Q: My boyfirend and I are planning a trip to Niagara Falls for next weekend. Alot of the hotels in Niagara falls are so expensive per night. We are looking for some cities close to the area, but not directly in that actual city (Niagara Falls) I have already tried Priceline, expedia, Hotels.com.....etc... ~All of those, you need to pre-pay online with a credit card and I'd rather make reservations and pay cash when I get there... Please help because time is an issue and we want to start planning as soon as possible!!!
A: Since you didn't mention what you considered to be "expensive" or what type of lodging you would prefer, it's hard to recommend anything specific. The most economical lodgings (as well as many reasonable restaurants both chain and independent) are on Lundy's Lane in NFO. This will put you somewhere between 1-3 miles from the falls, but you will be on a road that can take you directly to the falls. There are many cheaper lodging chains as well as independent places there. However, remember that all NF lodgings normally raise their prices up for weekend nights. It is not unusual to see a room's price double from weekday to weekend during the peak travel season, which you will still be into when you arrive. Also, if you could afford to wait until next month after Labor Day, lodging prices go down by nearly half and the crowds are down by even more. As for the online travel sites, if you don't like their booking rules, why book through them? Most of the time, I use a site like Travelocity or Expedia to find the lodgings and then go to the individual lodging websites to book and maybe get a better deal. Most individual lodging sites will still ask you for a credit card number. However, unless you are booking 30+ days in advance (which you clearly aren't), they won't charge anything up front as long as you arrive by either 4 PM or 6 PM (depending on each lodging's specific rule). Even then, they will normally only charge your first night to the card as a guarantee if you tell them that you expect to arrive later than those times. One more tip: Booking online gives you specific confirmed paperwork you can have available if you have to cross the border. In 50+ years of vacationing in Canada and crossing the border by car from the US, the first and only time anyone in my family was detained at the border was in 2006. Apparently, the border guard thought I was planning to stay indefinitely in Canada thanks to sporting some facial hair while my ID photo was taken clean shaven. My printed lodging confirmations for two different properties in Ontario moved me along much quicker than if I didn't have them and only had my word to rely on.