I grew up going to the Horseshoe Falls on Canada’s side of Niagara Falls. We went often enough that I knew my way around there. I don’t remember ever going to the American side until 10 years ago when a friend invited us. I haven’t been back to the Canadian side since then.

Niagara Falls in Canada is commercially built up. There are wax museums, restaurants, adult entertainment, and tourist attractions everywhere you look. It’s a great place for an exciting, fun filled vacation.

Niagara Falls on the American side is all about the falls and the water and the beauty and the awe it demands. You get up close and personal. It’s a New York State Park with the main attraction being the water.

At the American Falls, you’re separated from the water by a handrail. You can get up close and see the water plowing toward the falls. You stand on solid ground and see massive amounts of water racing toward the edge just feet or even inches away from you. It’s hard to comprehend that this happens all day, every day, with an endless supply of water.

We like to park either at the far end of the park where a parking lot over looks the Niagara River, or on Goat Island. If you park at the end of the park, you walk a trail that leads right to hub of activity. You come to an area with stores and restaurants and movies about the falls. That’s also where you can get tickets to the falls centered activities such as Cave of the Winds and Maid of the Mist. If you park on Goat Island, you walk through the park and over the water before you get to the main hub of activity.

Maid of the Mist is a boat ride to the base of the falls. You can feel and hear the power it throws, and although this could be a scary thing for small children or anyone with a fear of water, it is, in my opinion, something you really have to do if you’re going to make the trip there. It’s a completely different perspective of the massiveness of Niagara Falls. Before, or after, loading onto the boat, you also have a chance to go up in the observation tower for a beautiful view from higher up.

Cave of the Winds is another impressive experience. You take an elevator down 175 feet and see the falls from a deck at the bottom. There are stairs and landings where you can walk up close the bottom of the falls, so close that you feel the spray and the mist. You’re surrounded by the experience in every direction.

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*pic- the kids first trip to Niagara Falls, spring 2010