based on their interests. There are upscale dining options, more excursion/ tour type activities, casinos, Canadian access, hiking trails, wineries and many other activities to do while visiting.