My parents have decided they want to visit us for their 40th wedding anniversary with my sister when they originally had talked about going on a cruise or something.

I want to take them somewhere really special for their anniversary and thought Niagara falls would be absolutely perfect.

With us being in Montreal is it best to drive, train or fly to near there? We thought maybe get there mid morning, stay overnight then travel back the next day allowing us to have a nice meal or something in the evening.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations on where to stay? Where to eat? etc.

I may look into some sort of ceremony for a renewal of wedding vows too but may speak to them about that and see if that is something they would like to do. I know I am thinking ahead a bit but I really want this to be special and may need to save like mad for it

We often take visitors to Niagara. We drive, take the Maid of the Mist, cross the border and go into the Cave of the Winds. After hundreds of trips and trying everything we think this the best bang for the buck. We then drive to Niagara on the Lake for dinner. If I were starting in Montreal I'd drive and stay in Niagara on the Lake, that's a quaint town, Niagara is a Coney Island/Blackpool tacky tourist kind of place.

It's one hell of a drive, probably 7-8 hours. Better to fly to Toronto Pearson via Air Canada or Toronto Islands via Porter Airlines (which may be cheaper). Rent a car and it's about 1.5 hours to The Falls. Personally I think NF is a much overstated place. It takes all of 2 hours to see them and the surrounding park. Usually very crowded. The city itself is a dump, much like Blackpool.

NIAGARA FALLS! Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch, and then....

(cough, cough, sorry)

I don't know exactly what time you'd have to leave Montreal to arrive at NF by car mid-morning, but it wouldn't be pretty. That's a 700 km trip. I doubt going by train would be any faster than driving. Flying is about the only realistic option for a short trip.

HI

Can say much about how t get there, but we have stayed at the Michaels Inn 3 times and every time it was good, and reasonable, and everything is walkable from there.

Depends what your budget is, if you stay a bit farther out, some hotels/motel run a free shuttle bus to the center.

Hope this helps

Gary

Flying will save roughly 2 hours depending on how early you check in for the flight.

1 hour at Montreal to check in.

1hr 45 minutes scheduled flight

1 hour to get baggage, pick up rental car etc.

1.5 hour drive.

Flying is about 5 hours total when everything is accounted for.

Driving is about 7-7.5 hours total.

Time savings by flying doesn't seem worth the hassle of flying, getting bags, getting a rental car etc..

But I like road trips.

This is bang on. I always drive from Toronto to Chicago when I have to work there as the plane costs more and saves only half an hour. That's about the same as Montreal to Niagara.

As said by others, that is a Looooooooooooooonnnnnnngggggggg drive.

We've done Toronto to Montreal a fair few times (F1 fans, so when we did have a GP there we'd pop up - worth the experience if you're "in" to F1 - hopefully it'll be on next years calendar, but I digress), takes us about six or so hours depending on traffic.

From TO to Niagara is at least 1 1/2 hours, again, depends on traffic. My fiancé's family lives in St Catharines and so we're down that way a fair bit and it usually gets very busy from just after seventh line, mainly due to construction which has taken the QEW down a lane or two.

QEW is also busy from Just after Ford Drive to about Burloak, as that's where the 403 comes down to meet the QEW, plus construction around bronte/burloak.

If you're going to drive then I'd say take the 401 until you just get into pickering, then head north on Brock Road (Regional Road 1) and get on the 407 west, yes, I know, toll road, but it's worth it. Take this right to it's terminus in Burlington.
I'd then take QEW (Niagara Bound) to seventh line, then head south on that until you hit lakeshore road W, that'll turn into Main St and take you through Port Dalhousie, which may be a little busy. It'll turn into Lock street in the town , then to lakeport road, where no doubt I'll be having a beer , then head left onto Lakeshore road and follow this.
If you want, go into Niagara-On-The-Lake, or head on creek road, that turns into four mile creek road, then back into creek road, take that until York road, then follow that to the Niagara Parkway and that'll take you into Niagara.

This is a nice country like route, plus if you go via NOTL you can simply follow the road that runs alongside the river, which is always pleasant.

If you want to sit in traffic then when you get off the 407, stay on the QEW and follow it until you pick up the 405, and then follow that in.

My choice would actually be to take the train. My fiance has taken it from TO to Montreal and it does take roughly the same time as driving, but it's more relaxed. Check that VIA runs into NF, fairly sure it probably does though.


dbd33 - Are you mad? You do TO to Chicago. Yikes! I've done TO to St Louis and back a couple of times (we used to have an office in STL) and that's a killer trip, 12 hours straight through. Sticking to 65mph at two in the morning when there is nothing on the road is very difficult!

Perhaps, I drove to a job in Vegas and for a year I commuted by car to Ottawa. I got used to driving to Chicago when one of my kids was being treated in a hospital there, we'd leave Thursday midnight, sleep for an hour or so in Indiana, go to the hospital for the morning and drive back. After a while it became routine.

I used to drive Belleville to Detroit quite a bit..that was about 6 hours straight. Its doable, but you arent in good shape to do much as soon as you get the other end.


If I were the OP Id drive Montreal to Toronto, spend some time there, then do TO to Niagara, have some fun (I agree with dbd, Cave of the winds on the US side is worth it, along with the maid of the mist from either side), then back to TO and then back to Montreal.

Via rail to NF from TO is an option, but if you want to take in some of the other local attractions a car makes it easier.

Thanks everyone for your responses

I'll check out flights etc. and speak to OH about the driving (I am a non-driver for the time being!)

Although the time spent traveling is negligible, flying may win because my Dad absolutely loves it for some reason.

Has anyone mentioned that Niagra Falls is not really that nice?

Clifton Hill is one of the oddest, tackiest places I have ever been! That said, Niagra-on-the-lake is very nice.

The falls and the parkway area are nice, its just parts of the town itself is like Great Yarmouth, only without the charm

That's so true but at least there's not too much of it unlike, for example, 10 miles of Blackpool

Yeah, Clifton Hill is like blackpool/vegas but with more chintz and less substance.

Niagara-on-the-lake however is VERY nice. Yes, it can get busy, but it's rather charming. Have to say I do really like the place, and have spent many a happy hour down at the sailing club.

OH worked at the aforementioned club for many years, and also worked in one of the hotels (Prince of Wales I think) for a while and so she likes it too, probably explains why we are having our wedding reception in NOTL.