I am so excited to kick off my trip recaps today! We had such a wonderful time in Niagara Falls; it truly might have been the best trip we’ve ever taken. There were no injuries, no meltdowns, no fights. The weather was beautiful and we got to do and see so many cool, once-in-a-lifetime things. Today’s recap encompasses Wedneday afternoon and our day in Toronto on Thursday. Let’s get it started.
Crossing the Border
I was really nervous about crossing the border by car into Canada, mostly because I had no idea what to expect. But when I saw the border crossing, I exclaimed, “Oh, it’s just like at Disney World!” With the different open lanes available, it felt like we were at an Orlando amusement park, trying to get our parking pass for the day. Ha! The border crossing went as smoothly as possible and it wasn’t scary at all! Right now, to cross the border, you have to download an app called ArriveCAN, which I did a few weeks before we left. I added myself and my mom as “travelers” and scanned in our passports and vaccination cards. Then, three days before we left, I filled out a form on the app that listed what bridge we would be crossing to get to Canada and the time we planned to cross. From there, we received a QR code but when I handed the border patrol our documents to cross, he only wanted our passports! Very weird, but I wasn’t about to question it. I’m just grateful the border crossing went smoothly and quickly, and before I knew it, we were in Canada!
Hilton Fallsview Hotel
You can see the Falls in the distance; they’re multicolored!
During our time in Canada (we checked in on Wednesday and checked out on Sunday), we stayed at the Hilton Fallsview Hotel. This hotel was great and I loved that we could see the Falls from our window and be right at the Falls within 10 minutes. Every night, there is a fireworks show at the Falls and we could enjoy the show from the comfort of our hotel beds! That was super cool.
My First Tim Hortons Experience
One of my must-do’s while in Canada was to visit Tim Hortons! (Or as my mom kept saying, Tom Hortons.) We don’t have them near me and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I got an iced mocha latte and a breakfast sandwich, and I also shared some Timbits with my mom. My coffee was delicious and the Timbits were exceptional, but the breakfast sandwich was a bit of a letdown. Still, it was a good experience and I’m glad I got to enjoy Tim Hortons for the first time!
Driving to Toronto
During our first day in Canada, we drove to Toronto to spend a day in the city! I did all the driving on vacation and everything went really well (aside from one time when I nearly hit a pedestrian crossing the street, oops). I sipped my Tim Hortons coffee during the hour-and-a-half drive and listened to podcasts while my mom mostly slept, ha. She always gets very sleepy during car rides! It was a nice drive, though, mostly done on the highway and it was fun to start seeing all the big buildings once we finally entered the city.
Lunch in the Distillery District
We found a parking garage near the Distillery District in Toronto and our plan was to stroll around the District and then walk to St. Lawrence Market for lunch, but we had arrived a little later than planned so after taking a short walk around and popping into a cute pet boutique (that was more of a dog boutique with no cat toys to speak of—rude!), we found a restaurant called The Beer Hall and decided to stop there for lunch.
The Beer Hall was delicious! My mom ordered a beer flight and she loved all of the beers she chose. I got a cider that was just okay, nothing to write home about! And we ordered an array of apps for lunch: a giant pretzel, chicken wings, and poutine. I wanted to try poutine while I was in Canada but, y’all, I was not impressed with the poutine at this restaurant. I’m not a huge gravy fan as it is, so maybe that’s why? When I posted about the poutine, though, on Instagram, someone responded to tell me the real poutine is in Quebec and what I had was a very sorry imposter. So if I ever make my way to Quebec I will try poutine again!
Nathan Phillips Square
One of the things I wanted to do while we were in Toronto is visit Nathan Phillips Square where the famous Toronto sign is. Is it sad that I saw this on an episode of The Bachelor and that’s why I wanted to go there? PROBABLY. It’s also a very touristy thing to do, but I love being a cheesy tourist! When we got there, it was packed with people. Lots of tourists, lots of people on their lunch breaks. (One guy parked himself in one of the “O”‘s of the sign and chowed down on a messy sandwich, womp.) We took lots of pictures of the sign, strolled around the square for a little bit, and enjoyed some people watching. Eventually, though, we needed to leave and high-tail to the CN Tower as we had a 3pm reservation!
The CN Tower
My mom and I booked tickets for the CN Tower later in the day, and by this time, we were both a bit wiped out from our busy day! But we powered through so we could enjoy the experience in the CN Tower. Unfortunately, it seems like we got there just as a few school groups also got there so it was busy, filled with lots of middle school-aged kids, and very loud. It was a bit overstimulating for me! And finding a spot to enjoy the view wasn’t very easy. We also booked tickets to the Skypod, which was interesting but nowhere near as thrilling as what we did last year in Chicago (the Tilt experience at 360 Chicago and the Ledge experience at the Willis Tower). All in all, a kind of lackluster experience, which I think was mostly due to how crowded it was.
And that wraps up the first two days of our trip! After spending about an hour at the CN Tower, we left and headed back to Niagara Falls. It was a loooong drive back to the hotel (a demerit for me, as we started the journey back during rush hour). But tomorrow would be a fun day: exploring Niagara Falls!
Have you ever crossed a border by car? Canadian friends – should I give poutine another try?
1) Timbits are the absolute best. When I lived in Michigan, there was a Tim Horton’s in our town and I loved getting Timbits for random meetings and things. I also really like their strawberry tarts, but I think those are seasonal.
2) I haven’t crossed the border since COVID and I didn’t realize there were so many steps. One time we went across the border and I was driving my sister’s car and they asked us what the license plate was and I obviously didn’t know and my sister didn’t know her own plate number and we got pulled over for “additional screening.” It’s a story that lives in infamy in our family.
3) The last time I was in Toronto I went to Smoke’s Poutinerie for poutine and I found it repulsive. I’m not sure even a trip to Quebec would convince me to try it again!
It looks like you had a lot of fun and I’m excited to see more of your trip!
That is such a crazy story about getting pulled over for additional screening when you crossed the border! I would have been freaking out. But I can see that being the perfect family story!
This poutine wasn’t good at all, but I’m willing to give it another shot if I find the “real” stuff. But who knows if I’ll ever do that, haha.
I have crossed the border by car several times, but what stands out is when I crossed the border with Amber when we did our marathon trip in 2010. The lines were so short, but there was this one line that was way way shorter, so we got in that lane and then came to find out it’s a special line for frequent crossers who are in a special program. Whoopsies! The border agent was really nice and was actually from Minnesota! He understood that we didn’t intentionally cheat the system and get in the wrong line. I also crossed the border via train for Amber’s wedding in 2012. I was with Kelly from Boston and her husband and we got GRILLED!! It was kind of anxiety-provoking even though we weren’t doing anything wrong!
I am glad that this trip was one of your best overall. I wonder why that is? Maybe less scheduled? I remember being overscheduled was a problem in your Ireland trip. I have not visited this area of Canada and don’t really know if I ever will so I look forward to living vicariously through you!
OMG – I was so worried about getting grilled when I was crossing the border. I’m glad it wasn’t like that for us. I probably would have just started crying, haha. I don’t handle myself well in the face of authority figures.
Hmm… what made this trip so great? I think I am finally understanding how I need to schedule my vacations. Time for exploring but also downtime. It’s so easy to overschedule a vacation and when I’m too busy on vacation, I get very anxious and high-strung!
I’m so glad you enjoyed your trip! Yay for Canada! I have never had poutine, and I likely never will. Tim’s though, that’s a staple on all road trips. I don’t eat doughnuts, but I do love their coffee!
I haven’t crossed the border by car since I was a kid. I’m pretty sure there was almost nothing in place back then, especially where I would have crossed, in the prairies.
I love your hairband in that last photo!
It was such an intense system of crossing the border, so I’m glad I started my research early so we were prepared!
Good poutine is great! I don’t usually like gravy, either, but I’m a French fry connoisseur, & I promise that if you get the right version of it, it’s incredible.
That’s good to hear! I’ll have to give it a try again if I can get some of the good stuff. 🙂
We crossed back into Canada today and had the ArriveCan app all ready and they only wanted our passports. We asked about this – turns out when you do the ArriveCan app is requires passport info so when they scan your passports…they get all the info from the ArriveCan app.
I don’t like poutine but, yes, authentic poutine comes from Quebec, especially because that’s where the best cheese curds come from (though my fav curd actually comes from 15 minutes away from my in NS…again, NS is the best!).
We were in Toronto for 4 days a few weeks ago and skipped the CN Tower. Sorry it was a bit of a dud for you. Ugh. I’ve seen your Niagara posts, though, so I’m glad that part of the trip was such a success!!!
We didn’t make it over to the Distillery District. My sister lives 45 minutes from Toronto and raves about it, but most in the context of their winter market. They have a HUGE Christmas market in December, and she loves going for that. It didn’t feel like something the kids would love and I didn’t have the energy to navigate there on public transit, but it’s definitely on my to-do list for next time. Despite living in Canada my whole life, other than flying through the airport, this was my first time in Toronto!
I figured it probably had something to do with the passport scan, so that makes sense! I had printed out the QR code and everything, haha.
You guys packed SO MUCH into your day in Toronto! There was so much you did that I didn’t even come across in my research. How fun!
Ah! I read this post after reading the other two trip recaps, and this is more what I was imagining- lots of crowds. It really can put a damper on things. I’m glad your two days at the Falls were so fun! I was in Toronto in high school, but don’t remember a lot about it. It looks like a beautiful and amazing city- just a lot of people.
I think we had the unfortunate luck of being in Toronto on a day when all the schools were having an end-of-year field trip! Haha. Plus, that’s just the big city for you. I’m glad the rest of our trip was a lot more low-key.
That is great that crossing the border was so easy! I have never driven across country lines so I would have been nervous!
I love that your hotel had such an amazing view of the falls! Wow wow wow.
I wonder what is different about poutine in Quebec? I have had vegan versions here that I love! But it was loaded poutine, lol.
I was so nervous to cross the border! And felt silly about how anxious I was about it, but eh, that’s just the way my brain works.
I have no idea how poutine is different in Quebec, but I’d love to find out!
Oh, this makes me so so happy to read! I am sooo glad the border crossing went well! I would have been a wreck. We are no longer going to Canada but I was freaking out about flying there, let alone driving! (I think I’ve only done that in BC, north of Seattle…)
It’s fascinating to read of others’ vacations, and how differently we plan our travels. I am a total museum person, so I would have probably skipped the tower thingie in Toronto and gone to one of their many museums. 🙂
And your hotel is is a wonderful location – how fun to be so close!!! Can’t wait to read more.
I am also a museum person, but my mom is not, so I had to make a compromise! I also really, really loved visiting the towers in Chicago and we had such a good experience so I expected the same of this tower in Toronto. I think if it hadn’t been as busy as it was, we would have really enjoyed it!
Oh wow, what a fun start to your trip to Canada. The view from your hotel room…. how awesome! And Toronto looks like such a cool place. I’d love to visit sometime!
I’ve crossed many border-crossing by car in Europe… before and after there were open borders. And I once crossed a border on foot – in San Diego into Mexico. Now, that was an experience!
P.S. Expect a bunch of batch commenting again from me… I am slowly catching up on blogs after my summer break. 😉
Crossing a border by foot! Now, that’s a different experience. Although I guess I ended up doing that on the day we were on the Rainbow Bridge, since we had to show our passport + ArriveCAN info when we re-entered Canada!