A chauffeured black car from London, Ontario to Niagara Falls with LondonLimo.net is 200 km east and around the head of Lake Ontario on the 401, the 403 and the QEW in about two hours twenty off-peak, at a fixed rate shown before you confirm - a planning figure of $360-420 plus HST for a business sedan, $410-470 for an SUV, $640-740 for a Sprinter; Niagara-on-the-Lake and the wineries are $370-430. Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara, the Fallsview hotels, Clifton Hill, the Niagara Parks attractions from the Hornblower boats to the Butterfly Conservatory, the Scotiabank Convention Centre, the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, the wineries of the Beamsville Bench, the Twenty Valley and the lake, and the Rainbow Bridge to New York are the addresses the chauffeurs know; a winery day is an hourly booking and Buffalo's airport is forty minutes beyond the bridge.
Why Londoners go to Niagara
The Falls themselves for the family weekend and the visiting relatives from overseas; Fallsview and Casino Niagara for the resort weekend, the shows and the tables; the wineries for the day nobody drives; the Shaw Festival for the matinee and dinner at the lake; the Niagara-on-the-Lake estates for the wedding; the Scotiabank Convention Centre for the conference; Clifton Hill and the Parks attractions for the children; the icewine festival in January and the Winter Festival of Lights; and the Rainbow, Queenston-Lewiston and Peace bridges for the run on to Buffalo and the Bills. It is the longest day trip on this site that Londoners make as a day trip, and the one most often turned into a weekend by the travel desk.
| From downtown London to | Sedan | SUV | Sprinter | Off-peak time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fallsview, the casinos, the Fallsview hotels, Clifton Hill | $360-420 | $410-470 | $640-740 | 2 h 20 |
| The Scotiabank Convention Centre, the Parks attractions | $360-420 | $410-470 | $640-740 | 2 h 20 |
| Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Shaw Festival, the lake wineries | $370-430 | $420-480 | $650-750 | 2 h 25 |
| The Beamsville Bench, Jordan, the Twenty Valley wineries | $330-390 | $380-440 | $600-700 | 2 h |
| St. Catharines, Brock University | $320-380 | $370-430 | $590-690 | 1 h 55 |
| Niagara winery day, hourly, chauffeur waiting | $95-115 / h | $115-135 / h | $145-175 / h | 3-4 h minimum plus the run |
LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST, one way; the engine quotes the exact addresses and date. A winery day from London is by the hour; a Fallsview weekend is two one-ways.
The drive: the 401, the 403 and the QEW
East on the 401 to Woodstock, the 403 through Brantford to Hamilton, then the QEW around the head of the lake through Burlington, past the Skyway and along the Niagara escarpment through Grimsby, Beamsville, Vineland and St. Catharines to the Falls exits at Highway 420 for Fallsview and Clifton Hill, or the 405 and the Niagara Parkway for Niagara-on-the-Lake. Two hours twenty off-peak; the QEW through Burlington at 8 a.m. and the Friday afternoon of a summer weekend add thirty minutes, and the chauffeur allows for them. The Niagara Parkway from the Falls to the lake is the prettiest road in the province and the chauffeur takes it when the day allows; Ontario 511 is read before every run for the London-Woodstock squalls.
The Fallsview weekend
Fallsview Casino Resort with its hotel, the Avalon Theatre and the OLG Stage, Casino Niagara on Clifton Hill, the Fallsview hotels with the rooms facing the Horseshoe Falls, the Skylon, the restaurants: a London couple's or group's weekend is two one-way fares - down on Friday, home on Sunday - with the travel desk booking the room and the show, and the casino trips page covering the rules and the ages. A Sprinter for a birthday group is the party version.
The Falls, the Parks and the family day
The Hornblower boats into the mist, Journey Behind the Falls, the Whirlpool Aero Car, the Butterfly Conservatory, the Floral Clock, Clifton Hill's museums and the Ferris wheel, the Bird Kingdom, Marineland in summer: a London family's Niagara day is an SUV by the hour from 8 a.m. with the chauffeur parked at the Parks lots and the strollers in the car, and the drive home at dusk; the Niagara Parks site sells the attractions passes the chauffeur will suggest.
The wineries: the bench, the valley and the lake
The wine tour page covers the Niagara day in full: three or four estates on the Beamsville Bench, in the Twenty Valley or around Niagara-on-the-Lake, lunch on a winery terrace, the bottles in the cooler, and the chauffeur waiting at every stop, by the hour in a van for six or a Sprinter for fourteen. The Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake association lists the estates; the coordinator builds the route.
The Shaw Festival and Niagara-on-the-Lake
The Shaw Festival's season from April to December at its three theatres in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the town's Queen Street shops and inns, the Prince of Wales and the Oban Inn, Fort George, the lake at the end of the street: a London couple's matinee and dinner is a luxury sedan by the hour, or a night at an inn with the chauffeur back in the morning, and the travel desk books the tickets and the room.
Weddings at the estates
Niagara-on-the-Lake's winery estates and the bench's vineyard venues are among the most-booked wedding sites in the country, and a London wedding there is planned by the coordinator from the timeline: the party by Sprinter or van from London, the parents by SUV, the guests by coach from the London hotel with two late returns, the couple in a stretch through our partner fleet or a luxury sedan, and the photograph stops at the Falls and in the vines built into the timings. The wedding page describes the plan and the quote.
The convention centre and the business trip
The Scotiabank Convention Centre on Stanley Avenue hosts the conferences that bring London's companies and associations to the Falls, and the delegation's trip is a Sprinter or a coach from London with the hotel shuttles and the gala run, on the corporate account as the group transportation page describes; a Brock University visit at St. Catharines is a shorter run on the same road.
Buffalo, the bridges and New York
The Rainbow Bridge at the Falls, the Queenston-Lewiston bridge and the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie cross to New York, and a London run to Niagara that continues to Buffalo's airport, Highmark Stadium or the Niagara Falls State Park on the American side is the cross-border service in the same vehicle, with the documents confirmed the evening before and the bridge wait in the rate.
Hamilton, the bench and the stops on the way
The QEW passes Hamilton, Burlington, Grimsby and the bench wineries, and a passenger in any of them is collected as a stop; a London day that combines a Hamilton stop with a Niagara evening is priced by the hour.
The Niagara hotels
Fallsview's towers and the Fallsview hotels facing the Horseshoe, the Sheraton and the Marriott on the Falls, the Niagara-on-the-Lake inns, the bench's winery inns, the Clifton Hill family hotels: the travel desk books the room on the file with the chauffeurs, and a Sunday-morning chauffeur for the drive home after a Fallsview Saturday is the usual pattern.
Winter: icewine, the lights and the QEW
The Niagara Icewine Festival in January and the Winter Festival of Lights from November to January make Niagara a winter destination; the QEW around the lake is the province's best-maintained highway and rarely closes, and the London-Woodstock stretch of the 401 is the risk, routed around by Highway 7/8 when it shuts. Winter tires from November to April; all-wheel-drive SUVs on the bad days; the fixed rate unchanged.
The honest alternatives
VIA Rail and GO Transit reach Niagara Falls from Toronto, not from London, and a Londoner's train trip is London to Union and a GO train around the lake - four hours or more; the tour buses run from Toronto. For the family day, the winery day, the Fallsview weekend, the Shaw evening, the wedding and the bridge, the chauffeured fixed rate or the day by the hour.
Three Niagara bookings, as they actually ran
A winery day, October. A luxury van for six from Byron at 8:30, three bench wineries and lunch on a terrace, a fourth at the lake, an hour at the Falls, and home at 8. Twelve hours by the hour; eighteen bottles in the cooler.
A Fallsview weekend, February. An executive SUV for four from Old North Friday at 3 to a Fallsview tower, the icewine festival on Saturday by a network hourly booking, and the chauffeur back Sunday at noon. Two one-way fares; the travel desk booked the rooms.
A wedding at a Niagara-on-the-Lake estate, September. A Sprinter for the party from Masonville at 10 a.m., an SUV for the grandparents at noon, a 56-seat coach for the London guests from the Delta Armouries at 1, and two coach returns at 11 and 1 a.m. Quoted from the timeline with the photograph stop at the Falls.
Three questions the desk is asked about Niagara
Is a Niagara day trip realistic from London? Yes - two hours twenty each way, and a winery or Falls day by the hour from 8 a.m. is home by 8 p.m.; most people turn it into a weekend. Can the chauffeur wait at the Falls all day? Yes, by the hour, parked at the Parks lots. Can we continue to Buffalo's airport? Yes, on the cross-border service, forty minutes beyond the Rainbow Bridge.
Booking it
Two addresses on the reservation engine, the date and time, the vehicle class; the fixed rate appears; or book the Niagara day by the hour. Weddings, groups, conventions and cross-border runs are quoted by the desk; the rates page has Niagara beside Hamilton and Toronto.
Planning figures. Rates are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST, one way from downtown London; the engine quotes the exact addresses, date and vehicle. Casino, winery, theatre, hotel and attraction names describe where we drive and imply no affiliation; casino admission rules are the operators' and the AGCO's.
What Niagara looks like from the car
The QEW rounding the head of the lake past Hamilton's harbour and the Skyway, the escarpment's wall on the right with the vineyards climbing it from Grimsby to Vineland, the Welland Canal's lift bridges at St. Catharines, the Falls' mist visible from the 420 on a cold morning, Fallsview's towers on the ridge, Clifton Hill's neon below them, and the Parkway's parks and vineyards running north to the lake and the old town. The chauffeur knows the Fallsview hotels' porte-cocheres, the Parks lots, the Clifton Hill drop at the top of the hill, the Shaw's three theatres and the winery lanes; the City of Niagara Falls' site publishes the closures for the fireworks and the festivals.
Visitors coming the other way
A Niagara winery's owner to a London event, a Brock University student collected for a London family, a Fallsview conference delegate to a London plant visit, a Buffalo visitor crossing the Rainbow Bridge for a London meeting: the same chauffeur, the same fixed rate in reverse, with the corporate account working for the Niagara company and the cross-border page covering a New York visitor's documents.
