When you mean the circus, are you talking about Cirque Niagara’s Avaia? If you are, you really missed a great show. I’ve heard rave reviews and every night they receive a standing ovation. The front row seats ARE pricey at $75 but the $35 seats are a great deal and actually have a better view of the whole show. Front row is way too close.

I’m surprised you even went to the malls. I haven’t been to Niagara Square in a long time, and have no desire to go back. I probably would’ve opted for the outlets - stores you can’t really find in every mall.

Hard Times has been moved to Ferry Street, so in a way they’re still around. I have no idea if it’s new management/owners though.

Glad to hear you took advantage of the coupons - never go into an attraction without a coupon, big no no in niagara.

Again, thanks for the trip report and come back soon!

We (my gf and I) arrived late Monday afternoon 6/5/06 and we checked into our hotel. We decided to stay at a small motel for this trip, the Niagara Family Inn. Some people dont really appreciate smaller motels, but I will tell you at this place, we had a room that was HUGE and very clean. I have stayed at all the large brand hotels and I can tell you not many have rooms as large as this room was, (room 37). It is located above/behind Big Anthony’s restaurant on Victoria Ave. (www.niagarafamilyinn.com) The motel was about a 2 minute walk to casino niagara and is located very close to Clifton Hill. I cannot express how nice the motel is and it only cost us 260.00 for 4 nights…great find!!

We had not had anything to eat, so we decided to go have dinner at Boston Pizza on Clifton Hill. The food at Boston Pizza ia always great, it is a little bit pricey, but everything in Niagara is to be honest. I dont think Canadians will rave much about Boston Pizza since they have locations throught Canada, but being from the states (we dont have quite as many just yet) its always a great treat. Before we left on our trip we stumbled across some coupons on Ebay from this website…enjoythecity.com. The coupons we found were for many attractions and several restaurants. We decided to go use two of the coupons for the Rock Legends Wax Museum and the Criminal Hall of Fame. The Rock Legends museum was quite dissapointing as not many of the wax figures looked like the people they were intended to resemble. I my opinion Kiss and the Beatles were probably the most on target. It only took about 15 minutes to see everything in the museum. The coupons we had were buy one admission get one free, without the coupons I do not recommend this attraction. (I believe one adult admission was 10.00) After we left we went over to the Criminal HOF, I havent been there in several years but it was largely how I remebered it being. I get a kick out of this museum is is very unique and if you have never been you should check it out. (admission was 10.00) From there we decided to go try our luck at the Casino, where we lost a ton of money….but it was late in the day and we were tired so it all worked out.

The next day we saw a flyer for an attraction we had not been to before -Zoos. This is a zoo in Ft. Erie. The animals were really spread out across the park and it was a great time, well worth the money (18.00 each). However, I will advise you now BRING BUG SPRAY. Alot of the animals are in heavily grassy areas and the bugs are a huge problem. Also, in part of the zoo they have a boardwalk and it warns you to be alert for snakes hiding in the cracks. Needless to say, we avoided the boardwalk and hurried past it as soon as we could. They had tons of animals and since we went on Tuesday morning it was not busy at all. Check this one out if ya get a chance. We then headed over to Niagara Square (a mall) to do some shopping. The mall was small but nice, but it did not have much to offer in the way of stores. We did a little looking around but didnt find anything, so we left. We then headed over to Taco N Tequila, and I want everyone to know this is a great place to go have some drinks. It has really good atmosphere and is well worth the trip. We had a snack as well as a few drinks,it was a great time. We ran over to the LCBO to see if they had anything new and fun, but it wasnt meant to be, couldnt find anything. Then we headed back to the room for a late afternoon nap. When we woke up later that evening we noticed we had a coupon for the restaurant downstairs in the hotel Big Anthony’s (buy one entree get one free). The food at this restaurant is OUTSTANDING. I dont know how it doesnt get more attention than it does. Definitly go check this place out, with or without coupon. They have Italian and American food, great selection and very low prices. We then went and tried our luck at the Casino again, this time we won a very large amount (dollar slots) and somehow we had enough sense to leave while ahead. Headed back to the room for the evening. I will throw this in here, drinks at the casino are way overpriced, especially if you are like me and drink Red Bull mixed with your choice of alchohol….

The third day we drove down to Niagara on the Lake for the day. If you visit niagara and do not go down to NOTL you are robbing yourself of a great experience. This is the nicest little town, it like something out of an old painting you would see. They have quite a few shops, several restaurants and amzing scenic views. We spent most of our day here, and had a great time. Towards the end of the day we went to Fort George (20.00 each) I wasnt very impressed with the Fort, the actors were terrible and came off very forced. When we were leaving we saw a sign for lantern lit ghost tours at the fort…that would have been awesome but we didnt have time. We went out to Penn Centre (a shopping mall) in St. Catherines on the way back, it was much better than Niagara Square, we picked up a few things…Headed back to the room and decided to use another one of our coupons for The Love Boat restaurant, its gonna get ugly here folks. When we walked in nobody else was there, that should have been the first sign. Our waitress came up to us and appeared intoxicated or strung out (tall blonde woman). We were very aprehensive but continued on, (dont ask me why). Keep in mind NO OTHER CUSTOMERS in the place but us. The waitress kept dissapearing, food took forever to get and when we did get it, the food was awful. Save yourselves and never go to this place. With our copon of 20.00 off an entree our bill was 98.00. Lousy, disgusting place. Yuck. We then went to check out the falls, very nice as always…worth the trip if thats all ya do, sometimes people forget that. Our third trip to the casino was memorable as we hit big again, and were in great spirits. Headed back to room for bed.

On our last full day we noticed the carts on the ferris wheel were all on, and it was actually lit for some time at night. We were fortunate enough to go to Tussads last year on the day it re-opened (sometime in late june) as well. We just kind of hung out on this day around the area. We spent some time at Dufferin Islands park, and along the parkway. We thought about the circus but we had many people tell us it was not worth the money. Id say we talked to about 10 people about the circus and they all told us it was garbage…who knows. On our last day we went to Montanas Restaurant for dinner, it was actually pretty good but I remember Hard Times (name of restaurant before it was changed to Montanas) and it was better in my opinion. We then headed down for the falls for one last look, and one more trip to the casino where we lost a little bit of cash, but nothing to bad.

The exchange rate is horrible right now (.7%) I gave them 2200 and got back 23something at the casino. This is going to drive away the US visitor, it used to be where the exchange would make up for the price differences, thats no longer the case at all. Camp day at Tim hortons was great, I bought 4 xl coffees to supprt the cause. I cannot tell you enough how much I endorse Niagara family Inn, Big anthonys, and Taco n Tequila. Hope this helps some people. My most important word of advice is buy buffalo’s enjoy the city coupon book to get niagara food/attraction coupons.