Car rental and cost?

Stopovers on the way for any sightseeing?

Interesting events at the Falls?

Border cross??

Please share the experience!

Sristhi _05,
I live in Buffalo which is like 15 min away from the Niagara falls. You have mentioned border crossing, i could not get it exactly what u meant by that. If you have got the visa to Canada,, then only you can think of Niagara falls from Canadian side. If not then the only way would be frm Buffalo.
Car rental:
the price is same like any other places (check out Hertz or enterprise)
Interesting event in the fall:
make sure, you are here in the evening..... they throw different colored lights into the fall and it looks amazing in the late evening. They have got ferry ride which will take you close to the horse-shoe shaped falls.

have a great time...

Every weekend at these time at Niagara falls is too crowded so specially on July 4th, it will be TOO crowded specially by indian tourists... Regarding crossing border, becareful !!! if you have US citizenship or greencard then you can cross the border without any document else you need visa to enter canada and US visa to return back...

You need atleast a month to process Canadian visa if you do not have green card or american citizenship.

If you have any of the above, i suggest you to cross the border. Niagara falls is much much better from Candian side. Do not stay in the niagara city in canada (i think that's what its called), those hotels at the border are pretty expensive. Try driving abt 40-50 mins north toward st. catherine. It's a small town right between toronto and niagara city. Hotels are much less, not necessarily cheap, around that area. If you plan accordingly Toronto is just another 45 mins drive from there. It's really nice drive along the Lake Erie. I loved it. Toronto is nice city, lot of good restaurants along the lake's coast. Although, you will be surprised with number of people from indian sub continent in Toronto and places in Canada.

Back to Niagara falls, i haven't been there during july 4th but as bhshre mentioned the influx of tourist is pretty insane. I read somewhere, it one of the highest volume destination during july 4th vacation. That said, i would have recommended the pacakaged tours organized by city of toronto, which are full even during regular three day weekend, but it's your call. Depends how you like to spend your vacation standing on line with your sticky, sweaty body (eggrrhh gross, :p)

take care, and drive safe

take the ferry ride.. then you don't need canada visa to be on the foot of the fall, which is what you would see from Canadian side anyway. If you want to visit Montreal, then consider visa, otherwise, US side is fine.

on way, you might want to stop at woodstock, just for pictures.

Nothing much to see along the way.

Alternately, you could drive across maryland to Pittsburgh, and head up to Niagara, (about 9 hours drive from DC). That would be more fun. While in Pittsburgh, go to Metropol, west of Pittsburgh, and also to another bar near Univ of Pittsburgh. This one used to serve unlimited Rolling Rock for a 5$ entry back in early 90s.

 

_X

 

Niagra falls trip on July 4th?????? It will be crazy to wait 4/5 hours for boat ride and it's not fun without that. If you've decided to go there anyways, expect that wait time on hot summer. Don't be surprised to see 75% Indian tourists there.

You might feel like going to some place in India with thela gada selling samosa and panipuri. But it is one of the best nature's gift to the earth. Breathtaking views. Take a Hotair baloon ride too.

hmmm.. and then there is this place on the way where they have the Hot Glass Show (HOGASHO in Chinglish).. at Corning..... http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=144

was great to see the Falls, and then to see how we play with nature to make stuff out of it...

Yeah, Corning Museum of glass is awesome. If you ever come to this museum, contact me.