Riding the Magic Bus
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The Magic Bus Company was created to service Toronto’s low budget travelers. These buses wander the city streets picking up passengers looking for an inexpensive way to tour the city and surrounding areas. One of their most popular trips is a tour to Niagara Falls. At $40 Canadian ($34 US), however, you will need to be prepared to leave certain amenities behind compared to other competitive tours costing 50-75% more.
The Magic Bus is a psychedelically painted school bus so there are no restroom facilities available. And, if you remember your days riding the ‘yellow dog’ to school, you should remember these seats are some of the hardest and most uncomfortable around. What makes this trip bearable are the 3 additional stops along the way you might not get to see on other traditional tours. These stops will give your numb bum a chance to recover while offering you more opportunities to take memorable photographs during the 1 hour and 45 minute trip to Niagara Falls.
Before leaving Toronto, the tour will stop at Fort York where some of the oldest buildings in the city remain. I shouldn’t say we actually stopped because the bus only slowed slightly as information was bellowed from the front. But please don’t think I am complaining. On the contrary, I am merely setting expectations. These trips are for people looking for a less expensive way to travel and who don’t mind giving up a few luxuries to stay within their budget. During one stop, I was delighted by the availability of refreshments offered. Most tours partner with local vendors stopping at high priced restaurants or souvenir shops where patrons are wrangled into spending large sums of money for little in return. This is not true of the Magic Bus Company. Their buses frequent large convenient complexes housing affordable restaurants. There was something for everyone and you didn’t have to “eat up” your entire budget to feel satisfied.
As the bus rounded Lake Ontario, a sign for the Birchwood Estates Wines came into view. This winery offers a type of wine produced only locally. Ice wine, as it is called, is made by allowing certain hardy grapes to freeze while still on the vine. Once frozen, these grapes are hand picked during the coldest nights of the year. While the juice is frozen, the concentrate is rich in flavor and high in sugar producing a very sweet wine. Because the number of grapes needed to produce one bottle of Ice Wine is equivalent to 17 bottles of those with traditionally harvested grapes, the price runs from $25 ($21 US) to $65 ($55 US) a bottle. Best of all, since we were riding the Magic Bus, our samples were free. Many other tours charge upwards of $8 to only sample Ice Wine, but not so on the Magic Bus.
Leaving the winery, we headed east to the Niagara River and the Niagara whirlpool. Here the river makes a 90? dogleg creating one of the largest whirlpools in North America. Although from above it looks sedate, we were informed this is not the case because of its 38 m (125 ft) depth and its 503 m (1,650 ft) diameter you might be quickly sucked under.{mospagebreak}
Continuing to the Falls, we next stopped at Brocks Battle Monument commemorating a British victory over America during the War of 1812. This was also the original location of Niagara Falls. For thousands of years, the pounding waters have continually eroded the landscape until it receded to its present location some 12 km (7.5 miles) away. From this vantage however, there are some truly magnificent views; and if traveling during autumn, the changing leaves only add to the beauty surrounding you.
