On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 08:43:09 -0400, sechumlib
wrote:
>On 2007-06-08 19:41:14 -0400, "garciyalater@hotmail.com"
> said:
>
>> On Jun 8, 2:48 pm, "HeatherD" wrote:
>>> Hi!
>>> My family is planning a 2 day trip to the American side of the Falls. Any
>>> personal suggestions on HOTELS (3 star) and above to stay close to the Falls.
>> There realy is nothing to recomend on the US side of the falls. Okay,
>> a couple of things, but it sure isnt worth staying over there.
>>
>> We just stayed at the sheraton on the falls canadian side, 2 story
>> suite for 200 bucks a nite. Well worth it, but there are several
>> other fallsview motels with considerably cheaper rooms.
>
>Heather should keep in mind that the city of Niagara Falls in the US is
>a broken down old rust-belt industrial city with a past but probably no
>future. It was, among other things, the nearest urban area to the
>famous Love Canal scandal of the 1980's.
>
>The Canadian Niagara Falls, on the other hand, is a schlock-filled
>tourist trap. Not great, but at least it has lots of hotels & motels.
Niagara Falls New York has a very nice park in the area of the falls.
Nicer than anything on the Canadian side, I would say. The rest of the
town may be the pits, but I wouldn't miss the park, especially the
Goat Island walk up to the very edge of the falls.
There are also some very inexpensive hotels on the American side,
within walking distance of the falls. We stayed at the Econolodge
several years and were quite satisfied with it. It was very close to
the park and an easy walk to the falls. We didn't need to deal with
the rest of the town at all. Best of all it cost less than half what a
hotel on the Canadian side would have cost.
There is a better view of the falls from the Canadian side, but if
someone has visa reasons for not going to Canada, you can get the best
view of all from the Maid of the Mist boat. It's no reason not to go
to the Falls.
By the way, one of the reasons the view from the Canadian side is
better is that the Canadian government has allowed all those high rise
hotels to be built right up to the edge of the falls. If you're on the
Canadian side, you're looking at the falls and the American park,
whilst if you're on the American side you're looking at the huge neon
signs in Canada.
My husband, neither American nor Canadian, but Italian, didn't even
want to go to the Canadian side when he saw what they had allowed to
be built in such a beautiful spot. He said that he had thought that
only in Naples would such a travesty be allowed. I convinced him to go
there to see the better view, but in the end we passed on it, because
all of the parking lots anywhere near the falls were full, even the
distant lots with shuttle buses. So we saw the view from the Canadian
side while we were stuck on bumper to bumper traffic trying to get to
a far parking lot. When we found it full, my husband said nothing on
earth would induce him to go back to try to find something on the
other side of town, so we went on our way.
Every time this comes up, everyone says that there's nothing at all on
the American side, but we enjoyed our stay very much. We walked to the
falls from our hotel twice, once in the daytime and once in the
evening, to see the lights. (There wasn't much to see as the mist was
a bit excessive that night.) We spent several hours in the park on the
American side, walking along the Niagara river and standing above the
falls. The river is so calm above the falls that it's a real shock to
get to the edge and see all that water plummet into the gorge below.
We also took the Maid of the Mist ride, which is the one must-do thing
at the falls, in my opinion.
The Canadian side is such a tourist trap that I would actually prefer
to stay on the American side. I would never, on principle, stay in one
of the high rises with a falls view. However, the next time I would
walk, not drive, to the Canadian side at least once to get the better
view.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it. |