Not the tallest waterfall in the world, but by volume one of the most powerful, and the Canadian side has the view.
Three waterfalls together — the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side, and the American and Bridal Veil Falls opposite — carrying the outflow of four of the five Great Lakes over a 57-metre drop.
They are not especially tall. What they are is enormous in volume: around 2,800 cubic metres a second in peak summer flow, which is among the highest of any waterfall in the world.
Roughly half the flow is diverted for hydroelectricity, more at night and in winter under a treaty between Canada and the United States. What you see is a managed river.
What to do
The boat. Niagara City Cruises on the Canadian side (the American equivalent is Maid of the Mist) takes you into the basin of the Horseshoe. You will get soaked despite the poncho. It runs roughly April to November and it is the essential thing.
Journey Behind the Falls — tunnels cut through the rock to portals directly behind the sheet of falling water, plus a lower observation deck. Open year-round.
Table Rock, free, is the closest you can stand at the brink of the Horseshoe.
The Skylon Tower and the Niagara SkyWheel for elevated views. The White Water Walk and the Whirlpool Aero Car, a 1916 cable car over the whirlpool downstream, are both good and much quieter.
The Falls Illumination each evening, and fireworks on a summer schedule.
The town
Be prepared: Clifton Hill, the strip leading up from the falls, is a wall of wax museums, haunted houses, arcades and fudge. It is entirely unrelated to the natural spectacle a hundred metres away and it is what a great many visitors remember.
Ignore it, or embrace it, but do not be surprised by it.
Niagara-on-the-Lake
Twenty minutes north, at the mouth of the river, and the reason to make it a proper day rather than a stop.
A preserved nineteenth-century town — burned by the Americans in 1813 and rebuilt — with the Shaw Festival theatre company running from April to December, and the heart of Ontario’s best wine region.
Icewine is the specialty: grapes left on the vine until they freeze at around minus eight, then pressed frozen, producing an intensely sweet wine. Ontario is the largest producer in the world. Also good Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc.
Cellar doors along the Niagara Parkway and around Jordan and Vineland.
Getting there
GO Transit runs trains and buses from Union Station, roughly two hours, seasonally more frequent. There is also VIA Rail.
Coach tours from Toronto run daily, typically including Niagara-on-the-Lake and a winery, and take twelve hours door to door.
Driving is about 90 minutes on the QEW.
Passports: the falls straddle the border and crossing to the American side requires full entry to the United States, including any visa or ESTA you would need to fly there. Most day-trippers stay on the Canadian side.
When
Summer for the boats and full flow. Winter for the ice formations, which are spectacular and almost unvisited — the falls do not freeze, but the spray builds up ice on everything around them.
