Blogs from Niagara Falls, New York, United States, North America

We slept in a bit and had a relaxed morning at our hotel in Erie. Andrew found us some bagels and coffee from downstairs for breakfast, and then we took a family stroll along the lake. We had a short drive ahead of us, so left our hotel in Erie at checkout time (11am). We took Highway 5 out of Erie to New York, which is a scenic highway that follows Lake Erie. It was a lovely drive. There were a lot of trees, including quite a few weeping willows, so we didn't always have a view of the lake. Surprisingly to me, there were a lot of vineyards between Erie and Buffalo. We stopped for lunch at a Burger King along the way and made it to Niagara Falls around 2pm or so. Parking was ... read more

I’m willing to bet that many, if not most, travel writers from the US have been to Niagara Falls, at least once. This was my third trip, though it’s the first time I can remember seeing the American side of the Falls. But I’ll only get to my experience of the Falls later. Instead, I started out my journey in the northern areas of the Niagara region: Youngstown and Lewiston. Youngstown might just be my favorite little town in New York now. I had done a little research before going on this trip, and I discovered that there’s a FREE tourist bus that goes between the Falls in the south and Fort Niagara in the north, making stops at most of the touristy locations in between. My intention was to use that bus to get to ... read more

4th October 2018 Return to Niagara Falls Continuing our journey through Ontario and New York State. (3 of 3) Leaving behind the wonders of Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain, we headed north through new territory for us. It’s a long drive to the northwest, out through rural Pennsylvania, past open-cast mines and farmland in the general direction of Niagara Falls, taking our time to savour the last few days of our North American adventure, 2018, and stopping off wherever and whenever the fancy took us. Wellsboro, on our route, is often referred to as the gateway to Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon. A 50 mile long canyon, a few miles out of town, carries the Pine Creek thundering over dramatic waterfalls and deep narrow channels through the Leonard Harrison State Park. A short walk offered us some grand views of ... read more

We are heading back West, but before this, a little trip North. We left Manhattan late afternoon....first the train to get back our little Mustand, next, the road north upstate. We are sleeping tonight in Mahwah. Never heard about this place, don't worry, you are not the only one. The plan was to head north enough to have the price of the room dropping enough from the excess of NY area. Mahwah is actually next dor to the Woodbury Common Outlet mall. This is by for the biggest outlet mall I've ever seen in the world....and you can spend some time here. So did some shopping on the way the next morning. Our next night is in Scranton, Pennsylvania. We are sleeping in a hotel as old as I am, but I guess this is what ... read more

aaaToday was our first opportunity to be the quintessential lazy tourist on this trip. We had a pre-planned tour and we purposely didn't schedule it until 10:30 so we wouldn't feel rushed in the morning. Our only responsibility was to show up in our hotel lobby at 10:30 and the tour company would take it from there. We slept in a little as the place we picked for breakfast - The Third Street Pub & Retreat didn't even open for breakfast until 8:00. So we wandered over at 8:15 for breakfast, which was really good. We will have to go back for breakfast tomorrow. After breakfast, we hung around the hotel, catching up on email, and generally just goofing off until 10:30 when the tour van showed up. There was one other couple from our hotel, ... read more