Non Waterfall Attractions (Traps)

As I mentioned over and over, there is no shortage of people, places or things that you can spend your money on. Niagara has at least 25 attractions. Of course it would be impossible to do it all in three days. My reviews are only a small fraction of what can be done. The main tourist road is Clifton Hill. This is their version of Bourbon St, Michigan Ave or the strip in Vegas. This is where a lot of the attractions are or within a block of. Within easy walking distance are many other attractions.

There are a couple of arcades, two mini golf courses (including a dinosaur themed course and a glow in the dark indoor course. There is a three acre indoor water park. You can indoor sky dive or drop two hundred foot on a free fall. There are two casinos within a mile of each other. There are wax museums with themes of criminals or celebrities. There are scary places like a Dracula's Castle and Frankenstein. We did none of the above.

Here is what we did

1.      Bird Kingdom

This is giant building with two aviaries. One for smaller birds, the other a walk thru tropical jungle.  There is also a room for reptile encounters. Basically you pay money for a picture of you with a snake. The place was nice. There really were not too many birds in the main room. Still it’s a neat place.

2.      Butterfly Conservatory

This is a few miles north of town. It is run by Niagara Parks Dept. This is by far the largest butterfly place I have ever seen. They have 2500 butterflies. They are in a tropical greenhouse you walk through. At least a few landed on us. If you like butterflies, I doubt there is a better indoor place to see them.

3.      Louis Tussaud Wax Museum

Wax Museum

There were many wax museums we did not go to. We went to this one as part of a package ticket with Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Some of the figures were very realistic. Others did not look like who they represented.

4.      Guinness Book of World Records.

 

This is a good place for those of us that like facts. Mostly it is cards on the wall and a few videos of world records. There is a lot of reading. Not too much memorabilia. I thought it was interesting

5.      Ripley’s Believe it or Not

 

I didn’t want to go here but it was on Laurie’s list. I expected pictures of overgrown finger nails and pictures of eyes bugging out of people’s heads. There was a little of that. Mostly it was a museum. There were Dark ages torture devices. Two headed calf skulls and some other interesting stuff.



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6.      Sky Wheel

 

We went on the Sky Wheel at night. It is a giant Ferris wheel. It has 42 enclosed “swings”. The view from the top is cool. It goes around three times and lasts about 8 minutes from start to finish.

 

7.      Skylon Tower

 

This was by far my favorite tourist attraction. An outdoor elevator takes you to a tower 500 feet high. You can walk all 360 degrees. On a clear day the view extends 80 miles. The view

View from Skylon Tower

of the falls below is awesome. We could not see Toronto but we could easily make out the tall buildings in Buffalo.

 

8.      IMAX Movie

 

There is an IMAX about a block from our hotel. It constantly places a 50 minute movie about myths and daredevils at the falls. The movie was interesting but again a family of four would not want to spend 40 plus dollars to see it.

 

9.      Aquarium

 

There is a small aquarium on the New York side. We went to it because, one, I like fish and two, it was part of our Discovery Pass at the fall. It was what you would expect out a little aquarium. They do have seals and sea lions with show.

The main attraction that we did not do was Marineland. It is well advertised on the radio and in print. We didn’t go because it was $40 plus/person and we didn’t know much about it. They have beluga whales and you have”the opportunity to feed them.” I correctly took this to mean pay extra to feed them. I found out later it’s only another $8. I read the reviews when I got home. Apparently it’s a long walk between most rides. Sometimes visitors are rushed when feeding the whales and overall it’s not really a lot of fun. I read this from many reviews not just one cranky person.

There is also a Safari but it is out of town and we didn’t really look into it. I don’t do arcades so we did not waste time in any. Laurie does not like mini golf, but she was tempted to play the dinosaur one because they looked so real. We just ran out of time.

My advice for anyone going to Niagara is to do some research before you go. Pick out the things you and your family want to do in the amount of time you have. It would also be a good idea to read reviews before you go. I don’t normally do this but since I got home I have read many to see if others felt the same way I do (good or bad) about things I did. They are very consistent.

We knew going into this getaway that we would have different expectations. My goal was to see the falls from all angles (including Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds) and get a few postcard perfect pictures. Laurie wanted to do a lot of the tourist attractions because they looked fun. So we did as much for each other as we could. I went to the attractions she wanted to. She patiently waited for me to take 675 pictures in three days.

When we listed our top things we wanted to do, we both had Maid of the Mist as number one. We also had the Sky Wheel as number two. From there we tried to figure out what was most important to the other person but in three days we had enough time to take everything we wanted to in.