Yesterday we woke at 4am to start our very long day visiting Niagara Falls. First off, riding the subway at 4:45am on a Tuesday morning is just that little bit creepy. It took us about an hour to get out to JFK and luckily the lines at the airport were very short, no one sane flies this early! Basically our plan was to fly to Buffalo, find a shuttle or a taxi to take us to The Falls, spend a few hours marveling in their wonder and then fly back to JFK in the early evening.
Our flight arrived at about 9:30am and we went looking for transport. A guy at a shuttle bus counter told us it would be $45 each to Niagara, or that we could catch a taxi and it would be $35 each. We didn't know of any other options so we thought we'd catch a taxi. While walking to the taxi rank we spied around a corner a mini-bus with Niagara Shuttle on the front. We thought it would be the one the guy had told us about but figured we should double check and it was so lucky we did! It was a locally run bus direct to the falls for $1.75! Hell yes! It wasn't a particularly comfortable ride, especially for Christie who was stuck next to a homeless woman, but it got us there in one piece.
The Falls were amazing. So powerful! It is autumn/fall in the US at the moment and I don't think we could have picked a prettier time to come. Words and pictures can't really do it justice but check out the photos below anyway.
We had a heap of fun playing around in the leaves as well....
Tourist season finished on Saturday for Niagara so we missed it by a couple of days but we think we actually had the better deal. We couldn't go on the Maid of the Mist, and most of the shops were all closed but there were less tourists around which was really nice. We grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, one of the few places open and then wandered around the gardens before it was time to catch the shuttle back to the airport. The annoying thing is that this shuttle only runs every two hours, so 3pm and 5pm. Our flight was at 6:25pm so we couldn't take the 5pm so we had some waiting around to do at the airport. Buffalo was due for a storm that evening and once we had gone through security, we found out a bunch of flights had been delayed and cancelled due to issues at JFK. Our flight was delayed to 7:10 and then 7:40 due to bad weather both in Buffalo and New York. It wasn't a big deal to us since we didn't have any luggage and we didn't need to be anywhere but it screwed up a lot of peoples flights. An Aussie guy we met had his flight delayed, then it was cancelled, then he was put on standby but didn't get on that flight and then he was put on ours. He missed his connecting flight at JFK to Heathrow and then to Paris.
When our flight finally took off, the turbulence wasn't too bad but as we came into JFK we understood why flights had been grounded as there was heaps of fog. We couldn't land for quite a while and we were just flying in circles. When we finally dropped altitude the turbulence was pretty scary. They then wouldn't let us off the plane for ages. So our flight that was supposed to arrive at 8pm didn't arrive until 10pm, and it then took us over an hour to get home. Oh what joy! But at least we had had a fabulous day at Niagara :)
Our flight arrived at about 9:30am and we went looking for transport. A guy at a shuttle bus counter told us it would be $45 each to Niagara, or that we could catch a taxi and it would be $35 each. We didn't know of any other options so we thought we'd catch a taxi. While walking to the taxi rank we spied around a corner a mini-bus with Niagara Shuttle on the front. We thought it would be the one the guy had told us about but figured we should double check and it was so lucky we did! It was a locally run bus direct to the falls for $1.75! Hell yes! It wasn't a particularly comfortable ride, especially for Christie who was stuck next to a homeless woman, but it got us there in one piece.
The Falls were amazing. So powerful! It is autumn/fall in the US at the moment and I don't think we could have picked a prettier time to come. Words and pictures can't really do it justice but check out the photos below anyway.
We had a heap of fun playing around in the leaves as well....
Tourist season finished on Saturday for Niagara so we missed it by a couple of days but we think we actually had the better deal. We couldn't go on the Maid of the Mist, and most of the shops were all closed but there were less tourists around which was really nice. We grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, one of the few places open and then wandered around the gardens before it was time to catch the shuttle back to the airport. The annoying thing is that this shuttle only runs every two hours, so 3pm and 5pm. Our flight was at 6:25pm so we couldn't take the 5pm so we had some waiting around to do at the airport. Buffalo was due for a storm that evening and once we had gone through security, we found out a bunch of flights had been delayed and cancelled due to issues at JFK. Our flight was delayed to 7:10 and then 7:40 due to bad weather both in Buffalo and New York. It wasn't a big deal to us since we didn't have any luggage and we didn't need to be anywhere but it screwed up a lot of peoples flights. An Aussie guy we met had his flight delayed, then it was cancelled, then he was put on standby but didn't get on that flight and then he was put on ours. He missed his connecting flight at JFK to Heathrow and then to Paris.
When our flight finally took off, the turbulence wasn't too bad but as we came into JFK we understood why flights had been grounded as there was heaps of fog. We couldn't land for quite a while and we were just flying in circles. When we finally dropped altitude the turbulence was pretty scary. They then wouldn't let us off the plane for ages. So our flight that was supposed to arrive at 8pm didn't arrive until 10pm, and it then took us over an hour to get home. Oh what joy! But at least we had had a fabulous day at Niagara :)
LOVE these beautiful photos! We were super rushed when we got to Niagara Falls, but it was just so stunning all the same. The last three photos so lovely, hehe. Love the colours of the leaves and particularly the second last photo of you.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you had a great day there despite all the flight issues later on xoxo