View of Niagara Falls from Giacomo Hotel
Water works
When the meeting day is done, the falls offer memorable options.
Groups can dine in the Top of the Falls 80-seat banquet room until the restaurant closes for the winter in mid-October. A deck is adjacent to the banquet room.
Maid of the Mist boats have been braving the Niagara River below the falls since 1854. Today passengers don blue ponchos and chug past the American and Bridal Veil falls into the churning waters below Horseshoe Falls, where power and mist overwhelm for three long minutes.
Another attraction is the Cave of the Winds. Wearing a yellow poncho and comfortable no-slip sandals, visitors climb a series of wooden walkways built along the cascade of Bridal Veil Falls. When they venture onto the Hurricane Deck, they confront the thundering water head on.
Although the view of the falls from the Canadian side of the river is panoramic, visitors get closer to the action on the American side. The falls are palpable and the surroundings more natural.
Those who want to get totally soaked, safely, drive nine miles north to Lewiston’s Whirlpool Jet Boats.
“Getting drenched together makes this attraction good for team building,” said Vanessa Groeneveld, director of sales and marketing.
Each boat carries 48 people, and the company can run four boats at a time through spinning, spraying Hamilton turns and wild rides on Class 5 rapids downriver from the falls.
You don’t have to worry about rocks, Groeneveld said. “The rapids in the Niagara River are caused by volume and pressure created by the Niagara Falls, not rocks. The water is very deep.”
In contrast, cruises on the Erie Canal are a kinder, gentler ride. Lockport Locks and Canal Cruises’ three boats take groups of 75 to 150 through the canal’s only double locks. Afterward, a group can dine in a shady outdoor pavilion or an indoor dining room. A small meeting room seats 30 to 40 people.
A fort for all seasons
For a historical twist, there’s old Fort Niagara in Youngstown, 15 miles north of the Niagara Falls. A living-history museum, the fort was built by the French in 1726 to guard the entrance to the Niagara River. It’s the only place in the United States where you can look south to Canada.
The heart of the fort is an old stone castle, available for catered events for 100 people and, with outdoor tents, up to 500.
Living-history characters will shoot cannons at sunset, give cooking demonstrations or show groups how to fire a musket.
For dinners for up to 80, there’s the Officers Club, built in 1938 with historic murals at each end. One of the murals, “American History,” was partially painted by Ernst Wille when he was a German prisoner of war there in 1945. Wille returned to the fort in 1999 to finish his work.
Fort Niagara is the oldest continuously occupied military site in North America, having last seen service during the Cold War when Niagara Falls was ringed with Nike missiles for fear the Soviets would try to disrupt hydroelectric power.
Like the fort, Niagara Falls is reinventing itself for a future that includes millions of tourists and those who come for both business and pleasure.
www.niagara-usa.com
