Hotel at a Glance: Quality Inn & Suites

Located a half mile from the falls, Quality Inn & Suites is close to many of Niagara Falls’ best attractions. Restaurants, shopping, and family-friendly entertainment are all within a 15-minute walk.

• Quiet spot to view the falls: Queen Victoria Park (a 10-minute walk from the hotel) has gorgeous views and smaller crowds than you’ll find elsewhere.
• Family and couples packages: Your stay includes dining credits to two nearby restaurants and a tour and tasting at Chocolate FX. Depending on which package you choose, you’ll also get either a gaming card for Clifton Hill Fun Center or a tour and tasting at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Diamond Estates – The Winery.
• In-room features: spacious layouts and free WiFi; some units have whirlpool tubs and mini refrigerators
• Go swimming in the indoor pool and relax in the hot tub and sauna.

Niagara Falls, Ontario: Panoramic Views of the Falls near Vegas-Style Casinos and Water Parks

At Niagara Falls—considered by many to be one of the world’s seven natural wonders—water thunders downward from a height of nearly 200 feet, crashing onto craggy boulders below. The falls straddle the border between Canada and the United States, with segments located in both New York and Ontario, but the Canadian side of the Niagara River is universally hailed as the finest vantage point to take in all three of Niagara Falls’ photogenic brinks: American, Bridal Veil, and Horseshoe Falls.

Hornblower cruises ferry raincoat-clad passengers around the base of the falls from April through October, depending on the river’s ice conditions. Year-round, Journey Behind the Falls grants a glimpse behind the curtain of Horseshoe Falls—board an elevator that descends 150 feet into the bedrock, then stand at an observation deck steps away from the cascading water.

A 10-minute walk from the falls, you’ll see the neon glow of the Clifton Hill neighborhood. Its Fallsview Boulevard has plenty of Vegas-style kitsch, including glitzy casinos, indoor water parks, restaurants, and soggy Elvis impersonators.

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Groupon Says

The Deal

• $20 for six months of access to an online mind-body wellness course from Deepak Chopra ($59.99 value)

The online course, known as Discovering Ayurveda, comprises over six hours of video lessons featuring Deepak Chopra, guided yoga and meditation, and a quiz to determine your dosha.

The course contents are rooted in Ayurveda, or traditional Indian health practices. Students will learn how their mind-body type affects their diet, sleep patterns, stress, and activities; then, they can find ways to improve their health and daily well-being.

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Choose Between Two Options

• $9 for one personalized softcover children’s book ($24.99 value)
• $14 for one personalized hardcover children’s book ($39.99 value)

The book is personalized with a child’s name, allowing them to have a starring role in the story.

Groupon Says

The Deal

$99 for one Cisco networking package ($4,443.60 value)

• Includes the following 9 Cisco courses:
  • Cisco CCENT
  • Cisco CCNA
  • Cisco Route 642-902 (CCNP)
  • Cisco Switch 642-813 (CCNP)
  • Cisco Troubleshoot 642-832 (CCNP)
  • Cisco CCNA Security
  • Cisco CCNA Voice
  • Cisco CCDA 640-864
  • Cisco CCNA Wireless
• Provides a comprehensive introduction to computer networking and security
• Topics include troubleshooting, implementing Cisco IP routing, handling security threats, and voice certification
• Package provides 12 months of access to downloads, templates, quizzes, and practice tests to improve IT knowledge

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Choose Between Two Options

• $30 for $50 worth of fireworks
• $50 for $100 worth of fireworks

Fireworks: Millennium-Old Magic

It’s taken centuries of tinkering to perfect the firework, which relies on much more than a dose of gunpowder to create a dazzling display. Read on to learn more about this brilliant invention.

Within a typical firework, there are numerous factors that determine the trajectory, color, and size of its explosion. Once an electrical wire or safety-trained wizard ignites the main fuse, it then triggers two secondary fuses—one attached to the lift charge, which hurtles the shell out of the launch tube, and one to a time-delay fuse that travels through the canister. Inside, the fuse sets off compartments filled with stars—small lumps of metal salts that, when ignited, produce the firework’s dazzling colors. These compartments might also contain sound charges, which consist of different kinds of explosives to produce specific effects. (Gunpowder, on its own, doesn’t create a terribly exciting boom.)

Look to the Eastern Sky

In the summer of 2008, more than 100,000 athletes, performers, and spectators gathered in Beijing National Stadium under a dazzling fireworks display that featured everything from dragons arcing across the sky to red peonies in bloom. The scope and pageantry was an appropriate celebration of the host country’s heritage, since by most accounts, fireworks originated in China with the discovery of gunpowder around 1,000 years ago. It’s believed that Chinese alchemists first stumbled upon gunpowder’s key ingredients—charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate—while searching, ironically, for an elixir of life.

Bonus Points

• Colored fireworks didn’t appear until the 19th century, when pyrotechnicians discovered that adding metal salts to the mix yielded different colors.
• For example: sodium compounds make yellow, and barium—jealous of sodium’s higher place on the periodic table—makes green.
• European royalty used fireworks to convey their power and grandeur starting with the Renaissance. Czar Peter the Great staged a five-hour spectacle in honor of the birth of his son.
• In the 1890s, the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise was formed in the US to deter unskilled firework technicians from setting off displays.

Groupon Says

The Deal

• One ticket to Once
• When: select dates, May 15–31
• Where: The Ed Mirvish Theatre
• Door time: one hour before showtime
• Pre-show: starting 30 minutes before showtime, ticket holders can enjoy a pre-show jam session by the cast along with drinks, available for purchase at the onstage bar.
• Full offer value includes ticketing fees

Seating Options

• $39 for orchestra sides, rows N–P or orchestra center, row P or R (up to $118 value)
• $59 for orchestra center, rows AA–O or orchestra sides, rows AA–M (up to $141 value)
• Click here to view the seating chart

Once

When his girlfriend leaves him, a heartbroken Dublin musician decides to give up on music after playing one last time. But a Czech woman hears his song and convinces him to play again. That chance meeting soon blossoms into a creative partnership and friendship—and maybe something more.

Based on the Oscar-winning film, Once transports the movie’s acclaimed songs to the stage. The Broadway production earned multiple accolades upon its debut—including eight Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and one Grammy Award—with praise for its talented cast. New York Post critic Elisabeth Vincentelli called it a “gem of a show” that “wins its standing ovations the old-fashioned way: with a love story, great songs, compelling characters and inventive stagecraft.”

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Inn at a Glance: The Orchard Croft Boutique Retreat

The Orchard Croft Boutique Retreat charms its visitors with several homey, country-style features—it sits amid an idyllic orchard filled with peach trees, and it’s trimmed with antique furnishings. The smell of home-baked pastries fills the inn every morning during the complimentary three-course breakfast. When it’s warm, guests like to lounge on hammocks slung between two trees. 

• Where you’ll stay: Elegant suites are named for popular wines and champagnes and are decorated in rich red and gold tones as a nod to the local vineyards. Free WiFi and an iPod docking station adds modern touches to the French Provincial-inspired decor. 
• Added perks: This deal include one four-course dinner, as well as wine tasting cards to use at nearby wineries.
• Hungarian-style breakfast: The menu changes to accommodate dietary restrictions, but the items are always made with produce from local farms and seasonal herbs grown onsite.

Jordan Village, Ontario: Historical Farm Town near Niagara Falls

Just a half-hour outside Niagara Falls’ crashing waters, the unassuming hamlet of Jordan Village sits amid rolling hills dotted with farms and wineries. The village provides a peaceful contrast from the more tourist-centered Niagara Falls, but there are still plenty of attractions to keep you occupied. For one, you can venture out to tour the nearby wineries. In the nearby village of Niagara-on-the-Lake, take a peek at the tree-lined Main Street, where you’ll find antique shops and British-style teahouses serving crumpets and selling imported candies.

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Groupon Says

The Deal

• $25 for one G-pass ticket to Deep Purple (up to $44.75 value)
• When: Monday, July 20, at 7 p.m.
• Where: Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
• Seating: level 400 
• Door time: 6 p.m. 
• Full offer value includes ticketing fees
• Click here to view the seating chart

How G-Pass Works: Your G-Pass will be ready to print 48 hours after the deal ends. Print the G-Pass and use it to enter the venue directly; you won’t need to redeem at will call. Due to security restrictions, G-Passes cannot be redeemed through the Groupon mobile app. Discount reflects the merchant’s current ticket prices - price may differ on day of event.

Deep Purple

• The mulberry sounds of Deep Purple: simple, meaty riffs that you can sing phonetically as “Duh-Duh-Duh” mixed with heady progressive hard rock and metal
• Album that brought them international fame: Machine Head, the 1972 behemoth that influenced the next generation of hard rockers and introduced the world to the timeless chord progression of “Smoke On the Water”
• How Deep Purple made the Guinness Book of World Records that same year: with a maximum-decibel live performance that earned them the title of “the globe’s loudest band”  
• Machine Head-era members you’ll see on this tour: singer Ian Gillian, drummer Ian Paise, and bassist Roger Glover, with longtime touring guitarist Steve Morse nailing Richie Blackmore’s iconic riffs
• What they’ll play live: classic-rock staples such as “Highway Star,” “Space Truckin’,” and “Smoke On the Water,” as well as tracks from the band’s latest album, Now What?!
• Deep baloney: the band has been nominated twice for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but never inducted, which has disgruntled everyone from Gene Simmons to Geddy Lee and Slash

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