TRAVEL| Our Day Trip to Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is a Canadian city in Ontario at the famous waterfalls of the same name, linked with the U.S. by the Rainbow Bridge. It is a popular tourist destination in Canada and I had the pleasure of visiting this city and the falls with my family in March.

We were happy when we found out the falls was still open to visitors, though we were bumped we couldn’t partake in the falls water activities due to the coronavirus pandemic. We had planned to visit the falls during this trip so we made the decision to stick to the plan. The journey from Downtown Toronto to Niagara Falls took about an hour via car. It was a pretty much straight journey on a never-ending highway with a lot of wineries.

Once we took the exit into Niagara Falls, the view changed to that of a bubbling city with huge skyscrapers—hotels, restaurants, shops, businesses, etc. which made me get a little excited about seeing the waterfalls. It was a freezing day, but the sun was out and shinning which made the shivers bearable. We found our way to Niagara Parks—which is where the falls are located, parked, and set out on a walk to the see the beauty I had only ever heard and read about up until now.

The first sight of the waterfalls was about a 500m walk from where we parked. The further we went, the colder the weather got, and the more beautiful the waterfalls looked.  Normally, the Niagara Parks center would be open to water activities such as; zip-lining, water walks, boat rides, aero car rides, etc. but we couldn’t even do a single activity because of the coronavirus pandemic. Surprisingly, there were a whole lot of people at the falls; most likely tourists like us, who decided to see the waterfalls too, pandemic or not.

It was refreshing to see how powerful and at the same time beautiful, water can be. At some point, it was raining even though the sun was shining then I spotted the perfect rainbow. We could also see the American side of the falls and it was nearly empty; we spotted only two people on that side while our side had over 200 people.

After a gazillion photos later, we made our way back to the car and stopped by Applebee’s for an early dinner. We got four oreo milkshakes to start and everyone went to the ladies for a much-needed bathroom break. When my meal came and I had a taste, I really wished I had ordered the chicken salad I initially considered. What is it with Nigerians not wanting to order salad meals when they go out to eat at restaurants???

All in all, we had a special day, and I will never forget how being at the waterfalls made me feel. It was magical. Because the photos can’t do justice to how magnificent the waterfalls are, here’s a video for you.

Mariam Shittu