The best Niagara weekends are not the ones with the most in them. They are the ones where the driving makes sense.
This one runs Friday October 9th to Monday October 12th, and it works because everything sits on a single line: the falls, then up the Parkway, then Lincoln. One direction of travel, four days, and a table booked at each end.
FRIDAY, 6 p.m. · Arrive, then look at the water in the dark
Niagara Falls
Check in and leave the car. The illumination comes on at 6:15 p.m. through the middle of the month, which is early enough that you can see it properly before dinner rather than after it.
Practical: the falls are lit until 2 a.m., so there is no rush. Dress warmer than you think. The mist does not care what month it is.
SATURDAY, 10 a.m. · Ball’s Falls Thanksgiving Festival
Ball’s Falls Conservation Area, 3292 Sixth Avenue, Lincoln
Forty minutes up the road and the best single day of the weekend. More than 150 craft and artisan vendors, local farmers, craft drinks, live music, historical demonstrations and guided hikes, in a conservation area with two waterfalls and a nineteenth-century mill in it.
It runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the long weekend, so Saturday is a choice rather than a requirement. Go in the morning either way.
Practical: on-site parking is limited and not guaranteed, which is their wording, not ours. Early or not at all.
SATURDAY, 6 p.m. · Back down the Parkway
Niagara Parkway
Do not take the highway home. The Parkway between Queenston and the falls is the drive, with the river on one side and the escarpment behind you, and in the second week of October it is worth the extra twenty minutes.
SUNDAY, 11 a.m. · Thanksgiving brunch above the river
Queenston Heights Restaurant, Niagara-on-the-Lake
Two seatings, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. $65 for adults and $32.50 for children twelve and under, with a $25 deposit per guest that comes off the bill on the day.
If it has gone, Legends on the Niagara runs the same brunch at the same price with a single seating at 11:30 a.m.
Practical: book this the day you book the room. It is the scarcest thing in this itinerary.
SUNDAY, 2 p.m. · Wine country, working
Niagara-on-the-Lake
You are fifteen minutes from the member wineries. Harvest is done or nearly done, which means the tasting rooms have their attention back. The Winemakers’ Tasting Pass gets you one tasting at each of twenty-five of them, Monday to Friday, so on a Sunday just pick two and take your time.
Practical: somebody has to drive, or book a tour. Winery Guys Tours run shared and private routes across the region.
MONDAY, 5 p.m. · Thanksgiving dinner, then home
Niagara-on-the-Lake or Jordan
The Monday is the 12th, and it is the day most places stop serving. Tables that are still going that evening go early, so this is the other booking to make in advance.
Then drive home full, which is the entire point of the weekend.
The weekend, in one list
- Friday 6 p.m. · Check in, the illumination · Niagara Falls
- Saturday 10 a.m. · Ball’s Falls Thanksgiving Festival · Lincoln
- Saturday 6 p.m. · The Parkway, southbound · Niagara Parkway
- Sunday 11 a.m. · Thanksgiving brunch · Queenston Heights
- Sunday 2 p.m. · Two wineries, slowly · Niagara-on-the-Lake
- Monday 5 p.m. · Thanksgiving dinner · Niagara-on-the-Lake or Jordan
Load this weekend in your trip planner →
More on the weekend: Thanksgiving in Niagara →
