Like much as good theatre, Niagara makes a stupendous first impression, as it crashes over a 52m cliff shrouded in oceans of mist. It's actually two cataracts: tiny Goat island, which must be one of the wettest places on earth, devides the accelerating water into two channels on either side of the US-Canadian border. The spectacle is,if anything, even extraordinary in winter, when snow bent trees edge a jagged armoury of freezing mist and heaped ice blocks.
You won't just be choosing sides - note that the American falls are but half the width of Canada'a horseshoe Falls - but also how to best see the falls beyond that first impression. A Bevy of boats, viewing towers, helicopters, cable-cars and even tunnels in the rock-face behind the cascade ensure that every angle is covered.
Two methods are especially thrilling and get you quite near the action: the Maid of the Mist Boats, which struggle against the cauldron to get as close to the falls as they dare; and the tunnels of the "Journey Behind The Falls", which lead to the points directly behind the waterfall. Either way guarantees that first impression won't be the last to register.
