Skylon Tower

Wow, wow, wow. Niagra Falls is definitely a place where you should believe the hype. All of the hype! Described by a friend of mine as like a cross between Blackpool and Las Vegas, I wasn't sure what to expect. We started by walking along the side of the gorge, looking at the Falls and taking numerous photos, none of which do them justice. Niagra Falls is actually a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, (American, Bridal Veil and Horseshoe Falls), spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The Rainbow Bridge at one end of the gorge crosses from Canada to the US. During peak daytime tourist hours, more than 168,000 m3 (5.9 million cu ft) of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute, although I don't entirely understand why the rate varies! Perhaps a geologist can explain it to me sometime! But the effect of that volume of water going over a  vertical drop of more than 50 m (160 ft) is absolutely incredible. It's so powerful, and produces huge clouds of mist that can be felt a long way away, and whirlpools at the bottom of the Falls.

After a lot of oozing and ahhing and taking selfies, we made our way to the Skylon - a 520 foot observation tower containing an observation deck and two revolving restaurants. Access to the restaurants and deck is via the signature yellow "bugs" - lifts that run up and down on the outside of the tower. We had treated ourselves to lunch in the posher of the two restaurants, where you get 90 minutes to enjoy your meal and about 1.5 revolutions of the restaurant. It was a slightly strange feeling but the food was delicious and the views sublime. After lunch we went up to the observation deck for more incredible views of the falls.

We then walked down to the Niagra City Cruises quay as we had booked a "Voyage to the Falls" boat tour - described on their website as Canada’s Top Visitor Experience! The tour boats go from both sides of the river - called the "Maid in the Mist" on the US side and "Hornblower" on the Canadian side. Everyone gets a rain poncho to wear - red on the Canadian side and blue on the US side. As we watched the people coming off the previous boats, Gail remarked that they didn't look that wet, and we started thinking the ponchos were more gimmick than necessary. How wrong we were! As you get up to the more powerful Horseshoe Falls the power of the spray was incredible and almost like hailstones at one point. The boat 🚢 goes right up to the horseshoe falls and stays there for about 5 minutes - cue much screaming from those onboard as we were absolutely soaked! It's very much a "must do" attraction that everyone recommended to me - and I'm so glad we did!

Afterwards we took the funicular railway up to the main road which was fun - I love a funicular railway!

The horseshoe falls are illuminated at night and there are fireworks every night at 10pm, but we were so shattered and it was so crazy busy being a bank holiday weekend, that we opted to go back to our cozy Airbnb instead to relax with wine and food in the garden. Well, you have to leave something to do next time, right?Read more