When I shared that we had changed our anniversary trip plans to Toronto, I got some really excellent feedback on things to do. While most of those “things” are actually delicious-looking restaurants, I was told explicitly (thanks, Erin!) to “definitely do Niagara Falls!”
As we found in Iceland, we loveeee waterfalls. Which means we’re definitely doing it. Over the weekend, we booked the tickets for our “Niagara Falls Day Tour from Toronto.” But we evaluated a lot of options before selecting this one.
Here’s how we did it:
- Review your options. There are a ton of platforms that host easy day trips. While I’ve yet to find the Paddywagon Tour equivalent outside of Ireland, I’d recommend reviewing your options through Tripadvisor, Viator, Airbnb Experiences, and any employee perks sites you may have access to through your job. We booked our San Francisco Extranomical Tour last year through one of these sites at a nice discount.
- Double check your dates are available. Once you’ve found all the tours that interest you – check that they actually are running. I actually found a great looking tour that had absolutely no availability, which was a bummer to discover after I shared it with Tyler. Summer travel is crazy busy, which means there may be fewer options available to you than normal.
- Read blog posts and reviews. Looks like you’ve already got a jump on that. 😉 The tour we ultimately ended up selecting was one I found after reading Phil and Garth’s excellent review of their day tour to Niagara Falls. Based on what they shared about their experience, we felt confident that the tour would give us everything we wanted, plus some extra. Though we still need to track down some ice wine while we’re there…
- Get the best price. Often, the best tour price is available when booking directly, which for this Niagara Falls tour, is located at their website here. However, the prices that they list are in Canadian dollars. Because of the conversion rate, it actually made more sense for us to book their tour through Viator – plus, I could get 6% cashback through Rakuten when using Viator! Take into account your total rewards (credit card, cashback sites, etc.) to determine the actual best deal.
I cannot wait for our Toronto vacation, and I’m so glad that we were able to fit in a day trip to Niagara Falls while we’re there. It’ll be our first time going, so of course, we paid extra for our ride on the Hornblower. Stay tuned – I’ll be sure to report back on how everything went!
