Niagara Falls by chauffeur from Toronto: the day, the car, the Falls

The most-booked day on this site

Niagara Falls is a hundred and thirty kilometres from downtown Toronto and, on a good day, an hour and forty-five minutes down the Gardiner and the QEW. It is the day every visitor to Toronto wants and the day every Torontonian with visitors ends up doing, and the tour-bus version - eleven hours, forty strangers, a schedule that gives you twenty minutes at the Falls and ninety at a gift shop - is the reason people search for a private alternative. A chauffeured Niagara day is an hourly booking of eight to ten hours: the car collects you at your Toronto door, drives to the Falls, waits at every stop, goes where you point it, and brings you home when you say. The full-day page explains the hourly product; this page is the day itself.

The drive

Out of the city on the Gardiner and the QEW, over the Burlington Skyway with Hamilton harbour below, past the Grimsby escarpment and the first vineyards at Beamsville and Vineland, and off at Highway 420 into the Falls. Off-peak it is an hour and forty-five; on a summer Saturday morning it is two and a quarter, and the QEW home at 6 pm on a Sunday is the reason the block is ten hours, not eight. There are no tolls. The chauffeur watches Ontario 511 for the Skyway's high-wind closures and takes the 403 and the 407 (if you choose to pay for it) from the north of the city. A 9 am departure has you at Table Rock by 11 and ahead of the buses.

The Falls

Table Rock and the Horseshoe Falls, where the chauffeur drops you at the Table Rock Centre on the Niagara Parkway and holds the car on Murray Hill or in the Parkway lot; the walk along the rail to the brink is the thing you came for. Journey Behind the Falls and the Niagara City Cruises boat (the Hornblower) from the base of Clifton Hill - book timed tickets on the Niagara Parks site for a summer weekend, and the chauffeur collects you at the Parkway when you come up soaked. The Skylon Tower and the Fallsview hotels' restaurants for lunch with the view; the Niagara Parks Power Station and its tunnel; the Whirlpool Aero Car and the White Water Walk ten minutes north on the Parkway; the Floral Clock and the Butterfly Conservatory on the way to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Every one of them is a stop the car waits at.

Clifton Hill and the casino

Clifton Hill is the carnival strip - the SkyWheel, the wax museums, the arcades, the Rainforest Cafe - and children love it and adults endure it; the chauffeur drops at the bottom by the boat dock and collects at the top by Victoria Avenue, forty minutes later. Fallsview Casino and Casino Niagara are a stop for the adults while the children do the Hill, or the evening's last stop before the drive home; the car waits at the valet. The Casino Rama page covers the other Ontario casino day.

Niagara-on-the-Lake and the winery on the way home

Twenty minutes north on the Parkway - past the Floral Clock, the golf course and the McFarland House - is Niagara-on-the-Lake, the prettiest town in Ontario: Queen Street's shops, the Prince of Wales hotel, the Shaw Festival, the lake at the end of the street. An hour there, then a winery on the way home - Peller, Two Sisters, Ravine, Trius, Jackson-Triggs, Inniskillin for the icewine - for a tasting and a case in the boot, and the QEW from St. Catharines. The wine-tour page is the day when the wineries are the point rather than the finish.

Both sides of the Falls

The American Falls and the Bridal Veil are seen best from the Canadian side, but Goat Island and the Cave of the Winds are on the New York side, ten minutes across the Rainbow Bridge with passports. A day that does both sides is a cross-border booking with the crossing in the block and the documents in hand; the Buffalo page covers the longer version with the outlets or a Bills game.

The day, timed (book 10)

9:00 Yorkville pickup, Luxury SUV, a family of four. 10:50 Table Rock, the car in the Parkway lot; the brink, the photographs. 11:45 Journey Behind the Falls. 12:45 lunch at the Table Rock restaurant with the Falls below. 2:00 the Hornblower from the dock, timed tickets; the car collects at the Parkway at 3:00. 3:15 Clifton Hill for the children, forty minutes. 4:00 the Parkway north, the Floral Clock, Niagara-on-the-Lake's Queen Street, ice cream. 5:15 Trius or Ravine for a tasting and a case. 6:00 the QEW home. 7:45 Yorkville. Ten hours and forty-five minutes used; eleven billed; the eleventh hour is the one the family will not remember paying for.

Seasons

Summer is the season: the boat runs, the Parkway gardens are out, the buses are everywhere and a 9 am start beats them. Autumn is the best: the escarpment in colour, the wineries in harvest, the crowds thinner. Winter is the secret: the Falls iced, the mist frozen on the railings, the Winter Festival of Lights along the Parkway from November to January, the boat closed and the Journey Behind the Falls open, and the Skyway a reason to take the SUV. Spring is the Falls at full flow and the Shaw Festival opening in April. Every season is a day; the chauffeur dresses the car for it.

The car for Niagara

The Luxury SUV for a family - the child seats fitted free, the boot for the wet clothes and the case of wine - and for winter. The Executive Sedan for a couple. The Mercedes S-Class for the client or the anniversary. The Executive Sprinter for a group of seven to twelve, which is the cheapest way per seat to do the day and the only way to do it together; the Sprinter page has the detail. The fleet page has capacities.

What it costs

The class hourly rate for the date, times the hours - ten is the honest block - plus HST and the gratuity you set. No tolls unless you choose the 407 from the north; parking at Niagara Parks lots is charged and shown at booking. The rates page explains the hourly number. Against a bus tour for a family of four plus the taxis a bus tour does not include, the SUV for ten hours is comparable in money and incomparable as a day; against a rental car it is the difference between a day and a drive. Also available as a one-way flat fare from Pearson or Toronto to a Niagara hotel; the city-to-city page explains.

Visitors, and the chauffeur as a local

For a visitor the chauffeur is the guide who is not a guide: which side of the Parkway the good view is from, where the boat queue is shortest, that the Skylon's revolving restaurant is better than its reputation, that the Butterfly Conservatory is worth the stop with children and the Floral Clock is not. Languages on request. The sightseeing page covers the visitor's Toronto day; Niagara is what most of them book next.

Corporate Niagara

The client's Niagara day - a customer in from Frankfurt or Tokyo, the Falls and a winery lunch - is an hourly SUV or S-Class on the corporate account; the team's Niagara day is a Sprinter. Conference organisers at the Convention Centre book Sprinters for a delegates' excursion, and the events page covers the group logistics.

Booking the Niagara day

Choose By the hour, the class, your address, the date, a 9 am start and ten hours; put "Niagara Falls" and any timed tickets in the notes so a chauffeur who knows the Parkway is assigned. Book a summer Saturday or a holiday weekend a week ahead, a weekday a day or two. Pre-book the boat and Journey Behind the Falls on the Niagara Parks site for summer weekends; the chauffeur will suggest an order of stops around the times.

Where the car waits at each stop

Children, strollers and the wet clothes

The boat soaks everyone in a poncho and Journey Behind the Falls soaks the brave; a change of clothes in the SUV's boot and a towel the chauffeur keeps in the car are the difference between a good afternoon and a damp drive home. Strollers ride in the boot; child seats are fitted free and stay in for the day; the Butterfly Conservatory and Bird Kingdom are the stops for children under six who have had enough of water. Niagara Parks' family pass bundles the attractions and the chauffeur knows where each is collected.

For the visitor with one day

If Toronto's visitor has one day outside the city, this is it, and the honest version is: leave at 9, do the Falls and the boat, lunch with the view, skip Clifton Hill unless there are children, spend an hour in Niagara-on-the-Lake, stop at one winery, and be home by 7:30. Ten hours. The sightseeing page covers the day before or after.

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