Firstly I booked on an English tour, it was a mixed tour with an interpreter for the non English speaking passengers The tour leader spent most of the tour speaking to the non English. The tour was 35 minutes late leaving and from then on we were rushed. Niagara Falls was well worth the trip. The Maid of the Mist boat ride was amazing.
Fantastic trip, must do trip if your in town. Unexpected shopping time, great interesting guide, perfect movies for the long drags between attractions. Not enough time at Niagara, its to cool to take in in only a couple of hours. Get ready for Mc D's for breakfast and BK for lunch, yuck. thats my only gripe.
It was a bit of a chaos during pickup time as there were two buses departing the same. One was for the Italian group and the other for English speaking group. An annoucenemt by the drivers to sort out the two goups would have been good instead of letting us wonder if we were suppose to be on bus no 1 or bus no 2.
There was a midway stop for lunch at a Finger Lakes. This provided a good opportunity to stretch our legs as it was a requirement to take a walk around the falls down towards the lunch area.Well worth stopping as it was a gorgeous walk.
We didn't reach Niagara (the American side) until late evening and had sometime to explore the area. You could even see the Horshoe Falls from the American side.
Then there was a mini stop at the duty free which I thought was a waste of time as you are only given 15 - 20 mins and with the crowds, there is no way you could go in and out within that timeframe. By the time people got on the bus, it was time to cross the border towards the Canadian side and it took hours long to get through as there were several buses before us.
By the time we crossed the border and arrived at our Super 8 hotel accomodation, it was around 9.30pm. Dinner time was around 10pm. For those who wanted dinner at downtown, the bus took us there but we had to make our own way back to the hotel which was OK as it was only a 10-15 mins walk. We also had the opportunity to see the spectacular light beaming against the Falls. Didn't get back to the hotel till about 12midnight.
The next morning we were served breakfast at 7am. May I add that the tour guide lied to us about the breakfast time. We were told that breakfast will be served at 6.30am and everyone had to be there on time. Of course everyone turned up at 6.30am sharp except for the guide who turned up at 7am. It would have been nice to have the extra 30 mins of sleep.
We then proceeded to view the Falls from the Canadian side before heading back the the American side to board Maid of the Mist - you justh ave to be there to experice this.Finally before the tour ended, we were given the opportunity to do some shopping at the factory outlet. More time here would be fantastic.