Elementary school classrooms all over the United States encourage kids to experience the holiday of love (in a platonic way) by crafting paper and candy valentines for their schoolmates. Every February 14, children ages 4 and up construct their own valentines’ boxes and eagerly await their friends’ contributions on this chocolate-filled day. However, very rarely do children experience true adoration for a person, thing, or place — except in Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls has everything a child could dream of, from thrilling natural attractions to hundreds of entertaining games and rides they won’t find anywhere else. Here are all the reasons your child will fall in love with Niagara Falls any day of the year.
1. Fallsview Indoor Waterpark
While it is inarguably the largest indoor waterpark on the continent, Fallsview is also one of the highest-rated wet-and-wild amusement parks in the country. Across more than three acres of pools, play areas, slides, and more, kids can swim, splash, climb, and explore — and so much more. Fallsview boasts more than 16 exhilarating slides, including:
- Toob Tower. Four curiously curving slides can send riders and their friends flying in all directions.
- Extreme Racing Slides. Four tall and fast slides set sliders against one another in a race to the finish.
- The Canadian Plunge. A giant centrifuge sets riders spinning wildly as they travel closer and closer to the splashdown pool.
2. Journey Behind the Falls
Though the Maid of the Mist — a boat tour that takes visitors up the Niagara River to the bottom of the thundering Horseshoe Falls — is a quintessential Niagara Falls experience, most kids will get a bigger kick out of a trip to a foreign world behind the plummeting water.
Journey Behind the Falls brings tourists 150 feet down an outdoor elevator right next to the Falls. The voyage may seem daunting, but the payoff is immense. Just behind a curtain of water, guests can watch slack-jawed as roughly 3,660 cubic yards of water falls down in front of them every second. The water careens off the escarpment more than 13 stories above visitors’ heads at the breakneck pace of 40 miles per hour. Children love watching the dancing water move thunderously in front of them, and they adore even more the fact that they’ll become drenched doing it.
3. Niagara’s Fury
The geologic formation of Niagara Falls took millions upon millions of years to form — or maybe about twenty minutes. Niagara’s Fury is an interactive adventure that takes visitors through the whirlwind creation of the legendary waterfalls. Starting before the last ice age, guests will experience the chill of wind and rain as well as the thrill of Earth-rumbling geologic activity all from the safety of a state-of-the-art theater. Education and comedy combine as Chip the Beaver and his friends lead kids and adults alike through the complex processes that made Niagara Falls what it is today.
4. The Great Canadian Midway
After a few days’ worth of drenchings, kids might enjoy staying high and dry at one of the world’s most extensive arcades. The Great Canadian Midway, located in the monument Clifton Hill region of Niagara Falls’ tourist district, offers more than 70,000 square feet filled with more than 300 games, from classic skee-ball to current hits like Deal or No Deal. Plus, the Midway is adjacent to other fantastic attractions like the 4D theater, the haunted house, and various rides. Kids will be so head-over-heels, they’ll never want to leave.