Niagara Falls, NY Attractions

The Maid of the Mist is a long running tour boat, and one of the most popular ways to experience the falls on a tour. The boat takes visitors up close to the falls. So close in fact, passengers are given rain coats to protect against the heavy mist and spray from the falls. It passes directly in front of the falls and enters the Horseshoe Basin. White water surrounds the double-decker boat while the water plunges down right in front of you.

Located in the Niagara Falls State Park Visitor Center, the upgraded Adventure Theater features a 45 foot screen. It presents the award winning film "Niagara: Legends of Adventure". This is an entertaining piece on the history and drama surrounding the falls over the centuries.

Bedore tours include sightseeing in front of the various falls. Guides are available to answer any questions. Tours offer pick up at the local hotels so guests don't need to worry about transportation at all.

The Castellani Art Museum features a permanent collection that includes contemporary and 20th century artwork as well as folk art that dates back to the 1850's. Paintings, drawings, photographs and pre-Columbian ceramics are on display. The museum also focuses presents works by well known and emerging contemporary artists.

THIS ATTRACTION RELOCATED AND OPENED UNDER A NEW NAME IN BUFFALO.

The Niagara Aerospace Museum is dedicated to Western New Yorkers who contributed to the world's aviation and space flight endeavors. Buffalo was America's center of aviation from 1917 to 1940.

The Niagara Falls Aquarium, offers a variety of marine animals, including sea lions, penguins and otters; natural world of the Great Lakes and North Atlantic. Some of the highlights include seal, shark, and penguin feedings, and the sea lion training sessions.

The Niagara Falls State Park is New York's oldest state park, opened in 1885, and home to the three famous sets of falls that it is named after. The parks is composed of an area on main land, and five islands on the Niagara River. It offers over 400 acres with nature and bike trails, paths, picnic facilities, and all kinds of activities and attractions.

Frontier life in Niagara is displayed at the Niagara's Wax Museum of History as well as daredevil's barrels, the making of electrical power, street scenes of the Niagara Falls of yesteryear, and Indian villages using life-size figures.

Narrated van tours are offered of Niagara Falls, both in New York and Ontario both during the day and at night. Maid of the Mist rides are included.

Rainbow Tours has 4 hour boat and bus tours that visit the American and Canadian sides of the falls as well as other stops along the way.

The Robert Moses Parkway runs downstream through Whirlpool State Park and then along the Lower Rapids to Devil's Hole State Park. Ahead is a view of the massive Robert Moses hydroelectric station. Then comes the campus of the old Niagara University, with the Castellani Art Museum (art of the 18th-20th centuries). The road continues to the Robert Moses State Power Plant then on through the Niagara Escarpment, a fertile fruit growing area, to where the Niagra River flows into Lake Ontario north of Youngstown.

North-east of the Rainbow Bridge is the Schoellkopf Geological Museum, which traces 500 million years of geological history in the Niagara area. From the museum the Upper Gorge Nature Trail leads to Whirlpool Rapids State Park.

The parish of St Mary of the Cataract began in 1836 and is the oldest Catholic Church in Niagara Falls. The sacristy was built in 1813 and the church in 1847. The tower's oldest bell was installed in 1873.

Three miles below the American Falls the river changes course again, forming the Whirlpool in a great cauldron originally created by tectonic movements and turning north-east over the Lower Rapids towards Lake Ontario.