As we drove past North America’s largest waterfall, Lezlie Harper, the founder of Niagara Bound Tours told the story of a sign that once hung in downtown Niagara Falls, Ontario.
“It read ‘Don’t forget to see the falls,’ ” she said with a laugh, before gesturing to the majestic cascade in front of us. “As if you could miss it!” I laughed, too, but the truth is that, for many years, I had blithely driven past this wonder of the world with barely a glance.
When I was a kid growing up in a Toronto suburb, Niagara Falls was the place I begrudgingly visited when relatives flew in from out of town. I didn’t know then that it is actually a trio—Horseshoe Falls, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls sit side-by-side along the Canada-U.S. border—or that the charms of the region extend far beyond its main attraction.
But last autumn, I took a four-day trip with a girlfriend, Viji, and was reintroduced to the landmark and the city—along with its quaint little sister about 25 minutes north, Niagara-on-the-Lake. And on this visit, I found a new appreciation for the place I thought I knew.
Fron left: Shopping on Queen Street, in Niagara-on-the-Lake; inside the Niagara Parks Power Station, a new museum. | Credit: Lindsay Lauckner Gundlock
Day One
Viji and I started at—where else?—the falls. Over lunch at Table Rock House Restaurant (entrées $19–$35), which is perched at the edge of Horseshoe Falls, we oohed and aahed at the crashing curtain of water right in front of us. Next, we took a short stroll to the Niagara Parks Power Station , which used the falls to provide electricity to much of the region for a century, beginning in 1905. It recently reopened as an interactive museum that highlights the lives of the people who worked at the plant.
As we stood in the shadows of the turbines we’d learned about earlier, projections brought the workers and machinery to life.
We also took a