Exploring Around Niagara Falls (US & Canadian Sides)
Based on my last post you might well think there’s enough to see and do at Niagara Falls without going anywhere else, and you would be absolutely right! We spent 4 out of our 7 days in the area just at the Falls themselves, and if it hadn’t been for our blog readers encouraging us to get out and explore the surrounding areas, we might never have made it any further.
As it turns out there is LOTS to see in the surrounding area, more than I ever imagined at first glance. There are locks, historic forts, cutesy towns, wineries and lighthouses (yes, multiple!!). If you decide to visit both sides of the border (US & Canada) and do it on separate days (which I really do recommend), then you can make a full day of it and explore some of the surrounding area at the the same time.
So, for example a “full-day excursion” on the US side might start at the Falls early AM (= less crowds), followed by a drive to Lockport to see the locks (maybe have lunch there), then another drive up to Lake Ontario to see 30 Mile Point Lighthouse, followed by a visit to Old Fort Niagara (and 2nd lighthouse), finishing off with a stroll/dinner through Youngstown or Lewiston before you go home.
On Canada side a ” full-day excursion” might start at the Falls early AM (= less crowds), followed by a leisurely drive up the river to Niagara-On-The Lake, perhaps stopping at the Botanical Gardens (and Butterfly Conservatory), a few wineries and Fort George along the way. Then you’d have lunch in town, followed by maybe a few more wineries (or a brewery) and finally the border crossing home.
There are lots of possibilities!
Lastly, a few disclaimers before I start the post. In our case we brought Polly along to ALL of these outings which means we missed several non-dog-friendly activities, but for us bringing the dog always makes us happier so it’s a no-brainer. Also, our outings are heavily skewed to the US-side of Niagara, simply simply because that’s the side we were staying on so we had more time to explore there (we only spent 1 day on the other side of the border).
With that said, here’s what we got up to and Part II of our Niagara adventures:
The Locks At Lockport (US Side)
I have to admit the Locks at Lockport were never on my radar before we came into this area. It wasn’t until multiple blog readers suggested we visit that I even looked at the place, and it wasn’t until I’d read a bit more about them that I became intrigued.
The 338-mile Erie Canal, which was commissioned in 1816 and is a man-made wonder in and of itself, reached the city of Lockport in 1824. Here a rather famous set of locks called the “flight of five” was created, later replaced by two much larger locks E34 and E35. They were the last set of locks on the Canal before the western terminus of the Canal in Buffalo and represented a 65-foot ascent, a formidable barrier. The history of the locks is an integral part of the waterways of this area, and the cool part is that you can still see it all today!
We brought Polly along for the trip and simply walked around the locks and along the canal, visiting the small on-site museum and reading the plaques about the history.
If you’re dog-less you can do a more in-depth exploration at the Canal Discovery Center followed by a live tour with either Lockport Cave and Underground Boat Rides, or Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises. A lovely little side-trip which is well worth a few hours of your time!
VISIT & PAW NOTES/ The Locks are open year-around and can be visited anytime, although the canal is drained during the winter (so there won’t be much water in it at that time). The boat tours typically take ~2 hours and only only run in season (~May-Oct) at specific times, so consider booking online ahead of time if you want to do this. As mentioned above dogs are not welcome on the tours, but can be walked on the canal walkway as well as on-top of and around the locks themselves.
Old Fort Niagara & Fort Niagara Lighthouse (US Side)
If you’re staying at Four Mile Creek State Park, as we did, Fort Niagara is literally only ~2 miles away so it’s a super easy visit to do.
Not only is this the site of a rather majestic Colonial-Era Fort (built in 1726), but it’s ALSO the site of Fort Niagara Lighthouse (originally the very first light on the Great Lakes, although the current tower is a more modern build from 1872). Plus there are miles of trails and historic buildings all around the grounds.
The lighthouse is simply on the side of parking lot near the Fort and can be viewed (but not visited), while the Fort is a wonderful visit with lots of restored buildings, folks in period costume, regular re-enactments and sweeping views of the lake. It’s the oldest continuously occupied military site in North America, with an active history spanning more than 300 years so it really is a very interesting place to explore.
The only thing that’s confusing about visiting here? The Fort (called “Old Fort Niagara“, or sometimes “Old Fort Niagara Historic Site”) is actually a separately-managed entity from “Fort Niagara State Park“, despite the fact that it’s physically located inside the State Park. This probably won’t matter to most folks, but if you’re bringing your paws it most definitely does. You see Fort Niagara State Park (and all the trails in it) are dog-friendly, but Old Fort Niagara is NOT and there seems to be no way to know this until you actually turn up with your dog (like we did) at the entrance.
So bottom line definitely come to visit, but if you spend in-depth time at the Fort you may want to leave pooch at home.
VISIT & PAW NOTES/ Old Fort Niagara is open 9AM-5PM and costs $12 to visit. As mentioned above the Fort itself is NOT dog-friendly, but the entire State Park surrounding the Fort is. So if you bring pooch and there’s two of you it is possible to visit the Fort one-by-one while the other walks doggie outside on the trails. It takes anywhere from 30 mins to a few hours to explore the Fort (depending on how detailed you want to be) so just plan for that. If you’re only visiting the State Park side there’s a $8 car entry fee (FREE if you have the Empire Pass or are staying at another NY State Park (just bring your camping pass)).
30 Mile Point Lighthouse (US Side)
Being lighthouse nutters this Lighthouse had shown up on our radar well before we got to the area.
30 Mile Point is a beautifully preserved light on the south shore of Lake Ontario ~30 miles east of the Niagara River. She’s a coastal light built in 1875 to warn mariners of the treacherous shoal and sand bar that exists just off the coast here. Her gorgeous 70-foot stone tower sits on the back of a magnificent keepers house and originally held a 3rd order Fresnel lens.
These days she’s managed by a non-profit and sits right smack in the middle of Golden Hill State Park (where you can RV camp too!) and her second floor can be rented for overnight stays.
Once again we took Polly along for this trip, taking turns to visit inside the tower while the other person walked Polly on the outside grounds. And we absolutely loved it! Well-preserved light, wonderful trails, beautiful sweeping views of the lake and so very, very quiet. If we’d known beforehand that we could camp here (we only found out afterwards) we would have parked “the beast” here. Super cool spot!
VISIT & PAW NOTES/ The lighthouse is located inside Golden Hill State Park which has $6 car entry fee (FREE if you have the Empire Pass or are staying at another NY State Park (just bring your camping pass)). It is open for tours 9AM-5:30PM Wed-Sun, from mid-May through mid-October and tours cost $1 per person. Dogs are not allowed inside the lighthouse, but are allowed everywhere in the surrounding grounds and State Park trails.
Youngstown & Lewiston (US Side)
The two towns of Youngstown and Lewiston are cute little stops along the Niagara River between Niagara Falls & Lake Ontario.
Youngstown is a teeny little place with historic roots back to the 1800’s, whereas Lewiston is a larger town that played a significant role in the war of 1812, and lays claim as the birthplace of Niagara Falls around 12,000 years ago. They’re great places to walk the streets, hang for coffee, go for lunch or learn about the history of the area.
Also, right next door is the Niagara Power Project which is a hidden gem of a place! It’s an interactive museum dedicated to hydro-electric power generation, and it’s a great place to learn about electricity and just have some fun. Plus it’s FREE to both park and visit!
VISIT & PAW NOTES/ Both towns are open for visitation all-year, and any restaurant/cafe with a patio will typically be dog-friendly. The Niagara Power Project Visitor Center is free (free parking, free museum) and is open 9AM-5PM. No dogs allowed however.
Other US Side Visits
In our limited time in the area we only managed the trips above, but there is more! Some of the things we missed include Whirlpool State Park and Devil’s Hole State Park, the bike ride along the Niagara Scenic Parkway and of course a slew of wineries.
Niagara Wineries (Canada Side)
The Canadian side of Niagara is rather famous for its wines. The area was first known for its ice wines (= a rather sweet concoction made from grapes left to ripen and subsequently freeze on the vine after final harvest), but has continued to grow and expand over the last 30 years or so. There are now over 20 wineries and plenty more varieties to chose from including classic whites, rosé, and even reds. We’re not sweet wine drinkers so we avoided the ice wine, but we found some excellent (non-sweet) whites and some very tasty rosés too.
Our only issue? Finding a place to bring Polly! Our previous 3 weeks in the Finger Lakes (NY) had completely spoiled us for dog-friendly wineries (they’re practically ALL dog-friendly there), but when I researched the Canadian side I had a tough time finding anything at all.
Eventually I found a spot (or so I thought), Inniskillin Wineries which had numerous on-line reviews, blog posts and pics of folks with their furry family. So after our morning stroll by the Falls we drove over, sat down with Polly at an outdoor table and got ourselves a glass from inside the winery. The place was empty so we were literally the only folks outside. Lovely!
All was fine until we got up from the table to walk back to our car. That’s when an employee came running out of the winery looking rather panicked. “You aren’t planning on staying here are you?” he asked “we don’t allow dogs!!”. We explained we were about to leave, but were surprised at their policy since we’d seen pics (and read reviews) of folks coming here with their furry family. He dutifully explained that the winery HAD been dog friendly, but a barking dog last year had caused them to change their policy to ban all dogs, even at outside tables. Ugh!
Ah well, at least we had already finished our tasting! So really nice wines folks (we really did enjoy them) but strike this one off your list if you’re bringing pooch.
VISIT & PAW NOTES/ Most wineries on Canadian side open at around 10AM and stay open until evening (7-9PM). As for paw-friendliness I don’t know! Subsequent to our trip I contacted Wineries Of Niagara On The Lakes to ask them which of their members were dog-friendly only to receive the dismissive response “we don’t know”. So unfortunately I can’t give you any firm recommendations of dog-friendly wineries on the Canadian side. If you find or know of any, please post a note in the comments section below!
Niagara-On-The-Lake (Canada Side)
Everyone who comes to this area talks about the town of Niagara-On-The Lake. It’s a small town on the very northern tip of the region that was voted Canada’s #1 Food & Wine Destination by TripAdvisor in 2015. And it’s cute, it really is.
It’s the kind of town that’s only around 6 blocks long, but it’s packed with fine restaurants, cutesy shops, and art. The streets are lined with multi-colored flowers and shade trees, the buildings are finely restored 19th-century masterpieces, and it’s home of the Shaw Festival, a series of theatrical productions featuring the works of George Bernard Shaw. So, yeah it’s got all of that in one place.
But…and here we may be bucking the trend of the majority of folks who come here, we found it a little too packed and over-touristy for our tastes. The streets were thick with people, and there was not a single restaurant that allowed us to sit with Polly (lots of outdoor dog bowls and lots of restaurants with patios, but none of them allow dogs). So, our visit was more like a 20-min walk through and we were done.
I think if you come here without pooch, and maybe plan to visit in slightly less busy times (mid-afternoon? off-season?) it would be a much more pleasant experience. Plus, I do think it would be fun to come back and see some live theater. Definitely worth a visit, but just plan ahead for the best experience.
VISIT & PAW NOTES/ Parking near downtown Niagara-On-The-Lake is metered (see parking map HERE) and can be paid by cash or credit card at any pay station along the road. For the paws, the streets at Niagara-On-The-Lake are all paw-friendly but none of the restaurants allow dogs, so if you plan on eating here either leave pooch at home or bring a picnic lunch and go to the next-door park (Queen’s Royal Park) to enjoy it. THIS post by Montecristo Travels goes into more doggie-related details so check that out too.
Other Canadian-Side Visits
We only managed the two visits above, but other things you can look at on the Canadian side are the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens (dog-friendly!), the Butterfly Conservatory, the Whirlpool Aero Car, and Fort George (dog-friendly! Read more about it in THIS post by Montecristo Travels).
That’s it folks! The final wrap-up of our week in Niagara Falls. We saw A LOT but honestly could have used at least another week in the area. I’ve got a campground review coming and then we head to yet another very special place, the “Grand Canyon of the East”. See you there!
Useful External Links:
- Lockport, NY (US side): Visitor website HERE and tour boat websites HERE and HERE
- Fort Niagara (US side): State Park website HERE and Old Fort Niagara website HERE
- 30-Mile Point Lighthouse (US side): State Park website HERE
- Niagara Wineries: Link to Canada-side map HERE and US-side map HERE
- Niagara-On-The-Lake (Canada side): Visitor website HERE
- Blog post by Montecristo Travels: Visiting Fort George In Niagara With a Dog, Canada
- Blog post by Montecristo Travels: Niagara-On-The-Lake With a Dog, Canada
Great reviews as always Nina. We were at all the US side places several years ago. On our way to the falls we stopped at Old Ft Niagara and were lucky enough to come upon historical reenactors from the French and Indian War encampment from the seige of 1759. Our son enjoyed it so much he begged to return when we left the falls on our way to the Finger Lakes. That time it was reenactors from what they call Rebels and Redcoats representing the American and British sides. They had tons of fun activities for the kids, including being picked to light a cannon, so if anyone has kids visiting during one of these annually scheduled events is even more fun. Many of the reenactors are history students but a good many are also in drama which makes for very fun and interesting learning.
Too bad about the winery and no dogs policy. I wish some of these places could simply tell people when they arrive with a dog that if it misbehaves they will have to leave so the vast majority of us with well behaved (in some cases better than their human companions) pooches would not have to make the choice to go dog-less or miss the place entirely. We did have to put Phoenix down this winter and have decided for now to not get another dog but I had printed up a little blurb on a card that I handed to the manager or maitre d’ when we encountered places with a no dog policy. It simply explained that we were one of an increasing number of full timing couples who did not like to leave her behind and were disappointed not to be able to enjoy their site/event/restaurant because of this. I always took the time to thank the ones that did allow them.
What great memories of Old Fort Niagara!
And I’m totally with you on the dog policy. Why not just kick out any dog that misbehaves (same way you would kick out a misbehaving human), and that’s that? Shutting off the entire venue just seems a shame.
Nina
Hi Nina –
Thank you for the great write up of our area. Just one observation on the Lockport locks. you can come visit year round but the Erie canal itself gets drained to only about a foot of water in the winter. The cruises only run from early May to early October.
Ah yes, thanks very much for that detail!! I’ve updated the blog post to reflect that!
Nina
Such great information!! I would never have thought all those amazing sights were right there. I would have just visited Niagra Falls and missed so much!! I guess the “big” attractions sometimes over shadow the smaller. A great lesson.. look around!!
I was pretty amazed at how much there was to see around the area, so much so that I felt it deserved its own blog post. It really was fun to explore around.
Nina
Nina, when you went to Niagra-on-the-Lake, where did you park the RV? We were there a couple of years ago and as I remember we couldn’t find RV parking and the nearest campground was inconveniently far away. But it was a dark, rainy afternoon and we didn’t spend too much time looking. I’d love to visit again sometime, if we could stash the RV for a couple hours.
We went with our tow car on a day trip from the US side, so we didn’t take the RV across the border. I didn’t see any RV parking in the vicinity, but granted we weren’t really looking. So sadly I don’t have many ideas for you. Maybe others who know better will chime in.
Nina
We have been to Niagara Falls,and we did not see the bulk of what you’re reporting on! I think we may have to go back. As I recall, when we were there I had an ear infection and Jim’s glasses were broken, so we were somewhat distracted. I’m with you on the dumbness of banning all dogs just because one dog was bad. Ban the bad dog! Welcome the good dogs! Good dog!
Nice blog on the area. We have been many times and as you did, we always take our dogs with us. Actually thee are very few times we do not have them with us. We found Niagara on the Lake exactly as you described it but bought sandwiches and drove North a bit to a small park and had our lunch there, then back to the falls themselves as we also found Niagara on the Lake to be way too crowded and over priced.
Our favorite areas are those that allow “good dogs” to be with us when we eat outside.
Your idea of buying sandwiches and going to the nearby park (Queens Royal Park) with doggie at Niagara-On-The-Lake was the perfect choice. That’s what we would do if we came back.
And yeah, obviously totally with you on the “good dogs”. Of course if it were up to me dogs would be allowed everywhere 🙂
Nina
We too are always happier if Emmi can go along–and she is a bit more “portable” than Polly! :)) Great post Nina–you guys are having so much fun!
If Polly were a “tad” more portable she’d be easier to sneak around, but her ~45 lbs make that a bit tough. Emmi is just the right size for that!
Nina
What a great report and fabulous photos as always! We haven’t yet planned a Niagra trip but this will be a great resource when we do. Thanks!
Safe and happy travels!
Happy it’s helpful 🙂
Nina
All that and not one pic of the Falls, Fantastic! Everyone posts the Falls and if you seen ’em once… So nice to see the surrounding area for both sides, things people (including me) would never likely think about. Great post, really enjoyed it.
What a wonderful visit!! The lighthouses look so different there, but have their own kind of beauty. Your pics of Fort Niagara are particularly stunning. The Five Points Lighthouse stairs are intimidating, but even the color looks like the inside of a shell. Thanks for all the great doggies tips as always. Polly should be welcome in more places than some humans 🙂
Nina, fantastic posts, as usual. We enjoyed an impromptu picnic at tiny Ryerson Park in NOTL, with bread, cheese, and a (possibly against-regulations) bottle of wine when visiting years ago with family. It was a magical afternoon, with the nephews playing in the gravel beach and the adults savoring the perfect weather, the wine, and just visiting.
Also nearby in ON is Welland Canal, which I remember visiting as a child and watching the mighty ships lock through on their way around Niagara Falls.
I also visited when the Falls were shut down. As I recall we even walked out on the rock surface of the riverbed. But I might be imagining that; it was a LONG time ago.
Cheers, Jennifer R.
I live in Niagara Falls,USA. You could easily stay in the area for some months and not see everything in the Western ,NY area. Buffalo,NY has quite a few museums and other things to see. Go on the maid of the Mist boat ride at the Falls. It is a must do adventure. An Aquarium and Geological museum are near by.