Explore Niagara Falls

The Whirlpool Aero Car is a cable car run by Niagara Parks that crosses the Niagara Whirlpool, about 4.5 km downstream of the Horseshoe Falls. Designed by the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo and in service since 1916, the car hangs from six cables and travels about 1 km between two points on the Canadian side, crossing the border four times.

White Water Walk is a boardwalk of about 400 metres along the Niagara River at the bottom of the Niagara Gorge, reached by an elevator that descends 70 metres and a tunnel. Viewing platforms stand beside the Whirlpool Rapids, a stretch of Class 6 whitewater, and panels explain the gorge’s 410-million-year-old rock layers.

The Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory is a glass-domed tropical greenhouse opened in 1996 in the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, about 9 km north of the falls. Thousands of butterflies from more than 45 species fly freely along 180 metres of paths among tropical plants and a waterfall, and an emergence window shows pupae hatching.

The Aquarium of Niagara opened in 1965 on Whirlpool Street, near the Niagara Gorge north of the falls, as one of the first inland aquariums to use artificially made seawater. It keeps harbor seals, California sea lions, Humboldt penguins, sharks and Great Lakes fish, with daily feedings and sea lion presentations.

Louis Tussaud's Waxworks is a wax museum at 5709 Victoria Avenue, at the top of Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, housed in a Tudor-style building and now one of the Ripley's attractions. More than 100 figures of actors, musicians, wrestlers, politicians and historical figures stand in 16 themed galleries, which visitors walk through at their own pace.

Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a museum of curiosities on Clifton Hill, one of the Odditoriums that grew out of the collection of oddities gathered around the world by the American cartoonist Robert Ripley. Its building is shaped like a toppled Empire State Building with a King Kong figure standing on top.

Clifton Hill is a short, steep street in Niagara Falls that climbs from the Niagara Parkway, opposite the American Falls, to Victoria Avenue. Formerly called Ferry Road after the river ferry that docked below it, it is now lined with wax museums, haunted houses, arcades, mini golf, restaurants and hotels, with the Niagara SkyWheel in the middle.

The Niagara SkyWheel is a 53-metre Ferris wheel in the middle of Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, opened in June 2006. Its 42 enclosed gondolas, heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, carry six to eight people each, and a ride of 10 to 12 minutes looks out over the Niagara River and the Horseshoe and American Falls.

Zipline to the Falls is a zipline run by WildPlay in Niagara Falls. Riders set off from a concrete launch tower on the Niagara Parkway near the foot of Clifton Hill and travel about 670 metres above the Niagara River, past the American Falls, to a landing near the base of the Horseshoe Falls.

Maid of the Mist is the boat tour that has sailed below the falls since 1846, leaving from the dock at the foot of the Observation Tower at Prospect Point on the American side. The boats pass the American and Bridal Veil Falls and enter the basin of the Horseshoe Falls; the current boats, in service since 2020, are electric.

The Niagara Falls Observation Tower at Prospect Point opened in 1961 and rises from the floor of the Niagara Gorge beside the American Falls. Its deck projects over the gorge with views of all three falls, and its elevators take visitors down to the river and the Maid of the Mist landing.

The Skylon Tower is a 160-metre observation tower above the Niagara Gorge, opened in 1965. Three glass elevators on its outside climb to the top in under a minute. Indoor and outdoor decks look over the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Niagara River, and a revolving dining room turns once an hour.

Cave of the Winds is a walk on wooden decks at the foot of the Bridal Veil Falls, reached by an elevator that descends about 50 metres from Goat Island into the Niagara Gorge. The natural cave behind the falls that gave it its name was closed after rockfalls and later removed; the Hurricane Deck now stands a few metres from the falling water.

Goat Island lies in the Niagara River between the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls and is part of Niagara Falls State Park. Footpaths lead to Terrapin Point at the edge of the Horseshoe Falls, footbridges cross to Luna Island and the Three Sisters Islands, and the Cave of the Winds starts from the island.

Niagara Falls State Park, established in 1885 as the Niagara Reservation, is the oldest state park in the United States, laid out with Frederick Law Olmsted's involvement. It takes in Prospect Point, Goat Island and smaller islands in the river, with paths and overlooks beside the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls and views across to the Horseshoe Falls.

Niagara Takes Flight is a flying theatre ride run by Niagara Parks in the Table Rock Centre beside the Horseshoe Falls. Riders sit in moving seats before a 17-metre domed screen showing drone footage of the 56 km Niagara River corridor from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, with wind, mist and scent effects, after a pre-show on 13,000 years of local history.

Journey Behind the Falls is a set of tunnels and observation decks at the foot of the Horseshoe Falls, reached by elevator from the Table Rock Centre. The first tunnels opened in 1889 and the present ones date from 1944. Two portals open behind the falling water, and the lower deck stands beside the cascade, where visitors wear rain ponchos.

Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three waterfalls that form Niagara Falls, on the Niagara River between Table Rock in Ontario and Goat Island in New York. About 90 per cent of the river water not diverted for hydropower flows over its curved crest. A promenade along the Niagara Parkway leads to viewpoints at Table Rock, right at the brink.

The Niagara Parks Power Station is a former hydroelectric plant on the Niagara River, opened in 1905 for the Canadian Niagara Power Company and closed in 2006. Since 2021 it has been a museum: visitors see the generator hall and control room, and an elevator descends 55 metres to a 670-metre tailrace tunnel ending on a deck at the river’s edge.

Reif Estate Winery is a family winery on the Niagara Parkway in Niagara-on-the-Lake, about 15 km north of Niagara Falls. Ewald Reif bought the land in 1977, replaced its labrusca vines with vinifera varieties and opened the winery in 1982; it made its first icewine in 1984. Visitors come for tastings and vineyard tours.