The Night Tour That Starts With the Drive
Most Niagara evening tours collect you and take you to the table. This one spends its first hour on the Niagara Parkway with a guide talking, which is where the story of why there is a city here at all actually sits: Dufferin Islands, the International Control Dam, the scow that has been stuck in the rapids since 1918, and the two power stations that took the river apart and put it to work. Then dinner, then the boat, then the tower.
The other thing that separates it is the size. The operator caps a shared departure at seven travellers in a Mercedes Metris van, so the drive is a conversation rather than a public address system, and the group moves between stops without waiting on anybody.
After the drive comes a three-course dinner at a restaurant near the Horseshoe Falls, then the Niagara City Cruises fireworks boat ride to the base of the illuminated falls, and finally the Illumination Tower control room, where guests choose the colours going out across the water and leave with an I Lit Up Niagara Falls certificate.
What This Evening Has That the Others Do Not
The Four Hours, Stop by Stop
Nine points across the four hours. Five are pass-bys, seen through the window on the narrated drive. The other four are the drive itself, dinner, the boat and the tower.
The Narrated Drive
Your guide collects you in Niagara Falls, Ontario and drives you through the falls area, talking as you go. You get your first look at the water before the van turns onto the Niagara Parkway.
Dufferin Islands
A cluster of small islands just upstream of the falls, linked to each other by footbridges. It is the quiet, wooded end of the park, and there is a lot of birdlife in it.
International Control Dam
The dam that settles how the river is divided: how much water goes over the falls for visitors to look at, and how much is sent to the power stations instead.
The Niagara Scow
A steel barge that ran aground in the rapids in 1918 and never came off. It is still sitting there, just above the Horseshoe Falls, more than a century later.
Toronto Power Generating Station
Built in 1906 and now a National Historic Site. It spent decades making electricity for towns across Ontario, and it stands right on the Parkway.
Niagara Parks Power Station
One of the first big power plants on the Canadian bank of the river, since restored and opened up as an attraction about how Niagara was put to work. This tour drives past it rather than going inside.
Three Courses Near the Falls
Three courses at a restaurant in Niagara Falls, with a full hour set aside so nobody is rushed through it.
Niagara City Cruises, After Dark
You board a Niagara City Cruises boat and it runs you down to the foot of the falls in the dark. The floodlights are on the water above you, and the fireworks go up overhead while you are out there.
Illumination Tower Control Room
This is the tower the falls are lit from every night, and here you get a turn at the controls. You pick the colours, watch them arrive on the water, and go home with a certificate in your own name.
Included & Not Included
✓ Included
- Entry to the Illumination Tower control room
- Pick-up and drop-off at the central Toronto meeting point, on the Toronto option
- A three-course dinner, in the price rather than paid on the night
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off in Niagara Falls, Canadian or American side, on either Niagara option
- Your seat on the Niagara City Cruises fireworks boat ride
- Your personalised "I Lit Up Niagara Falls" certificate
✕ Not Included
- Tips for your guide and driver
The Toronto pick-up and the Niagara hotel pick-up are alternatives, not extras: you get whichever one belongs to the option you chose, never both. Everything else on the list comes with every booking, and tips are the only thing the operator lists as not included.
This or the Other Night Tour With Dinner?
Both come from the same operator, and both end with the same cruise and the same turn at the illumination controls. Three things separate them.
Pickup, Meeting Points and Drop-off
Three options are sold, and the option you book decides where the evening starts and what time it starts. The hotel pickup list is the same on all three: 88 named hotels, 76 in Niagara Falls, Ontario and 12 in Niagara Falls, New York, plus the Skylon Tower departure point and a contact-the-operator option.
Skylon Tower, 5200 Robinson St
Go in through the Skylon Tower main front doors, turn right, and follow the See Sight Tours signs to the check-in lobby next to the Daredevil Exhibit.
Hard Rock Cafe, 333 Prospect St
If your American hotel falls outside the pick-up zone, meet your See Sight Tours guide in front of the Hard Rock Cafe at 333 Prospect St instead, with your passport out and ready.
120 Bremner Blvd, Toronto
Meet your guide at 120 Bremner Blvd, outside at the front under the Amazon sign. Arrive 10 minutes before the start time so the tour can leave on schedule.
Pick-up and drop-off cost nothing extra, from a hotel in Niagara Falls on either side of the border or from the central Toronto meeting point. The operator contacts you 1 to 3 days before the tour with your exact pick-up time. If they cannot reach you by phone or email, be outside and ready 15 minutes before your tour start time. If you did not name a hotel, wait at the front entrance of Skylon Parking Lot B, 5400 Robinson Street, again 15 minutes before the start.
The tour returns to the starting point. The operator files the same three end points as start points, so a Toronto booking comes back to 120 Bremner Blvd, an Ontario booking to the Skylon Tower, and a New York booking to the Hard Rock Cafe on Prospect Street.
Accessibility and Additional Information
Eight points on access and suitability, all of them from the operator.
Booking, Tickets and Cancellation
A booking can hold up to 14 travellers, and a shared departure is capped at 7. A party larger than seven is therefore booking more than one van, which is worth raising with the operator when they call about your pickup time.
Frequently Asked Questions
The group on this Niagara Falls night tour is capped at seven travellers. That is the maximum the operator lists for a shared departure, and it is what the Mercedes Metris van seats. It is not a private tour, so you may be sharing with one other party, but never with a coachload.
The drive before dinner is a narrated hour along the Niagara Parkway. It passes Dufferin Islands, the International Control Dam, the Niagara Scow stranded in the rapids since 1918, the Toronto Power Generating Station of 1906 and the Niagara Parks Power Station. All five are pass-bys from the van rather than stops.
The tour picks you up at your hotel, or at the starting point of whichever option you book. The hotel list is the same on all three options: 88 named hotels, 76 in Niagara Falls, Ontario and 12 in Niagara Falls, New York. What the option sets is where and when the evening starts, the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls, Ontario at 7:00 PM, Niagara Falls, New York at 6:00 PM, or 120 Bremner Blvd in Toronto at 4:00 PM. The operator contacts you 1 to 3 days beforehand with your exact pickup time.
This tour differs from our other Niagara Falls night tour with dinner and a boat ride in three ways: the group is capped at seven travellers, the evening opens with a narrated Niagara Parkway drive past the power stations rather than going straight to the table, and pickup can be booked from Niagara Falls Ontario, Niagara Falls New York or Toronto. The dinner, the fireworks cruise and the Illumination Tower are common to both.
Yes. You really do get to control the lights on the falls, in the Illumination Tower control room, which is listed as an included admission on this tour. Guests choose the colours going out across the water and leave with an "I Lit Up Niagara Falls" certificate.
The tour is four hours long, and the start time depends on which pickup you book: 7:00 PM from Niagara Falls, Ontario, 6:00 PM from Niagara Falls, New York, and 4:00 PM from Toronto, which is the longer day because of the drive down. Bookings close four hours before departure.
Yes, the tour is wheelchair accessible. The operator says the vehicles take wheelchairs, that everywhere the tour goes is step-free, that service animals are welcome, and that no particular level of fitness is needed to come along.
The cancellation policy gives you a full refund as long as you cancel a day or more ahead: 24 hours before your departure time is the cut-off, and after that the booking is non-refundable. The operator can also call the evening off for bad weather, and you then choose between another date and your money back.
You need your passport if you are joining from the American side. The tour itself runs in Ontario, but the operator asks travellers meeting at the Hard Rock Cafe on Prospect Street to have their passport ready, and anyone booking the Niagara Falls, New York pickup to hold valid, up to date travel documents.
Pairs Perfectly With
Night Tour with Dinner
The larger group, no Parkway drive
Niagara City Cruises
The boat this evening sails on