Discover A Hidden Waterfall Together

While there’s no arguing the wow-factor of Niagara’s Horseshoe and American Falls, exploring a little further afield can also reveal some wonderful waterfall surprises. Kids will feel like they’ve stumbled upon their own private oasis as they scale giant boulders to arrive at Rockway Conservation Area’s 19.5-meter and 12.2-meter cascades. There are at least a dozen waterfalls to spot at Shorthills Provincial Park, but the biggest of the bunch is Swayze Falls. For families with little ones who are not up for hiking the entire Swayze Falls Loop, the Paleozoic Path is an easy-to-stroll gravel trail that offers a platform with a great view of Swayze Falls.

Get Even Closer To The Music At One Of Canada’s Top Small Venues

Don’t let the small number of seats at Niagara Falls’ OLG Stage fool you. This intimate 5,000-seat venue attracts some big-name acts, and guests have the added bonus of never being more than 150 feet away from the action!. This summer’s concert lineup includes Dustin Lynch, Randy Houser, 98 Degrees, Charlotte Cardin, The Black Crowes, The Killers, Train, Babyface, Cole Swindell, Kool & The Gang, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Steve Winwood.

Summer Savings Tip #1: Bundle Your Fun

With so much to see and do in Niagara Falls, area travel partners understand the advantages of creating value-added attraction bundles for visitors. Niagara Parks offers three unique bundles with potential savings of up to 59% on popular attractions, including Journey Behind The Falls, the Butterfly Conservatory, and the White Water Walk. The Clifton Hill Fun Pass is an excellent savings tool for families looking to enjoy popular activities, such as Niagara SkyWheel, Dinosaur Adventure Golf, and Movieland Wax Museum.

Enjoy A Meal With Some Real Fireworks

Savouring a late-night dinner with a view of the Niagara Falls skyline is an excellent way to enjoy the added romance of a stunning summer fireworks show. Every night at 10 pm between May 16 and October 13, the Niagara Falls skyline explodes with sound and colour as Canada’s longest-running fireworks series lights up the sky. Extra-romantic restaurant options with an excellent view of the skyline include Watermark Fallsview Dining, Table Rock House Restaurant, Prime Steakhouse, and Massimo’s Italian Fallsview Restaurant. Can’t wait that late for dinner? Treat your date to a Falls Fireworks Cruise and set sail for panoramic skyline views, stunning illuminations, and a fabulous floating fireworks experience.

Taste The Influence of a Celebrity Chef

Niagara’s red-hot culinary scene has captured the attention of top Canadian chefs for quite some time now, and a number of them are doing some really delicious things in the region. To get a taste of what’s cooking in their kitchens, head to Chef Matty Matheson’s Rizzos House of Parm in Ridgeway, Peller Estates Winery Restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake where Chef Jason Parsons of CityLine fame leads the culinary charge, or Chef Massimo Capra’s Massimo’s Italian Fallsview Restaurant for an unforgettable meal overlooking Niagara Falls.

B = Book A Perk-Filled Place To Stay

When adults recall fond family vacation memories from childhood, the places where their family called it a night often make the highlights reel. Make your evenings equally as memorable for your kids by booking a place to stay that offers fun perks for everyone.

→ Niagara Falls’ three waterparks are a perfect way for families to add some water-fueled fun to their Niagara hotel stay. Choose from Great Wolf Lodge, Americana Resort, and the three-acre Fallsview Indoor Waterpark, which can be easily accessed by guests staying at these four area hotels.

→ Embassy Suites by Hilton Niagara Falls’ Fallsview Family Fun Package includes dining vouchers and passes for four to your choice of fun family activities like Glow-in-the-Dark Mini Golf, Galaxy Quest Lazer Tag, Haunted Hallways and Mystic Maze of Mirrors.

→ Howard Johnson Plaza By Wyndham By The Falls’ Family Fun Package includes dining vouchers and two adult six-attraction passes to Clifton Hill favourites like the Niagara SkyWheel, Ghost Blaster Dark Ride, Movieland Wax Museum, and Wizards’ Golf OR Dinosaur Adventure.

→ Best Western Plus Cairn Croft’s Family Fun Package includes meal vouchers and a gift card to the hotel’s all-new rCade!

→ Holiday Inn & Suites St. Catharines Conference Centre has a huge on-site bowling alley, arcade, and the added bonus of having a trampoline park just a short stroll away!

→ Hotel Philco in Crystal Beach offers individual room themes that kids will adore. Imagine the look of surprise on their faces when you walk into a fully decked out Christmas Room, or the Golf Room complete with a 75″ big screen TV and PlayStation!

Try A New Mode of Float

A boat ride beside the Falls is just one of several ways to float an afternoon away in Niagara! Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Paddle Niagara offers paddleboard and kayak rentals that allow visitors to explore the Niagara River’s more gentle sections, and their special summer Full Moon Paddles are worth timing your trip around! Kayaking or paddleboarding along the shores of Lake Erie is easy with the convenient rental service offered by Port Colborne’s Sugarloaf Marina. Exploring Jordan Harbour by kayak, canoe, or paddleboard offers paddlers the opportunity to spot a wide variety of wildlife that call that area home. Paddling the Welland Canal with a boat rental from Welland Rec Rentals is a fun way to get a better sense of the size of this storied freight route.

Whether diners choose to think of it as a restaurant inside a butcher shop, or a butcher shop inside a restaurant, Downtown St. Catharines’ Fat Rabbit has food lovers hopping to secure a table. MICHELIN Guide Inspectors seem to have been equally as enamoured with the concept following their 2024 visit, recognizing the restaurant for delivering “flavors in spades,” and giving it a much-revered MICHELIN Guide recommendation. In 2024, the restaurant also earned the number eight spot on the Top 10 list of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants.This year, Fat Rabbit also had the honour of joining Restaurant Pearl Morissette as the only other Niagara name on the Canada’s Best 100 Restaurant listing.

Fat Rabbit Chef Zac Smith brings over two decades of experience in kitchens from Vancouver to Niagara, including time at Matty Matheson’s Meat and Three in Fort Erie. Later this year, he’ll unveil a new French-inspired bar just down the street from Fat Rabbit called, Les Incompetents. Anticipation is building about what Chef Smith will pull out of his hat when the space located within a beautifully restored theatre on St. Paul Street finally opens it doors!

Ways To Experience Fat Rabbit:

• Pop by before 4 pm to enjoy a daytime menu that includes hearty sandwiches, creative takes on smashburgers, a breakfast plate, house-made charcuterie, and baked treats brought in on weekends from RPM Bakehouse.
• Peruse the thoughtfully curated butcher case, filled with meats sourced from an incredible selection of local farms and butchered in-house. Browse the Bottle Shop, featuring a selection of low-intervention wines from small producers, and shop for take-home treats from an eclectic collection of pantry items.
• Reserve a table for dinner and graze on a selection of shared plates that make lesser-known cuts of meats sing, creative vegetable dishes, cooked-to-order steaks and chops, and more.

Fat Rabbit isn’t the only restaurant generating buzz about St. Catharines as a dining destination. Other outstanding St. Catharines favourites include Odd Bird, Bolete, Wellington Court, King Street Pantry, picque-nique cafe and wine bar, Beechwood Doughnuts, and Brindle.

Ride This Way Tip #1:

Time Your Trip Right

While GO Trains and Buses run between Toronto and Niagara seven days a week, weekday and weekend schedules do vary and can shift seasonally. Check schedules in advance to determine the best departure and return times for your trip.

Shift Into … Beach Gear

Niagara’s unique location between two Great Lakes means excellent options for water-filled adventures are always nearby. Lake Erie, the warmest of the Great Lakes, boasts sandy beaches and friendly little lakeside towns like Crystal Beach and Port Colborne that have attracted American sun-seekers for decades. Best bets for beach days include:

   ●   Bay Beach, which, in addition to a beautiful stretch of sand and warm water, is just a short stroll away from the great restaurants, ice cream shops, and boutique retailers of Crystal Beach
   ●   Nickel Beach, which is home to SplashTown Niagara, one of the province’s most buzzed-about floating inflatable waterparks
   ●   Cedar Bay Beach, a sandy beach in a park where families can also play tennis, beach volleyball, and horseshoes
   ●   Sugarloaf Marina, where visitors can rent kayaks and stand-up paddleboards and set out on a paddling adventure along the scenic Lake Erie shoreline

When the family is ready for a break from the beach, there are lots of other fun activities close to the beach towns of Niagara’s South Coast, including exploring Safari Niagara, a 150-acre nature park that is home to exotic mammals, reptiles, and birds. A family outing to Niagara Falls for a few hours of arcade fun, mini golf, and go-karting on Clifton Hill is just a short drive away as well.

Lake Ontario, which borders the northern side of Niagara, also boasts excellent family-friendly beaches, including Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie. In addition to a great playground and nearby ice cream shops and restaurants, a historic carousel spins all summer long for just five cents a ride! Don’t miss the weekly Supper Market on Tuesday evenings!  Sunset Beach is another excellent choice for Lake Ontario sand seekers that offers easy access to family-friendly cycling on the nearby Welland Canals Parkway Trail and an adorable cast of creatures to meet at Happy Rolph’s Animal Farm.

For families who prefer to keep cool in a pool, Niagara’s three amazing waterparks are sure to please! Fallsview Indoor Waterpark is North America’s largest indoor waterpark and resort, boasting three acres of waterslides and a massive wave pool. Great Wolf Lodge has an enormous indoor water park, amazing attractions, and a host of complimentary daily events and activities. With its gradual beach-entry wave pool and kiddy pool with toddler slides, Waves Indoor Waterpark is an excellent choice for families with younger children.

True North Niagara Family Experience #1:

Snap Selfies Beside North America’s Largest Series of Standing Waves

The sheer power of the Niagara River’s Class 6 white water rapids is difficult to comprehend until you’re standing right beside them on Niagara Park’s self-guided White Water Walk experience. After taking an elevator 70 metres down to the base of the Niagara Gorge, follow the wooden boardwalk that runs alongside the river and feel the rush of the crashing waves as the sound echoes up the 410-million-year-old rock layers of the Niagara Gorge.

SUNNY DAY Spring Fun

There’s nothing like experiencing Niagara Falls on a beautiful spring day. This spring, Niagara City Cruises will begin offering their signature Hornblower boat rides on May 1. The breathtaking voyage offers spectacular views of the Niagara Gorge, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls, as well as an up-close encounter with the iconic Canadian Horseshoe Falls.

Niagara Parks’ White Water Walk, which opens April 19, offers another incredible way to experience the sheer power of Niagara Falls! As your crew explores the wooden boardwalk that runs alongside the Niagara River, they’ll be blown away by the Class 6 rapids crashing beside them. Niagara Parks’ Whirlpool Aero Car, opening April 12, provides riders with a birds-eye view of the swirling Niagara River rapids from an antique cable car that soars 3,500 feet across the Niagara Gorge.

Families who want an even closer Niagara River run-in can opt for a Whirlpool Jet Boat Tour, beginning May 17. Guests on this 45-minute adventure into the Niagara Gorge and through the Devil’s Hole Rapids can choose between the Wet Jet, a completely open-topped boat where every rider gets soaked, and the Wet Freedom, which offers some covered seats that allow riders to stay dry.

Niagara Falls is just one of many natural wonders born from the Niagara Escarpment. Five hundred million years of natural processes have created a fascinating collection of smaller waterfalls, one-of-a-kind rockfaces, forests, wetlands, bogs and more that provide incredible landscapes for outdoor adventures. A choice of 20 unique Niagara Geosites makes it easy to always find a new place to explore.

Canadian history comes to life in Niagara, and touring the grounds of a storied fort is a really fun way to spend a spring afternoon. Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Fort George National Historic Site, which opens for weekends on April 5 and weekdays and weekends on May 17, offers a glimpse into what life was like in a fort poised for war in the 1800s with live musket demonstrations, informative talks, costumed interpreters, and chance to tour the grounds, barracks, and officer’s quarters. Old Fort Erie, opening for the season May 10, is another excellent destination for families eager to learn about what life was like for War of 1812 soldiers. Interact with uniformed soldiers in entertaining tours as they share riveting war stories and perform heart-pounding artillery demonstrations.

A scenic trail ride is another fun way to explore Niagara with the help of a horse. Local companies like Horseplay Niagara and Niagara Riding Stables offer a range of guided tours that allow riders of all ages to enjoy incredible Niagara scenery straight from the saddle.

A family round of golf is always a good idea on a balmy spring day. Seasoned players who fancy nine or 18 holes can choose from dozens of Niagara golf courses. Mini golf at an outdoor course like Dinosaur Adventure Golf or Brock Mini Golf & Foot Golf is another fun option for families who are new to the game or tight on time.

Breathe In Spring Orchard and Vineyard Blooms

Finding a scenic spot to disconnect for a few days can serve as a powerful way to reset this spring, and there’s no prettier place to do that than in a vacation rental with stunning views of a Niagara orchard in bloom or a vineyard during bud break. Excellent choices include:

• Inn The Orchard’s Modern Log Cabin, Modern Cottage with Loft and Japanese Soaking Tub, or Modern Container Home with Cedar Hot Tub
• Loft on 13th, which offers the added convenience of being able to enjoy a massage at the clinic housed in the same building
• Vineland Estate’s beautiful Bed and Breakfast Cottage
• Vieni Estates’ Guest House, which can be booked as a whole house or half house
• Lincoln’s Barn On The Bench, a private studio with a beautiful Beamsville Bench vineyard view 

Spring Feels Like Summer:

WINE, SPIRIT & CULINARY FUN

After a long, cold winter, bud break in Niagara’s vineyards inspires a celebratory atmosphere amongst Niagara’s wineries and distilleries, where locals and visitors alike are encouraged to come out and join the party. Can’t-miss spring events include:

Spring Wine Trail – April 12 & 13
Hop to Cave Spring Vineyard, Featherstone Estate Winery, Fielding Estate Winery, Malivoire Wines, and Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery during their Spring Wine Trail weekend to enjoy five exclusive wine tastings paired with five mouthwatering cheeses and a bottle of wine from each winery to take home and enjoy.

Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers Craft Your Own Gin Experience – April 12 & 26, May 3 & 17
Learn how the expert team at Dillon’s craft their collection of award-winning gins during this two-hour experience that includes a welcome cocktail, an in-depth lesson on flavour profiles, combinations and how to make the gin that’s perfect for you, and a take-home bottle of your personally crafted gin.

Graze The Bench – June 7 & 8
Join the fun of Graze The Bench when seven Beamsville Bench wineries celebrate the magic of their piece of the Niagara Escarpment by pouring new and special vintages, inviting Niagara chefs to create inspired dishes, and grooving with live bands at each venue.

Muddy Paws Wine Trail – June 14 & 15
Bring your pooch for a fun day out in Niagara at the Muddy Paws Wine Trail and enjoy a winery-to-winery walk with all sorts of pup-friendly activities, wine tastings, pet photography sessions, live music, and so much more.

Niagara Grape & Wine Festival Summer Discovery Pass – June 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29
Create a custom blend of wine and culinary pairings from your choice of over two dozen of Niagara’s top wineries with a Summer Discovery Pass.

Wine Country Tailgate Party – June 28
Nothing says summer like a tailgate party! The Wine Country Tailgate Party is a Niagara wine country tradition that brings wine lovers into a vineyard to enjoy premium VQA wines, delicious food truck fare, live music, and a festive scene that screams, “Summer is finally here!”

True North Niagara Experience #1:

Take In Some New Views of The Falls

If you think witnessing the grandeur of Niagara Falls is a one-time experience, it’s time to expand your viewpoint. There are so many unique ways to take in the splendour of the Niagara River’s two crashing cascades that Lonely Planet crowned Niagara Falls as Canada’s best destination for an iconic travel experience. Revisit this world wonder from a fresh angle, like from a zipline, through the Niagara Skywheel’s climate-controlled gondolas, or on the incredible viewing platform at the Niagara Parks Power Station.

Sirotez quelque chose de sensationnel & de durable

Les 36 producteurs du Niagara aiment faire goûter aux visiteurs les vins qu’ils produisent selon des pratiques respectueuses de l’environnement, mais ils ne s’arrêtent pas là vins certifiés durables Reconnaissant l’intérêt croissant pour le développement durable, de nombreux établissements vinicoles proposent désormais des expériences allant au-delà du verre de vin, montrant leur engagement envers la planète. Tawse Winery propose une visite du vignoble et une dégustation, toutes deux très prisées mettant en avant les pratiques d’agriculture biologique et l’approche non interventionniste de l’établissement. La carte verte de l’établissement vinicole Southbrook aide les visiteurs à repérer les 23 différentes initiatives mises en place par l’établissement en faveur de la protection de la planète.

Sip Something Sensational & Sustainable

Niagara’s 36 producers of certified sustainable wines love to pour visitors a taste of the wines they craft using environmentally responsible practices, but they don’t stop there. Recognizing the growing interest in sustainability, many wineries now offer beyond-the-glass experiences showcasing their commitment to the planet. Tawse Winery offers a popular Vineyard Tour and Tasting experience showcasing the winery’s organic farming practices and non-interventionist approach. Southbrook Winery’s Green Map helps guests spot the property’s 23 different earth-conscious initiatives.

Go Waterfall Hunting

While Niagara Falls may be hard to miss, spending a day seeking out some of Niagara’s more off-the-radar icy cascades will make your crew feel like true North explorers, especially if you pair your frosty finds with some well-timed stops for hot chocolate and sweet treats along the way. Excellent waterfall stops to add to your list include Ball’s Falls, Rockway Conservation Area, and Short Hills Provincial Park. After adding a few new waterfalls to your family’s explorations, end your day by experiencing Niagara Falls from a new-to-you vantage point. Whether you catch the Falls from the lower observation deck with water crashing down from 13 storeys above during the Journey Behind The Falls experience, take flight over the Falls in a helicopter, or get caught up in the excitement of the one-of-a-kind view offered by the Niagara Falls Power Station at Night experience, it will be a family outing to remember!