Going home next week and my lovely wife wants to go to the falls for the 4th. The thought of driving 2 hours to spent time in NYS....even upstate in a crowd pains me.

But .....I love her so, any first hand experiences or advice?

First bit of advice, don't refer to anything west of Rochester as 'upstate'.

My other advice is that it will be ridiculously crowded. Plan on it being like going into DC on the 4th of July. Any of the attractions will have long lines. Maid of the mist, jet-boating the Niagara river, going under the falls, hiking the gorge...

Fortunately, there is plenty to do if you do want to spend the entire day there (in order to get a spot on the US side). Niagara Falls US has lots of tourist trap stuff - wax museums and casinos if that's your shtick. The state park is awesome. This is where to go if you want to picnic and relax.

But I like the Canadian side so that's an option for you as well. Last time I was there, which was a lot of years ago, I still preferred to go to the Canadian side to have lunch and see the falls. You can get right up on the horseshoe. Lots of restaurants and places to picnic as well. The QEB from Buffalo is a nice drive as well.

We spent July 4th on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls summer of 2016. It was packed. We did not even enjoyed the fireworks since we got there late. We had to watch from a distance, by the park. On the way back to the campground where we parked, we have to take public bus. It took almost 2 hrs for a 10 mile bus ride. Traffic was just crazy. I dont remember seeing much attractions on the Canadian side other than restaurants.

We are currently at our cottage in Canada, about 25 miles from the Falls. We bike there rather than drive, to avoid the traffic and crowds and that's true anytime during the summer.

I was at the Canadian side last August and there was a fireworks display every night. Are the fireworks bigger and last longer on July 4?