Niagara Falls in 24 Hours
We’ve always wanted to visit Niagara Falls but we didn’t have a large amount of time during this trip, actually we only had one day! Challenge accepted!
Niagara Falls is located in Niagara Falls State Park which is America’s oldest State Park. Millions of gallons of water go over the falls every minute about 750 gallons each second. The falls create a source of hydro-power, producing large amount of electricity for New York State and Ontario, Canada. Niagara Falls is a popular tourist attraction visited by around 30 million people every year.
Campground(s) we stayed
Niagara Falls/ Grand Island KOA – is located 7 miles from Niagara Falls and 15 minutes from Buffalo, NY. They offer a variety of camping options from tent sites to cabins to full hook-ups for big rigs like us (45 feet). Since we arrived early in the season, we got a great pull through, full hook-up, 50 amp site. Some additional amenities include; boat and banana bike rentals, catch and release fish pond, arcade, and a jump pad. The general store is also fully stocked in case you want to do a little shopping or pick up some last minute camping necessities.
Things to do
Over The Falls Tour – Since our trip was very short booking a tour to see both the America and Canada side of the falls seemed like the best idea and the Canadian & American Deluxe Combo tour did not disappoint. Our tour guide, Nick, was excellent, this was a planned group tour but last minute the other people in the tour had to cancel. We lucked out and got a personal tour where we got to – ride on the famous Maid of the Mist Boat tour, went down to see the Cave of the Winds and walked on the Hurricane Deck. Had amazing views of the Horseshoe Falls, American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. Visited the Botanical Gardens and Floral Clock and saw amazing views atop the Skylon Tower… plus more! But don’t just take my word for it. Check out our video above to see some great high lights from our tour.
Places we ate
Duff’s Famous Wings Niagara Falls … we couldn’t come to Buffalo, NY without getting some Buffalo Wings, right?! Buffalo is know to be the birth place of Buffalo wings or chicken wings, and Duff’s claim to fame is to have “Famous Wings” for their high quality and “Famous Sauce.” We enjoyed several of their medium light wings with carrots, celery and blue cheese sides – just beware their sauce is very spicy!
Overall Opinion
Though our trip was short, Niagara Falls is one of those amazing things you need to see at least once in your life. We were in awe and really experienced a sense of amazement by seeing it in person. To have the feeling of mist on your face during the Maid of the Mist Boat Tour, and seeing several rainbows while looking down into the Horseshoe Falls from Canadian side, will be an experience we will both always remember. We strongly recommend going to Niagara falls to see this natural wonder for yourselves!
owned 4 class a motor homes, and we only use them for tailgating at football games. Want to move up to a good diesel, and take some extended trips. Impressed with your Entegra. Is there a brand you would feel comparable to your brand/model, just as a starting point to look into? just saw where you would shy away from Thor. Good to know. Any others to walk past, in your opinion? Would like something in the 2013-2104 year range. Thanks, Steve
Hey Steve, thanks for the inquiry. At the top of my lists to look at would probably be Entegra, Newmar and Tiffin. Fleetwood’s Discovery seems to be a decent diesel that friends of ours have been fairly happy with in the 38ft range. For us, hands down the Entegra was the best value. In my research i looked at what the resell value of the coaches i was looking at was and Entegra not only had the best resell value, there were non of them on the market used which told me the people who bought them kept them, or they were gobbled up by others quickly. Floor plans are big with Entegra, the 44B is definitely the most popular. We couldnt find anything in the 260-300k range that gave us 45ft, tag axles, hydraulic up/down jacks, tons of storage space, exceptional build quality, aquahot and a floorplan that would work. We look at all the thor products and liked what they had for the money but after speaking to the techs who work on them we ended that conversation fast due to quality issue. They pointed out 3-4 coaches who’s slides had literally fallen out. Newmar was really nice, but a lot more money and we couldn’t tell why. There wasnt anything noticeable better and in fact for 50k more we had less length, poorer quality jacks, less storage and features. Still, its a great coach with a great name but $$ more for nothing we could tell was better. Now a couple things to be aware of. Entegra was recently bought by Thor. Tad Jankins their President left and the future of the company might be a bit uncertain. Thor traditionally has left alone brands like Airstream, but again who knows. We recommend you call our friend Cowboy who sold us our coach and now is the GM at National Indoor RV. Hands down the most honest and nice guy you will ever meet and since he runs the entire dealership you’ll be sure to get the best price and service. His master tech Steve is on premise and they can really give you the ins and outs of the Entegra experience. (Phoenix doesnt yet sell Newmar, but the dealership can sell them out of Atlanta if you go that route so you’ll get to see a couple different types of coach if you go with National). Cowboy’s cell is 817.774.3476, tell him we sent you and feel free to pick his brain and learn more. He’s a zero pressure sales guy so no obligation if you’re just looking. I know he had a 2013 Anthem on the lot last i was there that he might still have. Best of luck!
Great info and advice. You have been super helpful. Will call Cowboy sometime this week. Thanks, and Safe RV`ing.
Steve
Hi Erik & Kala, We decided to get back into rving. Used to have a 2009 country coach inspire and 2000 Prevost Featherlite Vantare. In April we bought a 2016 Airstream top of line Classic to “downsize and simplify”. Big mistake. So much work and driving is like surfing.
So working a deal for 2013 Entegra Anthem 44sl. Can’t wait to get back into class A.
Any thoughts or advice on the Anthem choice? I know age is right at time when batteries and tires might need attention but I’m up for that.
Thanks for your blog. Really enjoy your videos. Erik your dry humor is hilarious
Safe Travels
Mike & Colleen
Bridgewater, CT
Wellman@pobox.com
Love the Entegra Cornerstone. Don’t have one, but lust for one! We have a 2015 Monaco Dynasty we’re pretty satisfied with.
Hi Mike & Colleen!
Thanks so much for the kind words, it really is nice to hear! Glad we could help and entertain you guys, thats why we do it! Congrats on thinking about the Entegra, we love our coach and think going in that direction is a great choice!
Here are our thoughts on some things to be aware of with the brand. These are just our opinions and our experience is largely with the 2015/2016 coaches but hopefully they will still help/be relevant.
For us, we decided that the Aspire was the best coach for us based on the value at the time. We didn’t really see that much of a difference with the Anthem and the added expense (with a new coach) wasn’t worth the price difference. Now in hindsight…. a couple features we REALLY wish we had would be: Central locking bay doors & a tile shower.At the time we felt we could either live without these features or they were not worth the expense. We’ll probably have both added to our coach now that we’ve lived in it for a year.
General Notes: Keep in mind that Entegra was recently purchased by THOR. Now this is generally considered a BAD thing as THOR is not known for quality…. That said, they also purchased Airstream and from what we’ve heard Thor has realized that its best to purchase these companies and stay out of their operations. We are praying they do the same with Entegra as they did with Airstream which is to leave it alone!
Drivetrain: Regarding tires, i doubt you’ll have any issue with a 2013, the tires are good for 7-10 years and I doubt mileage will be an issue on any coach that new. You should be good!. Pay special attention to the steering in the Anthem. We are hearing lots of people complaining that the coach feels loose at highways speeds and requires constant input from the wheel to stay straight. This appears to be isolated to the Anthem/Cornerstones as the Aspire has a simplified front suspension that doesn’t have this issue. Make sure you take it for a test drive and if possible have your tow/toad attached as we’ve heard from some people the problem only exists when towing.
Batteries & Power: If the 2013 is the same as the 2016 then it comes with 8 AGM batteries. That is a nice plus and even if the batteries are not in top shape, the fact that you have the shelving and wiring built in for that many batteries is a nice plus. We have 6 AGM batteries (900AH capacity) in our coach which i believe is fairly comparable to the Anthem which i think has 8 batteries totaling 780-800ah). A nice plus with the Anthem is that you have a 2 inverters. Believe it or not we don’t find we’ve ever had a need for a second inverter, we run EVERYTHING on our inverter, we even re-wired the washing machine to run on it and there have been zero problems. That said, having two inverters means you have 2 battery chargers and that is where the plus comes in. This means you could technically push almost 250-300AH into your battery bank when boondocking basically cutting your bulk charge time in half from ours. Unfortunately with batteries it is very hard to test their condition when purchasing a coach, normally you need to unplug the battery bank and let it sit at “resting voltage” for a minimum of 4 hours to see how much wear and tear they have taken. It might be worth doing this or getting a 30 day warranty/etc from the people you are purchasing it from as a new battery bank will set you back 2-3k for that many batteries.
Solar Prep: The Anthem has solar panels on the roof but at 200 Watts they are pretty much worthless and don’t do much other than keep your batteries from dying when the unit is in storage/unplugged. The good news is the solar prep-wiring to the roof is decent and if you want to put a large solar array up there at a later date you can reuse the wiring and save yourself a bunch of headaches (as long as you use a good Charge Controller that will run at 60V+)
Let us know what other questions you have. We love the coach and are in it full time so we have experienced pretty much everything you can!
The Niagara Falls video was the best so far. Nick was a good guide. The tower view was spectacular. I cannot tell you how much Jodi & I enjoy you adventures! See you on the road!
Tom & Jodi Little
Hi Tom & Jodi!
Thank you so much. It was a great experience, we definitely recommended going if you haven’t before. We need to meet up soon. Miss you guys!
-Kala & Erik
Thanks guys, glad you liked it! Our next video will be our mad dash out to the Southwest in 4 days and then a funny video on Carlsbad Caverns! More to come!