A family vacation is often a great thing. You can finally take the whole crew out of your regular cramped space and participate in new experiences as a loving team. However, if you’ve already been on a vacation with your young ones, you know full well that not everything goes as perfectly as planned. Niagara has plenty of attractions well-suited for families of all shapes and sizes, but when you’re on vacation, it can be tricky to figure out how exactly you’re going to get to all of them on schedule and on budget. Here are some of the more popular ways to get around Niagara when you’re bringing along your kids.

Guided Niagara Tours

If you’re looking to see all Niagara has to offer, you might look into some of the many organized tour groups that guide travelers around Niagara’s most important sights. You’ll probably get some insider information that you’d miss otherwise, including access to the best viewing spots for the falls or backstage tours of the most popular attractions.

There are many different kinds of tours, and you should select the one that fits your family best. If your children are especially small, car or bus tours would be most effective at conveying your group from one place to another. Alternatively, if you have slightly older kids, a bike or Segway tour might be a great way to see the city and sights.

Public Transit System

Niagara has just recently completely revamped its public transportation to make the bus system even more accessible and useful to travelers and natives alike. The new WEGO buses replaced two of the old transit systems and work to move Niagara’s visitors to the best places to see. To get a taste of where you can get to with WEGO buses, here’s a list of the different routes to some family-friendly attractions:

• Red Line. Niagara Falls History Museum, Queen Victoria Park, Skylon Tower.
• Blue Line. Marine Land, Maid of the Mist, Fallsview Indoor Water Park.
• Purple Line. Niagara Falls Aviary, downtown shopping.
• Green Line. Butterfly Conservatory, great views along the river.

There are other transit systems intended for Niagara natives to get around the city that might be useful to your family, depending on your intended activities. Niagara Falls Transit and Niagara Regional Transit both offer reasonable fares for adults ($2.50 and $6.00 respectively) and children ($1.25 for 6-12-year-olds and free under 6 years) and have routes to basically anywhere in the city and surrounding areas. Additionally, GO buses are the transit system for the greater Toronto area, so if you are hoping to experience Canada outside of the falls, you might want to hop on a GO bus into the largest nearby city.

The Rails

For a more scenic and sentimental commuting experience, you can try riding the VIA Rail and Amtrak trains into and around the Niagara Falls region. If you live in the Northeast, you may be able to find a good deal on tickets, which will allow you to see more of the countryside than if you choose to fly in.