NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – It’s almost an obligation as a tourist in America to put on a bright blue poncho and feel the power of Niagara Falls from the deck of the Maid of the Mist.

View of Niagara Falls from the deck of Maid of the Mist. Image by Tom Adkinson.

Anyone who dismisses the experience as hokey or unsophisticated simply is missing out. The first boat business below the falls was in 1846, but that was for commerce. A bridge over the gorge turned the water-level experience to tourism just two years later. As the Maid of the Mist company notes, it’s been offering “celebrity sightings and soakings” ever since. Among the luminaries are the beautiful (Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford, Kate Hudson), the royal (Princess Diana, along with Prince William and Prince Harry), the scary (Vincent Price), the athletic (Monica Seles), the adventurous (Sir Richard Branson) and the literary (Stephen King). The list goes on and on, just as the falls do.

Trip-planning resource: MaidOfTheMist.com