From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Are you going to the Canadian side? You must go to the Canadian side — it’s much better!
Just about every time I mentioned that my family and I were planning a trip to Niagara Falls, that was the response. I was taken aback because I’d always thought of Niagara Falls as an American, not Canadian, icon, similar to Mount Rushmore, replete with both grandeur and kitsch. And then there’s its reputation as a classic — OK, clichéd — American honeymoon destination.
The theme running through comments from friends-in-the-know seemed to be that the American side was too full of schlocky tourist traps, chain restaurants, casinos and even urban blight. So we departed Winona for Niagara with this question in mind: Is the Canadian side really superior?
Wanting to make the most of our two-day experience, that’s where we headed first, with plans to visit the American side on Day Two. Niagara Falls actually consists of three waterfalls — the American Falls, the relatively tiny Bridal Veil Falls, and Canada’s Horseshoe Falls, which is about twice as wide as the American Falls. The entire panorama lay before us, with what looked like toy boats motoring along in a large, oval pool. Nice. Now I was really eager to see them up close.