Niagara Falls has been on my bucket list for sometime. For our summer vacation we chose to visit Up State New York and Niagara Falls. With the help of North Bay Getaways we planned our New York summer vacation. We broke our trip up into a couple different stops.
New Hampshire to Cooperstown NY
When we drive through Vermont I love stopped at Hogback Lookout. They have a general store, restaurant, apple cider donuts and when it is not cloudy, beautiful mountains views.
The next stop was two different cave tours in Howe Cave, NY.
Howe Caverns was the biggest and more popular tour. Tickets had to be purchased ahead of time. We were a little early for our tour so we had a snack and enjoyed the view. There is also a hotel, ropes course, restaurant and gift shop.
The tour started out with a 180 plus feet decent into the caves via an elevator. We walked about a half mile through the caves on a guided tour.
There was a lot of history and geology explained. The caves themselves were beautiful.
There was a short boat ride before walking back through the caves.
Secret Caverns: This smaller cavern was located about 2 miles away from Howe Caverns and my personal favorite. You descended several stairs to this cavern, it was more enclosed and gave you that natural cave feeling.
At the end of the tour was a waterfall, which was pretty cool to see an underground waterfall.
Cooperstown NY
This was our stop for the night. With it being Sunday many of the restaurants closed early or were not open. Luckily we found Upstate Pub and Grill. We really enjoyed our dinner and my Hibiscus Ginger Beer was amazing.
After dinner we walked around downtown. If you are a baseball fan I highly recommend visiting Cooperstown. It is such a cute town filled with baseball.
Our hotel for the night was Lake House Town House in Richfield Springs. When we arrived it was not what we expected and we were not comfortable staying at this motel. We ended up leaving and luckily found a Red Roof Inn in Herkimer.
Herkimer to Niagara Falls.
Our first stop of the day was Chittenoga Falls which is one of the tallest falls I have seen. The falls is located in Cazenovia. There are several stairs down to the falls. After a recent rain it was very impressive. There are other hiking trails if you are looking for a longer walk. There was also a $5 car fee.
Next stop was Destiny USA Mall in Syracuse. When you are close the 8th largest mall in the country and have a preteen who loves to shop it is a must stop. This mall had a lot of options from shopping, dining, various entertainment such as movie theater, ropes course, indoor tract and so much more.
After a long day in the car and a couple great stops we reached our hotel for the next three nights, Seneca Hotel and Casino in Niagara. We were very pleased with our hotel. The room was clean, had plenty of space and a decent view. The only negative was the room did not have a microwave.
The hotel was about a half mile from Niagara State Park. From the hotel you walk down Falls Street where there is seating areas, outdoor games, food trucks, shopping, bike and scooter rentals and restaurants.
The falls is located in Niagara State Park. This is the hub for everything falls related.
The first night we made reservations at the Griffon Gastropub, which was recommended on several blogs. From the hotel we had to drive, but it was well worth getting back in the car. The food was fresh and delicious and they had a great selection of beer.
Full day in Niagara
Our first full day was packed with activities starting with an 9am tour and Maid of the Mist ride. If you are visiting Niagara this is a must do as the boat takes you right up under the falls. You are provided with a poncho as you will get wet. It was followed by a tour of the area with some history, which was very informative.
I wish we would have planned it a little better and done the Cave of the Winds next, but we had scheduled a jet boat ride, through Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours which was about 20-30 minutes away in Lewiston, NY. The jet boat was my husband and daughters favorite activity. We road up the Niagara River sometimes at speeds of 50-60 MPH. The boat did some fun moves soaking everyone.
Our next stop was Cave of the Winds. This is located on Goat Island in the state park. You can walk over, but we chose to take the Trolly over, which was $8 for the three of us and we could ride the trolley the whole day.
The Cave of the Winds was my favorite activity. This is a walk that gets you almost under the falls. You are given special sandals that keep you from not slipping and a poncho. You walk along the American Falls with opportunities to get almost under the falls.
After walking through the Cave of Winds we walked around Goat and Luna Island to get a different view of the American Falls. This is directly across from the main part of the state park.
From Goat Island you can also get a view of Horseshoe Falls. This is the falls that is famous for people going over in barrels.
We had read that dining may be difficult in Niagara. There was not a lot of options near the falls as many places were closed or had long wait times. We tried Rainforest Cafe first, but they had a hour and half wait. Next we tried the Hard Rock Cafe, which told us was a 45 minute wait. We decided to explore the shops nearby and luckily only had a 25 minute wait. The food was good and the waitress was very friendly.
Every night the falls are lite up after dark. In other years Fireworks are shot over the falls, but unfortunately they were not shooting them off this year. The illumination is so beautiful to see.
2nd Full Day
We had reserved bikes to ride around Buffalo which is about 20 minutes from Niagara. When we got there the bikes were too big for our daughter. The owner was nice and refunded us. We decided to walk around Downtown Buffalo, which is a nice city. We even got to see a movie being shot.
One of my goals on this trip was to at least dip my feet in two Great Lakes. Since we were close to Lake Erie we stopped at Woodlawn Beach State Park for a quick swim. There was a small fee to enter. They had a changing room, gift shop and restaurant/bar. The beach reminded me of being at the ocean, the sand was soft and there were some pretty big waves.
On the way back to Niagara we stopped for some pizza and then stopped at Devils Hole State Park, for a little walk.
This this was our last night in Niagara so we walked down to the state park for one more look at the falls.
Niagara to Lake George
We had about a five hour drive from Niagara to Lake George, so we planned one stop in between. Chimney Bluffs State Park is located in Walcott. What I did not realize when I was looking at the map is there is two different parking areas. One is close to bluffs and one is a little hike to them. Of course we parked at the one that was a little hike, but it was good for us to get a hike in on a long travel day.
You follow a trail down to Lake Ontario, which allowed me to stick my feet in the lake for Great Lake number two.
Then you follow a trail along the lake and into the woods for about a 1.25 mile hike to the bluffs, which were amazing.
Our last night of vacation was in Lake George. We had dinner at 163 Taproom, we have eaten here before and they have a great selection of beer, delicious food and friendly and personable staff.
After dinner we walked around the downtown area and around the lake.
We stayed at Studio Motel located about a mile from the downtown area. The hotel owner was one of the friendliest we have ever encountered. The hotel room was larger than normal, a little outdated, but clean. We spent a couple hours at the pool that night.
Last Day of Vacation
The last day was spent at the Great Escape, which is a Six Flaggs Amusement Park in Lake George. The park didn’t open until 11am so we did a little school clothes shopping at the outlets down the street from the amusement park. The rest of the day was spent at Great Escape.
There is parking fee in addition to the park fee. We were a little disappointment in the park as many of rides were closed and it seemed a little outdated. We were able to make the best of it and had fun riding the rides that were open. We did not do the waterpark.
Take Aways
Smart Phones are key as many of our tickets and reservations were QR codes, scanned from our phone.
Our Apple Watch made it easy to pay for everything using Apple Pay.
This was a wet vacation. I highly recommend bringing clothes that are quick drying or bringing extra. We bought our boot dryer which was very helpful. Also having a waterproof case for your phone/wallet is helpful.
There is a lot of walking and stairs so make sure you have appropriate footwear.
We brought breakfast and snacks, which we do not normally do, but this made things a lot easier in the morning or when we needed a snack. I will continue to do this on our vacations.
We heard that the American side of Niagara is not as nice as the Canadian side. We did not go to the Canadian side, but we felt the area between our hotel and the state park was nice. The state park was well kept. We saw police several times throughout the town and park. With that being said, I would not have left the tourist area of Niagara. The town itself is very run down with many abandon buildings. I’m not sure I would have felt safe walking that area after dark. We did walk between the park and our hotel after dark and felt completely safe.
If you are driving long distances make sure you plan a couple stops in between it lets you explore some pretty cool places.
Our travel agent was able to get us better deals on hotels than I was able to find.
Plan out the restaurants you want to eat at, especially with the current shortage of restaurant workers. Many places have reduced hours or require reservations.
We could have done one less day in Niagara. We did everything we wanted to do in that first day. I feel two nights is enough.
In regards to hotels we decided that we need to stick with chain hotels and do not try to save so we do not run into a bad hotel.
Overall, we really enjoyed our vacation, Niagara has been on my bucket list for many years. We got to do a lot of fun activities and see some beautiful places. We decided this is a one time vacation, now that we have seen it we have no desire to return unless we are driving through.
