gobluetwo

Hi all, my family and I will be road-tripping in a couple weeks to Niagara Falls (CA side) and Toronto. I have 2 girls, ages 8 and 10. We'll be doing the typical touristy stuff at Niagara (Maid of the Mist - or whatever it's called now, behind the falls, etc.) and don't have much planned yet for Toronto.

We figure we'll spend about 1.5-2 days in the Niagara Falls area and 3 days in/around Toronto. As mentioned, we'll be driving, so wheels aren't an issue.

Any recommendations for fun, off-the-beaten path things to do around Niagara Falls?

What about Toronto? We don't mind driving out to the suburbs or outlying areas as opposed to limiting ourselves to the city.

Indoors or outdoors, doesn't matter. We're game for most things.

Although we'd love a tour of wine country, I don't think we'll manage too well with the kids and will pass on that for now.

Thanks!

Need

I don't have any advice, but this is so weird, we are also doing the same but in 4 weeks. And my son is 10 years old. 3/4 days in Toronto and 2 in Niagara falls. So I will just be watching this thread closely. And if you could update this thread on what you did would be awesome! Have a good trip!

Antonio8069

I hear the new Ripley's Aquarium is pretty neat.

The # 1 tourist attraction in TO are the Islands. Take a ferry from the Jack Layton dock (beside the Westin) and consider renting bikes.

The Ontario Science Centre is also nice, if you have time and a car.

sofasurfer

Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in Burlington could be worth a trip if you like that sort of thing. There's some lovely trails as well.

Memphis Fire BBQ is excellent value for money and a very easy detour off the QEW to/from Niagara (and, frankly, the majority of dining options in and around Niagara Falls are overpriced and underwhelming)

sofasurfer

The butterfly conservatory is really good (and a great bad-weather option). The drive along the Niagara gorge as you head from NF is quite nice, too.

gobluetwo

All of those things sound pretty fun. RBG, butterfly conservatory, good BBQ (yum!), science center... Never even thought about the islands. That looks close to our hotel (downtown), so great option.

Any other opinions on the Aquarium? How about the zoo? There are probably too many things for us to do in 3 or so days, so we'll have to decide.

tentseller

Aquarium is downtown, walkable from many hotels. The zoo is far from downtown but there are pandas.

B1

Recommendations for NF: US side - park on the mainland and walk across the bridge to Goat Island and then to the top of the Bridal Veil Falls - best view in the whole area. Then continue to Terrapin Point where you can see Horseshoe Falls. On the Canadian side my kids loved the Niagara Glen. You park across from the golf course north of the Aerocar. Then walk down the stairs and follow the trails to the river at Whirlpool Rapids. The trails are lovely. You can get a map at the store at the top. All these things are free and never very busy.
In Toronto - Edwards Gardens and the Civic Garden Centre are gorgeous this time of year. Lots of flowers and water features - walk to the Teaching Garden and the rose gardens on the west side of the valley or continue on down the pathways into Wilket Creek. There is free parking at Lawrence and Leslie and no admission fee either. This is my favorite place in the city. The Toronto Islands are interesting but starting at the Wards ferry and walking to the Centre Island dock gives you a lot of views and perspective.

gobluetwo

Thanks for the great suggestions! Niagara Glen sounds like a winner. And I like the sound of free

B1

I was at Niagara Glen last Sunday. It was still as nice as ever. The store at the top sells a map of all the trails in the Niagara Parks - spend $3 and you help the parks as well as making sure you choose the right trails in the Glen. I suggest going along to the right at the bottom of the stairs, heading for the "water" trail first so you can see the rapids close up. You can buy tickets for the rapids boat ride at the store if you are inspired by what you see.

emma69

Canada's Wonderland is pretty fun if your kids like theme parks, it is a fairly short drive north of the city.

There are beaches on the Toronto islands, the water will be cool but it can still be a fun place to take a picnic.

There are various boat trips on the lake, tall ships, tourist cruises, lunch / dinner cruises.

Blue Jays game? Even if you are not major fans it can be a fun afternoon / evening

High Park - there is a (little) zoo, an adventure playground, etc.

Bronte Park - on the way from Niagara to Toronto there is a big park with nice walks etc. and a huge outdoor swimming pool - not sure exactly when it opens tho.

The Royal Ontario Museum is fun - I like Casa Loma as well.

Drive in movies are a great summer time activity although I think you have to go out of the city a bit for that.

There are family friendly wineries in Niagara on the Lake, there are some great restaurants attached to them, and nice walks around the vineyards. If you are a Visa Infinite cardholder, a lot of the tours and tastings are free.

http://www.adventure-village.com/attractions/ this place is halfway between Niagara and Toronto, just off the highway - the mini golf is kind of cheesy but fun, and there are a few other activities there. There's also a great ice cream place a short walk along the lake, and a good greek / med restaurant as well.

allset2travel

Road tripping in eastern Canada is really fun. I did one last year, covering Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. It may or may not be helpful to you, details of my trip is on the travel journal:

https://stefanofoto.smugmug.com/Trav...nada-Road-Trip

Safe travel!

heraclitus

On a related note, what's worth seeing on the US side of the Niagara River? I will be in Niagara Falls with my family and would be willing to drive maybe around 45 minutes into the US... but all I have really noticed so far are the NY state parks around Niagara Falls itself, as well as Buffalo which I figure are worthy of a day trip.

Any other interesting sights around there?

gobluetwo

So we're back. Bonus was that my sister and her kids were able to drive up from NJ and meet us at Niagara.

@Niagara, we just did the normal typical touristy stuff with the Adventure Pass Classic:
- Hornblower Cruise (formally Maid of the Mist, still that on the US side)
- Walk Behind the Falls
- Niagara's Fury
- White Water Walk

Boat ride definitely worth it. Niagara's Fury was interesting and the kids liked it. The White Water Walk was okay at best. A bit out of the way, random Buddhist temple across the street to kill some time, a hotel across the street, but really nothing else. The walk itself was pretty short and not all that interesting after having seen the waterfall. Also went to Niagara Glen (great suggestion!), which was better - natural trails, similar rapids (although not CLASS 6 OOH!!), not touristy, and free. There is a Wego stop there (see below). Walk Behind the Falls was not interesting to actually be behind the falls in those little tunnels, but the balcony/platform next to the falls was really neat.

We got the Wego bus pass for 2 days with the adventure pass. Useful for the rides from our hotel (Doubletree) and to the attractions.

That Clifton Hills tourist trap area is one to avoid, if you can help it. We went there twice to eat fast food, but otherwise didn't step foot in there. Random arcades, fun/haunted houses, minigolf, etc. It's like a painfully overpriced kiddy Las Vegas and I hated it.

The illuminated falls are really pretty, and we also saw the fireworks Wednesday night. Very cool, although pretty short.

We then went to Toronto and, again, did basic touristy things that the kids enjoyed, like the Aquarium and Zoo. Zoo was actually pretty good and decent-sized (right before, we visited Riverside Farm - that was a 20-30 min diversion before heading to the zoo). My 10 yo and I love the zoo, so we took our time. Baby animals are out now, although they may be sleeping. Pandas should be seen at the end of the day (last showing was 530 and we go there at 510). The queues/stanchions set up are ridiculously long, but we had literally no wait. Heard the lines were 2+ hours in the middle of the day. Canadian Domain is a serious hike from the African area. You may get lucky and get a ride on a golf cart from a zoo employee (he was giving a lot of rides), but if you walk, it's strenuous. They do have baby lynxes there, though. Not that worth the hike, imo. We pretty much spent the whole day there. We did do dinner in Chinatown (short walk from our hotel downtown) and drove out to Barque near High Park one night. If you want pretty good bbq in a totally non-touristy joint, I highly suggest reservations. We waited about 45 minutes as walk-ins. Ugh. Almost not worth it, but food was pretty good.

Aquarium was almost exactly 2 hours since you pretty much follow a path through. A bit pricey for what it is, but not bad. We skipped CN Tower and other downtown attractions. Wish we had time to take the ferry out to Warde's Island and beaches, but we were pretty tired of walking after all those days.

If we had more time, I'd want to hit the beach, the museum, Science Centre, and some of the other suggestions above (thanks Antonio, Emma, sofasurfer, et al).