Tours in St. Catharines

Founded by the architectural adepts of Preservation Buffalo Niagara, Buffalo Tours educates residents and visitors alike on the architectural heritage of the city and simultaneously raises funds for ongoing preservation efforts. More than 20 available walking tours, which vary seasonally, highlight such treasures as Buffalo’s most hallowed restaurants. The Parkside Neighborhood tour grants glimpses of an angular abode designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who often used 1:16 models of his old projects as straight edges when designing his new ones. A historical Crime & Scandal tour explores Prohibition-era haunts and old presidential philandery. Boat, bus, and bike tours, alternatively, give hooves a break while their owners cruise down the Buffalo River, visiting War of 1812 battlefields or four of Buffalo’s museums.

Tours operate year-round, exploring city hall and downtown by winter and other locales daily from May to October. Members gain access to members-only events, often at a discounted rate, as well as a regular newsletter, which bestows information about the area's history, updates from the organization, and detailed landscaping horoscopes.

Air Combat Zone maintains a group of CF-18 flight simulators that have impressed real-world fighter pilots with dead-on recreations of actual cockpit sensations. In a single visit, civilians with no aviation experience transform into ace pilots capable of flawless aircraft-carrier landings and dogfights victories over enemy planes. Designed to outdo mere video gaming or jumping off your roof, Air Combat Zone takes guests through an immersive, detailed experience using actual military terminology. Detailed training with computers accompanied by propeller noises create a realistic, high-stakes experience. Once in the simulators, sky warriors find themselves at the helm of an F/A-18 Hornet fighter. The simulator is built with exact replicas of the venerable Boeing jet's throttle, heads-up display, and instrumentation, with the action outside the plane projected onto a dizzying 8"x6" screen.

For many entrepreneurs, beginning a business can be tedious and tiring. For the founders of Taste the Town Tours, it was downright delicious. In order to locate the most savoury cuisine for their guests, the owners sent their taste buds on a jaunt through Niagara-on-the-Lake's historical downtown district, unleashing them into establishments such as a charming bistro, an Irish tearoom, and a fudge shop. Coupling mouth-watering morsels with cultural information about the area, the guides are able to construct an excursion that is both tasty and educational, like a tour through an edible textbook factory.