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The Trip Must End

In the final installment of their fictional travel series, steve coogan and rob brydon let us live vicariously one last time..

Though I’ve long been a fan of the Trip films, I was not prepared to get emotional over the announcement of a new one. Learning of the impending May release of The Trip to Greece — the fourth and final entry in the series that follows British comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing fictional versions of themselves, as they travel lovely roads, eat lovely meals, and do lovely impressions, all the while hilariously sniping at each other over personal and professional matters — led to some complicated feelings. Here was a movie about all the things we can’t do right now, not that most of us could ever really do them: Go for a long car ride in another country with a friend-colleague-rival (at least, that’s how Coogan and Brydon present themselves in these efforts), stay in a hotel, eat in a nice restaurant, and then move on to the next location.

The films, directed and conceived by Michael Winterbottom and partly improvised by Coogan and Brydon, aren’t indulgent wallows in food and privilege, however: Through the heightened, fictionalized portraits of Coogan and Brydon’s petty professional jealousies, they also interrogate the cocoon of celebrity culture. We always get the sense that reality is slowly catching up to these gents. Never has this been truer than in 2020’s The Trip to Greece , which alongside the impressions and the bickering and the delicious meals, finds Coogan and Brydon confronting the agony of the refugee crisis, as well as personal loss in their own lives. (The films all start off airing in longer series form in Britain, and Greece premiered on TV in the U.K. in February.) But for all the darkness, it still manages to be quite charming.

Coogan and Brydon have always been upfront about the fact that the two men presented onscreen are not really their true selves. (They’ve been outfitted with different families, for starters.) But when I get them together for a Zoom one dreary March morning, they slip right into (gently, collegially, lovingly) taking the piss out of each other. Brydon is at home in London. Coogan is at home in Essex, behind him a monitor displaying footage from a series of security cameras, a fact that Brydon does not leave unmentioned.  Brydon is late to our chat; Coogan has noticed …

Hi, Rob. Rob Brydon: Hi, so sorry. I totally forgot.

Steve Coogan: Well, that doesn’t entirely surprise me.

RB: It’s very hard to remember things, I find, at the moment.

SC: Because you’re rushed off your feet, are you? [ Laughs. ]

RB: There’s an interesting thing here. I’ve got an 11-year-old and an 8-year-old, and I think the experience at the moment of people who have young children is very different from the experience of the people who don’t. The people who don’t are watching films, reading books, it’s rather lovely.

SC: I don’t envy you. I’m being facetious. But can you go out?

RB: We go out once a day. One day we do a walk, the other day we do a bike ride. But we don’t come into contact with anyone. We’ve got a big garden, so we can be in that.

SC: You can’t cycle around your garden, can you?

RB: No, no, we cycle the streets. You can cycle the streets as long as you don’t come into contact.

SC: Isn’t that a bit hazardous?

RB: No, because the roads are so quiet.

How are you guys holding up? What the hell is life like for you? RB: Are you alright, Steve? Are you okay?

SC: I am okay. I’m here with my daughter and her boyfriend. Just the three of us. They’re obviously quite happy with each other, and I just kind of hang out with them saying, “What are you guys doing?,” which is slightly awkward. I think they’d be fine without me here, but I’m not sure I’d be fine without them here. So, I’ve been doing that and, you know, going for runs, and Skype writing because that’s what I was doing anyway. I’m carrying on with that, and trying to imagine somehow that the things I write might still somehow be relevant in a post-corona world. I think anyone who’s pitching anything or making anything after this will claim that it’s somehow relevant to coronavirus, whatever it is. But I’m very fortunate. I did some shopping for some people, locally, and the woman asked, “Do you want some money?” And I said, “No, that’s fine. Just make some contribution to some charity.” And my writing partner said, “What you really said was, ‘Just make sure you tell people about it.’” [ Laughs. ] Which I’m doing now.

RB: You know what I would love now is if that as we’re doing this we see behind you, Steve, people breaking into your house and stealing your stuff on the screen, while you’re talking, unaware of what’s going on.

SC: [ Glances behind him. ] Security cameras! And I’m claiming that I care about the local community.

RB: [ Laughs. ] Like a little old woman … [ inaudible ].

You broke up a little bit there, Rob. RB: It doesn’t bear repeating.

SC: Oh, come on, I like it when you’re forced to repeat a punchline after the moment’s gone.

I know a lot of people thought they’d have more time to read, and do other things, but what they’re discovering is they can’t focus on anything, due to the anxiety and stress. SC: I think people are still in a state of shock. Because it all happened rather quickly. But when people adjust to the new reality that’s going to be here for at least a few months …

RB: I’ve actually been reading Alan Bennett’s diaries again. I find those incredibly calming and relaxing, this really lovely ordered world.

SC: I watched Brief Encounter the other day, which was really, really wonderful.

RB: I bet it moves nice and slowly. We showed the boys The Great Escape and really enjoyed it.

SC: It’s great when you can enjoy things vicariously a second time around through your children. Having said that, I just got through the second season of El Chapo and I’m looking forward to the third.

Before watching Trip to Greece this weekend, I rewatched all three previous Trip movies. I started with The Trip to Spain , and there’s that moment early on, where you’re at a restaurant, sitting outside, and it starts to rain and everybody crowds inside. It’s the kind of annoying little thing that everyone has probably experienced at some point in their lives. And yet, I started tearing up watching it, because here was this incredibly common human moment that I can’t have right now. And who knows when I’ll ever get to have it. I was surprised at how it struck me. SC: Wow. When people come out of prison they often talk about the visceral pleasure of feeling rain.

RB: I’ve been seeing lots of things like that at the moment. I see something on television or a film, and I see people meeting somewhere, and think, Wow, that’ll be nice to be able to do that again.

I found The Trip to Greece to be quite poignant. It does seem like the saddest entry in the series. We get this sense that reality is catching up to you guys. SC: What Michael [Winterbottom] does with Rob and I is that whatever peccadillos or idiosyncrasies we have, we just sort of build on them. Because he’s middle-aged like we’re middle-aged, so he just addresses those things. What’s the word? It takes the curse off these things. When we talk about these things, or laugh at these things, they suddenly become diminished. These big questions — the anxiety of life — become somehow just put in a box. And if you make art out of it … What’s that Nora Ephron line? “Everything is copy.”

RB: Oh, you’re speaking of Nora Ephron. You know in The Trip to Greece where I say, “I did a Skype audition,” that was for Nancy Meyers.

SC: Oh, yes, Nancy. I auditioned for her.

RB: Yeah, me too. I didn’t get it.

SC: I didn’t get it either. I auditioned for The Holiday , and she said I wasn’t sexy enough.

RB: I didn’t audition for that. No, this was a little thing. But it was very funny because she was very flattering, and of course I’m very good with flattery. I respond very well to it. And then I did my bit, and of course didn’t get it.

SC: So, basically, you peaked at the small talk.

RB: Yeah! I think I’m good at that. I very rarely get a part that I audition for.

SC: I’m the same. I remember once this director said, “Can you stop saying the name of the character when you talk about it and just say ‘I’?” Right? So when I’m writing Alan Partridge, I say, “Alan does this, and Alan does that.” I don’t say “ I do this,” you know. I just say, “Alan.” And I was talking about a part with this director, saying “he,” referring to the character. “ He does this and then I think he does this,” and [the director] says, “Can you stop saying ‘he’ and say ‘I’, I think it will help you.” And I found myself saying, “Fuck off.” That’s why auditioning doesn’t go well for Rob or, I’d say, me.

Do you ever hear from chefs who felt they or their food were portrayed unfairly on the show? SC: I was at L’Enclume only two months ago. L’Enclume is in the first Trip , in the Lake District, not far from me. I went there for dinner, and the chef, Simon Rogan, who’s very much a respected Michelin star chef, came up and went, “Hey, how are you?” And it was all very friendly, but he still mentioned Ray Winstone’s snot. I don’t know if that’s in the film version [or only in the BBC series version], but there’s this one particular dish that had a green liquid in it that looked a bit like — and I don’t know how we arrived at this, I can’t remember — but I do remember that I compared it to Ray Winstone as a gangster forcing someone to eat his mucus. And for Simon Rogan, the chef … I mean this was ten years ago and whenever I see him he still brings it up in conversation. You know, we were very, very nice, and very complimentary, but it’s funny that that’s the thing that sticks in his mind about the show.

RB: We just praise the food because it’s always very nice, although I’m often not paying that much attention to it. People often say to me, “Which is the best food?” I’m just thinking, What am I going to say next? I’m trying to be inventive and creative. What I do remember are the meals we would eat in the evenings when we weren’t filming.

SC: Yeah. Do you remember, Rob, I think one of the most pleasurable meals we had was in King’s Landing. I think it was the Angel Pub in Yorkshire, and it was fried breakfast, after we had been to Bolton Abbey …

RB: It was simple ingredients.

SC: Yeah, but not the normal simple ingredients. There weren’t fresh, clean ingredients. It was a fried breakfast. It was egg, bacon, sausage, tomato, beans.

RB: But done beautifully.

SC: I remember sitting outside that pub by the road and thinking that was lovely, just … yeah. I’d go back there, you know. I’d go back there.

RB: Well, I went back to Holbeck Ghyll, which is in the Lake District, with my wife and my two younger children …

SC: Did they sit you by the window?

RB: I think, yes, we sat in the same seat, and I felt like the returning hero, and I thought, Surely we’re not going to be charged for this meal . But we were.

SC: You know what, Rob, you say that, but I have to say I have been back there several times, and my brother-in-law and my sister who both are very normal people who work in the public sector helping people with special needs, I told the proprietor and they stayed there for three nights, having Michelin-star dinners every night, and the whole thing was free.

RB: And yet one-half of the original team who made that thing has to pay. Where’s the fairness? [ Laughs. ]

SC: I think that it’s basically socialism in action. Those who can afford it pay. Those who can’t are subsidized. That’s fair. That’s my political worldview in action. So, it was right that you were charged.

RB: I’m struggling with it. A discount would have been something.

How often do you hear back from the subjects of your impressions? RB: We did a thing with Michael Caine at the Albert Hall, and he was very nice. You can see it . Anthony Hopkins I met in Los Angeles and he said, [ does an Anthony Hopkins voice ] “I loved The Trip. Loved The Trip .” This was after we’d done the first one and the Italian one hadn’t come out. And I said, “Well, in this new one, the Italian one, we’re on a yacht and we do you in The Bounty .” And he started doing it! He started going, “Turn your back away, Mr. Fryer!” And then I was doing it back to him. We were in a car and I got rather giddy. Hopkins! Hopkins occupies a sort of Brando-like position in the business. I think he is the equal of any actor, if you look at what he has put onscreen and onstage. And there he was, and he was doing it, you know, right next to me. And I’m doing it back at him! It was all I could do not to cry. It was quite overwhelming.

SC: Gosh, yeah … I’m quite envious of that.

Has anybody you’ve done impressions of reacted negatively? RB: I don’t think so. I think most people are flattered by it.

SC: Oh, me! That’s me. When you do me. I react slightly negatively.

RB: I do Steve Coogan and he’s a prickly customer. He doesn’t like it.

SC: [ Laughs. ] Probably the most negative reaction is me when he does me. That’s the truth, yeah. I do find it a little bit uncomfortable when he does it. You know how some people don’t like it when you take photographs of them, because they think you’re taking their soul? I feel like somehow it’s distilling some DNA, like a little bit of witchcraft. There’s something discombobulating about it. I don’t think it’s quite me, but there’s a certain familiarity about it. It’s reductive, that’s what it is. Because I think what I do is quite interesting, and if you do it, it’s almost like you can sort of bottle it and sell it in Boots, and that worries me, you know.

RB: And he’s telling the truth when he says that.

SC: Yes, yes. Yes. [ Laughs. ]

Rob, I hear that you declined to meet Al Pacino once. RB: Yeah, that is true. I was doing The Huntsman: Winter’s War . A big hit. It exploded at the box office. It bombed. And I played a dwarf. Great fun. And Jessica Chastain was on it, and one weekend she said, “Al is in town. We’re going to meet up for drinks. Do you want to come?” Now, I had a school event on, so I had to go to some parents’ thing. I could have got out of it, but I chose not to because I thought, Well, what’s going to happen? I’ve ended up meeting a lot of my acting and musical heroes, but there are some then who I think … Well, I’ve already got a great relationship with Al Pacino in my head, you know? So let’s just leave it at that.

Both of you have done work over the years that blurs the line between reality and fiction, but with the first Trip , was there any kind of adjustment, in that you really were playing these versions of yourselves? Was there a question of how much reality to put in? SC: I remember having a chat with Rob and saying, “Let’s risk offending each other and not take it personally, to try and find funny things.” I don’t know that we actually shook hands. And that pretty much worked, I think, 95 percent of the time. I got tetchy sometimes, but by and large that held, that sort of gentleman’s ribbing.

RB: The difference with the first one, from my perspective, was that it was very new, and we were going into it thinking, Well, what is this? You know, because Michael [Winterbottom]’s pitch was as a series initially, although he was saying he was going to make a film. It was six half-hours. And I remember thinking, How on Earth can we improvise enough good stuff for six half-hours? I was convinced we wouldn’t. The thing that surprised me about the first one when I watched it was the melancholy. We were traveling home every weekend, because it was done in Britain, and I’d come home and say to my wife, “Oh yeah, Steve was very funny, we did some very funny stuff.” But of course I wasn’t aware of the way Michael was shooting it, and the music he was going to put on it, and the long, slow shots. And that’s part of its success: You’ve got us two who, broadly speaking, follow traditional comic instincts and timings, and then you’ve got Michael who is a very un-manipulative filmmaker. He just wants to tell the story. Just, blomp , there it is, there’s the story. There are often times where I think, “Well, why didn’t you cut here, or cut a bit sooner on the joke?” But it was better that he didn’t, because it made it very individual.

SC: I agree with Rob there. And in fact I think Rob and I were sort of trying to get involved with Michael in the process in the first Trip , and then after that we just didn’t bother anymore.

RB: Futile, futile.

SC: Pointless! Pointless! And a waste of energy because Michael’s very good at what he does. These films are Michael Winterbottom films, and we’re just in them doing stuff.

Rob, I remember a story you told about how in The Trip to Italy , after you had the affair with the deckhand, your wife was hearing from people the next day saying, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry this happened.” RB: Yeah, she was taking the boys to school, and a teacher came up, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, “This must be a very difficult time for you.”

SC: That is very worrying that your kids were going to a school where a teacher can’t make that distinction.

RB: A state school. It’s more of a commune, really.

SC: What’s funny is if you say things that are self-critical or portray yourself in that negative light, as we do in The Trip , it sort of it nixes those who ought to say things like “In reality,” because you think, what can they say? Not only have I criticized myself, I’ve turned it into something creative and helped pay the rent with it.

RB: I always find it very funny that some people watch it and take it simply as a reality show, as if literally he’s just following us around and these things are really happening.

SC: I mean, while we’re having dinner, you think that might be real. But when I sleep with the receptionist at the hotel, how they think I allowed a film crew into the bedroom to —

RB: How she allowed you into the bedroom, I think would be the …

SC: Well, that’s more believable.

I think part of it is that reality TV has trained people to accept these things as real. Because that sort of thing would happen on, you know, The Real World . SC: That’s very true. This is such a weird hybrid.

RB: I can’t speak for Steve here, but I don’t really watch those programs because I’m a bit of a snob.

SC: Yeah. But I do.

It’s a bit of a reality series, but it’s also something of a movie franchise. For people like me, you know, The Trip is almost our version of a superhero franchise. There’s something familiar about it, there’s the template, but then the variations are what make it fun. And you guys are ending it right around the time The Avengers and Star Wars are sort of ending as well. RB: It’s our Endgame , yeah.

SC: We’re superheroes for middle-aged, middle-class, white professionals.

Part Two of this interview will run next month. The Trip to Greece will be available in the U.S. on May 22, 2020. The previous Trip films are currently streaming on IFC Films Unlimited.

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Steve Coogan Reaches the End of ‘The Trip’

He plays a version of himself in the movie series, which is ending with “The Trip to Greece.” In reality “I’m not quite as precious as I come across. But there’s certainly a lot of truth in it.”

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By Kathryn Shattuck

As fans of “The Trip” movies know well by now, Steve Coogan has a shelf full of Baftas, the British equivalent of the Oscars. It’s a feat turned running gag throughout the films as he flaunts it at virtually every opportunity.

So when Rob Brydon, his traveling companion and comic foil, asks Coogan what he’s proudest of in “The Trip to Greece,” the answer is perhaps not surprising.

“My seven Baftas,” Coogan says.

“For me, it would be my children,” Brydon says.

“Well, because you haven’t got any Baftas,” Coogan replies.

“You have got children,” Brydon retorts.

In “ The Trip to Greece ,” opening Friday on video on demand and some theaters , the preening Coogan and laissez-faire Brydon, playing slightly exaggerated versions of themselves, come to the end of their decade-long series of gastronomic excursions. The structure is familiar: They drive through breathtaking scenery on their way to multi-star restaurants and hotels, peppering their conversations with bon mots, celebrity impersonations and insults.

Only this time, the director Michael Winterbottom has given the men six days to retrace Odysseus’ 10-year journey from Troy to Ithaca, while finding their own ways back home.

In a Zoom session from his house in Sussex, England, a mustachioed Coogan, 54 — who in real-life received two Oscar nominations for “Philomena” (2013) along with those seven Baftas — spoke about staying relevant in middle age, imagining where his character winds up, and quarantining with his 23-year-old daughter, Clare, and her boyfriend.

“I’m just this kind of slightly annoying dad that comes in and goes, ‘What are you guys doing?’” he said, with a flash of goofy laughter. There wasn’t a Bafta in sight.

These are edited excerpts from our conversation.

How have you been coping during quarantine?

I’m lucky that I’m in lockdown with my daughter, who’s just a fantastic cook. Each night I go, “Oh my God, this is the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.” And I’ve been writing a lot, because that’s one thing that we are still able to do. We already isolated ourselves.

What have you been churning out?

I’m a bigamist writer; I’ve got various partners. I’m writing a post-woke comedy-drama — a sort of romance, really — with a female writer in L.A. We’re navigating the rocks of the new sexual political landscape, shall we say. I’ve also written a drama about a hippie commune in Wales in 1969. And Jeff Pope and I wrote about the woman who found the body of Richard III in a car park. This is the third screenplay we’ve written since “Philomena,” and it’s quite odd that two middle-age men write stories about female empowerment. [Laughs] We’re desperately trying to hang on by writing things that are proper, modern.

I’ll write another Alan Partridge , too [a reference to his vain talk-show host character]. It’s nice to do stuff that’s pure comedy because then when you write it, you laugh a lot. And when you laugh, it releases endorphins — or is it serotonin? Pleasure chemicals, I get them confused. [It’s endorphins.] But anyway, it makes you feel good.

With “The Trip” movies, you’ve eaten and written your way through northern England, Italy and Spain. How did you, Rob and Michael decide that Greece would be your last adventure?

Four felt right. And Greece, it was a classic. The Greek philosophy and mythology lent themselves to this huge, contemplative quality, and having me returning home and mimicking Homer’s “Odyssey” to this sort of conclusiveness. We also felt on a level, “Let’s quit while they’re still good.” That’s not saying we’d never do another one, but it feels like we should wait. Right now our thing is middle-age angst, but pretty soon it will just be old-man angst.

These movies are a showcase for Steve’s attempts at erudition. Do you actually have all that knowledge rattling around in your head?

I do prep work, but I’m naturally curious. I had a quite good education, I would say. I went to a Catholic school, which in this country was a bit like a free private education. The curse is, if you’re from very humble origins and you haven’t had a good education, you don’t know what you don’t know. Then if you’re half well-educated, the curse is that you’re aware of the knowledge you don’t have. That’s what I felt I was. In answer to that, I love to learn.

So yes, I do my homework. Rob doesn’t do his homework, but that’s almost deliberate, because he can trivialize my quest for the truth, as it were.

This time around, Steve’s father is seriously ill. You lost your own father two years ago. What was it like tapping into such personal memories?

Funnily enough, I did a version where I was very emotional. I wept as I would when I re-emulated some of those scenes. Then Michael wanted me to do it again and just hold it all back. I think it’s probably better for that, because audiences don’t like completely candid displays of emotion, whether happiness or sadness. Audiences like to look for stuff. And painful stuff is where you find good art, I suppose. Otherwise you end up with some vanilla-flavored mediocrity.

What misconception might viewers of “The Trip” have about you?

I’m not quite as precious as I come across. But there’s certainly a lot of truth in it as well.

Onscreen, Steve grapples with relevancy in middle age. And offscreen?

Right now I’m probably the happiest I’ve been — with the proviso that there’s no such thing as a state of big happiness. I’d like to work a bit less, to be honest. But I’m grateful that I’m able to make creative choices based purely on whether I believe in the thing I’m doing. Also, weirdly, this lockdown meant that I discovered a parallel universe in my daughter that I hadn’t really been aware of before, because I’ve not spent this long with her since she was a child. That’s a kind of strange blessing.

What life do you imagine for Steve now that his journey has ended?

When I shot that scene of going home, it felt strangely poignant — almost as if, I said to Rob afterward, I got dementia in my old age, I might imagine that that was my life. It felt real. And in my head I suppose it plays out that he does come home, he does return to the stability of those people that love him. Craving the stability more than the excitement of being rootless, of being nomadic. Yeah, it’s a funny little thing, playing a version of yourself.

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Niagara Falls: 4 Mistakes to Avoid & What to do Instead

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When we took our first trip to Niagara Falls more than a decade ago, I was convinced it would be our last. It wasn’t that impressive, the area seemed kind of tacky and in three hours we felt like we’d seen more than we really needed to.

It turns out we were doing it wrong. We made plenty of Niagara Falls “rookie mistakes”, but fortunately I learned from them and our visit at the end of our epic New York/Canada road trip . Our second trip to Niagara Falls was far more successful, so I’m here to share what I’ve learned along the way: the best things to do in Niagara Falls and what not to do in Niagara Falls. You’ll also find out where to stay in Niagara Falls, how to get around Niagara Falls Canada and more in this Niagara Falls trip planning guide.

Where to stay in Niagara Falls (Canadian side)

I’ll discuss the reasons why more below, but I strongly recommend that you get a hotel on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. There are a few features I’d look out for that are specific to staying overnight in Niagara Falls, and in my opinion a clear winner .

• Falls view: The point of staying overnight in Niagara Falls is to have an amazing view at all hours, so don’t skimp on this! If you’re using a hotel comparison engine to narrow things down by price, they generally show you the cheapest available room rather than the room with the view you want – prepare to do some digging.
• Accessibility to Niagara Falls viewing area: The vast majority of Niagara Falls hotels with a view are located along Fallsview Blvd. However , that’s up a fairly steep hill from the platforms along Niagara Parkway and there’s basically just one pedestrian route connecting them – Murray Street.
• Breakfast: In 2022 none of the hotels were offering free breakfast, and it showed. I kid you not that the line at the closest Tim Horton’s was out the door and all the way along the outside wall of the shop at 9am! For 2023, it looks like complimentary breakfast is back on at many hotels. If you’re planning ahead for a visit during the busy summer season, try to book a hotel that will serve a quick breakfast and get you out the door and on your way to the top Niagara Falls attractions.

Speaking of planning ahead, the good rooms at best hotels in Niagara Falls do book up early! Don’t miss out on a room with a view of Niagara Falls, especially if you’re visiting in the summer.

So which hotel do I think you should stay at in Niagara Falls? To me the winner is Embassy Suites Niagara Falls/Fallsview – which is not where we stayed . The Embassy Suites has a front-and-center view of both the American and Canadian sides for the nighttime light show, and it’s one of the best hotels where you can see the Niagara Falls fireworks! It’s one of the tallest hotels in Niagara Falls, so there are lots of opportunities for an excellent view. The hotel includes free breakfast and an evening manager’s reception, plus there’s a Starbucks in the lobby.

The other piece that makes the Embassy Suites a stand-out is the Niagara Falls Incline Railway in its backyard. Instead of hoofing it all the way to the Casino and traversing the steep hill of Murray Street, you can pay a few dollars to be deposited right where you want to go: the main viewing platform for Niagara Falls and the Niagara Falls Welcome Center. The Incline Railway is a miniature funicular and you can buy unlimited rides for just over $6 CAD per day. While the Niagara Falls Incline Railway is available to anyone willing to pay, the convenience for Embassy Suites guests is just unparalleled.

Check prices on these sites to make sure you get the best deal on the Embassy Suites in Niagara Falls:

If the Embassy Suites is so great, why didn’t we stay there? First, because I didn’t fully realize how isolated most of Fallsview Blvd is from Niagara Parkway (and when we arrived late at night the hotel clerk didn’t mention that we could shorten our walk by catching the Incline Railway). But second, I booked relatively last-minute for a holiday weekend and the cost would have been much more than I was willing to swallow.

As a compromise, we stayed up the street at the Radisson Hotel & Suites Fallsview . Check out our view above! In addition to the cheaper room, parking cost a reasonable $25 CAD compared with $70 CAD at Embassy Suites (yes, you read that right).

The Radisson isn’t nearly as tall as many of its neighbors and it’s located behind them (specifically this one ), but they do offer several rooms (including ours) with excellent views. Check out our view here! It flies a little “under the radar” compared to some of its neighbors so you may be more likely to score a deal compared with other Fallsview hotels. The staff was very helpful and the kids couldn’t get enough of the enormous polar bear in the lobby.

Check prices for the Radisson Niagara Falls here:

A final option to consider is the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel . It underwent a massive renovation within the last few years. It offers great views of Niagara Falls if you select the right room – be careful when booking because some rooms don’t even have a window (which I’ve never actually experienced at a hotel). If you want to see Horseshoe Falls, you have to select either “Fallsview” (preferably high floor) or “Canadian Fallsview Corner”.

One reason lots of families like the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel is that it’s directly connected to the fantastic Fallsview Indoor Waterpark. When you book directly through Marriott you can select a package that includes tickets. The waterpark has fun for all ages and is open (and heated) year-round.

If none of these strikes your fancy, this handy map should help you find a great hotel that meets your location needs and budget:

Niagara Falls Mistakes to Avoid

Want to have an amazing trip to Niagara Falls? Be sure not to make these mistakes – including a few that we’ve made in the past .

DON’T: Stay only on the American side

On our first visit to Niagara Falls, many years ago, we were driving from Buffalo and made a quick stop en route to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Stopping on the American side of Niagara Falls made sense for our plans so that’s what we did.

Unfortunately, the view from the American side of Niagara Falls is… incomplete. You can’t see all of Horseshoe Falls, and you’re standing right next to American Falls so that you can’t see all of that either when you’re in Niagara Falls State Park. When you’re debating Niagara Falls Canada vs New York, the winner is clear.

The only reason to skip the Canadian side of Niagara Falls in favor of the American side is if you don’t have a passport or you’re in a huge rush coming from the New York. If you have enough time, feel free to stop at both!

I won’t go into depth on the tourist attractions in Niagara Falls NY, but you’ll want to check out both Maid of the Mist and Niagara Falls observation tower (which extends over Niagara River Gorge) so that you can see American Falls, Horseshoe Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. Under the encouragement of Frederick Law Olmsted, the area surrounding the falls was wisely preserved as America’s first state park so there are plenty of beautiful free viewpoints.

Book a photoshoot

We always love to book a photoshoot when we’re traveling. As a mom, it’s tough to get in the photos since I’m always behind the camera. We use Flytographer to capture our memories. You can get $25 off your shoot by booking with this link or using code FAMILYVOYAGE.

DON’T: Get sucked into a scam

Confession time: on that ill-fated first trip to Niagara Falls, we didn’t do any research. We were just taking a quick side trip from Buffalo and we assumed everything would be straightforward. Go take in a view point, take a ride on Maid of the Mist and then move on to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Everything seemed fine as we pulled into the parking lot at One Niagara Welcome Center (pictured above so that you can avoid it) – it offers some of the cheapest parking in Niagara Falls New York. But once in the lot, we were funneled into the massive, official-looking building in order to access the Falls.

Since they advertise attraction tickets we asked to buy tickets for Maid of the Mist. They were happy to sell us tickets, but told us that the only way to go on Maid of the Mist was as part of a tour to see several Niagara Falls sites. That was an out and out lie, but we only found out after we had paid and been herded onto a shuttle bus that took us miles away (with other unsuspecting tourists) to see some other part of the Niagara River. At the end of the tour, more than an hour later, we were dropped off at the actual entrance to Maid of the Mist and handed bulk-purchased tickets.

Needless to say the experience left a bad taste in our mouths, as we felt we’d been cheated of our time, our money and our preference to be independent travelers. Niagara Falls is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York State and has the infrastructure to match – just don’t get suckered.

Read more: How to make the most of 24 hours in Toronto

DON’T: Spend all of your time mobbed by tourists

The most popular place in Niagara Falls, Canada is the walkway between the Table Rock Visitors Center and the boarding area for Niagara City Cruises, then continuing up to the Clifton Hill entertainment area. It’s packed!

Don’t be afraid to get away from the crows to have a different Niagara Falls experience. We found it much more peaceful on either end of Niagara Parkway (closer to Rainbow Bridge and near the Niagara Parks Power Station ). After being packed like sardines on a 700 person boat, finding ourselves virtually alone in Bird Kingdom was a welcome change – more on that below!

Another great way to avoid huge crowds is to visit Niagara Falls in winter !

DON’T: Leave after just a few hours

While you could get a quick taste of Niagara Falls just by looking out from the platform and taking a boat tour, you’d be missing out! Seeing Niagara Falls illuminated at night, getting below the Falls, watching fireworks over the American Falls, checking out an aerial view of Horseshoe Falls… there’s just so much to do that it’s worth spending at least 1 day in Niagara Falls.

We arrived in Niagara Falls mid-afternoon and departed just before lunch the following day. That allowed us enough time to see the Falls both day and night, and also minimized our crowded, tourist-priced meals.

Even if you’re only exploring the Niagara Falls American side, it’s still worth catching the unique side view of the illuminated American Falls before checking into your Niagara Falls New York hotel for the night.

Niagara Falls Things to Do

We’ve gone over what not to do, but what are the best things to do in Niagara Falls? Here are a few absolute “musts” along with Niagara Falls tips to ensure everything goes smoothly for you. Don’t forget to slow down and enjoy how pretty the area is!

DO: Get a room with a view

I’m not normally a hotel splurger, and I hesitate to even call our one night at the Fallsview Radisson a “splurge” at just over $300 USD. But there’s truly something special about seeing Niagara Falls from above during both the day and night. I even went to sleep with the window shade up a bit so that I could watch the light show on Horseshoe Falls from bed.

Since I went over the Fallsview hotels I recommend above I won’t rehash them now, but be sure to review those options carefully. Here are a few quick picks:

• Embassy Suites Niagara Falls/Fallsview
• Radisson Hotel & Suites Fallsview
• Map view with more options

DO: Take a boat tour

One of the most classic things to do in Niagara Falls is a boat tour, either Maid of the Mist on the New York side or Niagara City Cruises (formerly Hornblower) on the Canadian side. The two Niagara Falls boat tours are basically the same except for the departure point and the Canadian boats are a little nicer in my opinion. They both cross in front of the American Falls and then proceed into the thundering water of Horseshoe Falls for a drenching. Thankfully both boats give visitors a poncho to stay dry – red on the Canadian side and blue on the American side.

How long is the Niagara Falls boat tour? Surprisingly, it’s only about 20 minutes. But allow plenty of time for the complete “experience” if you’re visiting Niagara Falls in the summer – from the time we got in line to board to the time we disembarked it was a solid hour, plus a few more minutes waiting for an elevator back to the top.

What should you wear for Maid of the Mist or Hornblower? On a small adult carrying a backpack, the poncho goes to about knee length. I chose to wear shorts and waterproof shoes to avoid walking around soggy for the rest of the day. The ponchos extend much further on kids obviously, so only their shoes were exposed. One kid wore Keens while the other wore these boots and both stayed dry and comfortable.

Where is the best place to stand on a Niagara City Cruise? We took our Niagara Falls cruise in the afternoon, and it worked out great to park ourselves near the front of the boat a little toward the American side. We had a fantastic view of all three waterfalls for almost the entire boat ride and didn’t have the sun in our eyes except for a brief time at the end (when we were already soaked from Horseshoe Falls and didn’t care).

Can you take a baby on Maid of the Mist or Niagara City Cruises (Hornblower)? There’s no age restriction on children riding the Hornblower/Niagara City Cruises/Maid of the Mist. However , you need to think carefully about how you’re going to bring your baby on board. The provided ponchos do a very good job of keeping your upper half dry, but wouldn’t be safe for babywearing since they’re totally unbreathable.

The family next to us actually brought their entire stroller/car seat travel system on board but quickly seemed to realize it wasn’t a great choice: absolutely everything was soaked as soon as we got near Horseshoe Falls and there’s a risk that their car seat will develop rust and/or mold if not properly drained and air dried very quickly. At some point they took their overwhelmed and unhappy baby out of her car seat to hold her and they did their best to hold the slippery poncho around her. I’m not sure there’s really a great way to take a baby on a Niagara Falls boat tour but hopefully this at least gives you some food for thought.

DO: See Niagara Falls from different perspectives

The water flow rate over Niagara Falls clocks in at a cool 750,000 gallons per second . It is truly jaw-dropping and a place you have to see.

But one of the most fascinating things about Niagara Falls is that it looks completely different depending on where you’re standing. Give yourself time to check it out from different angles! Obviously be sure to stop at the main viewing areas along Niagara Parkway – there’s a reason this area is the most popular place to view Niagara Falls.

I’d recommend heading to the far ends of town for a more unique perspective in addition. For instance, if you head over toward the Falls from the Niagara Parks Power Station (more on that later) you can actually get right near the water before it tumbles over the cliff… and then you can get down to the bottom of the Falls too.

Closer to (of even on ) Rainbow Bridge on the opposite side of town you’ll get a wider perspective on the Falls. You can also get that broader – and higher – perspective from the top of Skylon Tower standing 775 feet above the Falls. Be sure to check this Groupon for discounted tickets!

DO: Consider your transportation options

The simplest way to visit Niagara Falls is by car. That’s straight-forward if you’re on a road trip, but if you’re flying in you’ll want to arrive in Toronto (2-2.5 hours depending on traffic) or Buffalo (45 minutes plus time to cross the border).

While Buffalo Niagara International Airport is closer, flights may be more limited an expensive – for example, our home in Columbus is much closer to Buffalo and in the same country, but Buffalo flights are more expensive and inexplicably require a stop. Greater Rochester International Airport faces the same challenges and is even further from Niagara Falls, though it’s a good gateway to visiting the Finger Lakes NY .

Keep in mind travel document requirements, which vary based on exactly how you get to Niagara Falls, Ontario.

• Flying into Toronto: Everyone needs a valid passport book
• Flying into Buffalo and crossing overland: Adults need a passport book, passport card, enhanced drivers license ( not the same as Real ID ) or NEXUS card; children under 16 only need a birth certificate

Why does this difference in documentation matter? If you’re planning to visit Niagara Falls with kids and your family doesn’t travel overseas with any regularity, it may be cheaper to fly into Buffalo since only the adults need a passport and they may have access to less expensive alternatives.

Once you get to an airport in the region, you can consider either renting a car or taking one of the many shuttle options from Toronto or from Buffalo . Which option is right for you depends a bit on what you intend to do – if you just want to spend a day or two at the falls, don’t plan on driving or you’re staying at a hotel with crazy expensive parking then the shuttle option maybe be a great fit.

Within the town of Niagara Falls, you can walk to some locations, take the hop-on/hop-off WEGO tourist bus (particularly the blue line) or drive and park as need be. If you have a rental car, you may want to park it at your hotel as soon as you arrive in Niagara Falls and then walk or take WEGO everywhere. Daily parking at most lots that are anywhere near the falls is $25-30. I paid it one day because it made logistical sense for our plans, but it definitely hurt!

If you’re thinking about the bus, WEGO Niagara Falls bus fare in 2022 is $10 per 24 hours for adults and $7 per child. You can also combine it with a daily package for the Niagara Falls Incline Railway at $6 per day. These options are all reasonably priced, but if you’re traveling as a family then parking in one of the convenient lots may just be the most sensible choice. In the photo at the top of this section, you can see where the Incline Railway, WEGO and parking all meld together near the Table Rock Welcome Centre.

DO: Visit some less popular attractions

It seems like there are a thousand different Niagara Falls attractions – some good, some bad and apparently some ugly . This time around we managed to have a few fantastic experiences that most tourists overlook.

Niagara Parks Power Station

The  Niagara Park Power Station  just opened as an attraction in summer 2022, so it’s still a little bit of a hidden gem. It was the first major power station on the Canadian side of the Niagara River and (other than added explanatory posters) still looks much like it did when it was operational. I highly recommend the guided tour, which explains how the falls were used to generate electricity, the fascinating history of the power plant and how it impacted the entire Niagara region.

After the tour, you’ll take a glass elevator down 180 feet and then walk the half-mile tunnel that used to carry water back into the Niagara River at the base of the falls. The viewing platform adjacent to Horseshoe Falls provides a fantastic perspective. It’s not as immersive as Maid of the Mist and Niagara City Cruises, but without the sheer power of Niagara Falls blinding you with its spray.

We spent about 2.5 hours at the Power Station including the guided tour and tunnel. The tunnel is cooler than it is outside, so you’ll want to throw a sweatshirt in your bag to be prepared or wear a long sleeved shirt. There are ponchos available (you can see them in yellow in the photo above) in case the wind picks up and brings spray toward the platform, but it’s less common than on the boat tours.

Bird Kingdom

We often prefer to visit locally-themed attractions when we travel, but an Ontario family we met over the summer convinced me that Bird Kingdom was well worth a visit. They were absolutely right! Be sure to add this to your plans for a family vacation to Niagara Falls, Canada.

Before I tell you how great the experience is, it’s good to know that Bird Kingdom is accredited by the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums – their residents come from other zoos, from the Species Survival Program, from surrenders by private owners and other ethical means. It’s run professionally and prioritizes animal welfare.

Now that the critical stuff is covered, our experience at Bird Kingdom was just as lovely as our Canadian friends promised! Even though we visited on Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend, we were just about the only people there. We spent tons of time privately enjoying the company of parrots, macaws and other exotic birds while peppering their human caregiver with questions about their behaviors, personalities and care. The kids and I were all enthralled!

The biggest claim to fame is that Bird Kingdom is the world’s largest indoor free-fly aviary. You can easily spend an hour watching a huge variety of birds flying around just being birds! There’s also a fun opportunity to feed the adorable lorikeets.

Thankfully Bird Kingdom has its own two-level parking garage that costs a very reasonable $3 per hour! You pay at the machine with a credit card and just pop the receipt in your windshield. Because Bird Kingdom is past the Rainbow Bridge, it’s much quieter than everything closer to the Falls. We parked our car there and made the quick walk over to Niagara City Cruises, then came back after the boat ride to spend an hour with the birds – Bird Kingdom is open until 6:30 in the summer (last admission 5:45).

We found the cheapest ticket prices through their (permanent?) Groupon using one of the frequently-available coupons to save on local activities.

DO: Drive for food if you need to

As I scoured Yelp for the best Niagara Falls restaurants, I was struck by the high prices and mediocre reviews paired with exhausting wait times reported for nearly every spot close to the Falls or the popular (and ultra-crowded) Clifton Hill entertainment area. Since I have no tolerance for that combination of traits, I asked some locals where to head for a better experience.

The universal suggestion was to head to the Lundy’s Lane district, about 3km from Clifton Hill. It’s a quick drive but offers better restaurants and little to no wait time even when we visited on a crowded holiday weekend. We had a nice, quiet Thai meal at Micah’s Bistro . Another recommended option is Italian restaurant Carpaccio just across the street.

The great news is that if you’ve chosen to rely on WEGO to get around Niagara Falls, you can take the red line to Dorchester Road to access some of these good restaurants in Niagara Falls.

For a truly special dining experience, head to nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake for dinner at HOB NOB . It’s housed in a restored 1832 Victorian manor that’s also the location of The Charles Hotel . We dined there for our anniversary what seems like a lifetime ago and it remains a memorable experience! While I know I suggested above staying in Niagara Falls and I still stand by that, I’ll forgive you for choosing the romantic charm of Niagara-on-the-Lake instead.

DO: Explore the rest of the area

The Niagara region of Ontario and western New York offer so many wonderful sites to explore! It would be a shame to overlook them. Even within just a few minutes of Niagara Falls there are a few places that should be on your radar for a Niagara Falls itinerary:

Niagara-on-the-Lake

On our first visit to the area we stayed overnight in this charming village just 15 minutes north of Niagara Falls, Ontario. It offers beautiful scenery along Lake Ontario, great dining and wonderful wineries to sample. The local specialty is ice wine, which benefits from the cold winters.

To avoid driving yourself from winery to winery, check out these two unique tour offerings:

• Small group wine tasting tour – Includes visits to three hand-selected wineries to showcase a variety of styles and sizes
• Vine and Dine winery bike tour – During our visit we saw just how bike-friendly the region is, so this will be our pick next time! You’ll visit four wineries and enjoy a picnic lunch all while getting in your exercise for the day.

Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center

While most of this article showcases things to do in Niagara Falls, Ontario, there’s one spot that’s on my personal “to visit” list for Niagara Falls, New York: the Underground Railroad Heritage Center . We missed it only because it wasn’t open the day we were on the New York side of Niagara Falls! This is a must-visit if you’re considering a 4 day Niagara Falls itinerary, which would give you plenty of time to explore both sides.

This region played a critical role in the search for freedom by self-emancipated Black Americans. Translation? Even as formerly enslaved people traveled up the East Coast or through Ohio away from “slave states”, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 kept them at risk as long as they remained in the United States. Thousands of people flooded across the Niagara River Suspension Bridge to reach safety and freedom in Canada – you can read more details here .

At the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center you’ll learn the stories of individual freedom seekers and pay homage to their lives through a unique art, interactive exhibits and more. Guided tours are available morning and afternoon most days of the week.

Visiting Niagara Falls Canada FAQs

Niagara Falls is the connection point between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It straddles the border between southern Ontario, Canada and western New York State.

The Canadian side of Niagara Falls affords a more complete view and robust tourism infrastructure for visiting Niagara Falls.

If you don’t have the time or documentation to cross the border to see Niagara Falls’ Canadian side, it’s still worth a quick visit to the American side.

You can get a great taste of Niagara Falls in 24 hours.

While Americans do not need a passport to see Niagara Falls from New York, you do need a passport, passport card, NEXUS card or enhanced drivers license to access the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

It’s possible to plan a car-free trip to Niagara Falls as long as you budget for transportation from a nearby airport.

If you’re trying to figure out how to get from NYC to Niagara Falls, you first need to recognize that they’re nowhere close to each other: the drive time is almost 7 hours if you don’t hit any traffic. The best way to get to Niagara Falls from NYC is to fly to Buffalo and hop in an Uber or grab a rental car .

Where to go next

It’s easy to extend your trip to Niagara Falls with these great options nearby!

• 9 Tips for Visiting Niagara Falls in the Winter (by a Local)
• An Incredible New York & Canada Road Trip
• How To Make The Most Of One Day In Toronto
• 10 Unmissable Things to do in Montreal
• Where to stay in Montreal with kids
• Quebec City Itinerary: 3 Days of History, Beauty and Beyond
• Whale Watching in Quebec: The Perfect Day Trip
• 8 Awesome Things to do in the Finger Lakes with Kids this Summer
• Watkins Glen State Park Hiking Tips
• How to Spend Your First Weekend In Pittsburgh and Love Every Minute of It

Still planning? Pin this for later!

What to read next

12 thoughts on “niagara falls: 4 mistakes to avoid & what to do instead”.

Can I fly into Buffalo and stay in Canada??

Hi Cynthia,

Absolutely! But you’ll need a passport to cross the border.

Safe travels, Melissa

I must say that shared information is really good. I will try to visiit this fall again!

My family and I just came back from the Falls and had a wonderful time. I wish I saw this well written blog prior to our stay, such valuable information!!! Definitely do Maid and the Mist that was extremely fun for the my family. Enjoy your trip and thanks for this insightful information, which I will definitely us upon our return.

I’m so glad you guys enjoyed all of the things to do in Niagara Falls!

Safe travels,

My daughter and I are in Toronto for just four days, and I rented a car from 6 PM Thursday to 6 PM Friday so we could drive out to London to see Western University. I thought about trying to cram in the most American thing ever… a drive-by visit to Niagara Falls!

Thanks to your article I was able to make a plan that worked fine. We left downtown Toronto at 6 AM, arrived at the Falls at 7:30 AM, turned towards the power station and parked in the tour bus only lot that is just 50 yards from the best view of all. No one is out enforcing anything at that time in the morning, so we got a few photos and a video and made it to Western with half an hour to spare. On the return trip we got the car back with another half hour to spare.

Couldn’t follow your recommendations to really take everything in, but it’s better to have seen it than not, yes? I thought it was so majestic at that hour, though very misty.

That’s a quick trip but I’m glad you made it there!

Enjoy your next adventure,

Such great information! We’re planning a trip next summer. Thanks for taking the time to write all of this out.

I’m so glad you found it helpful! Have an amazing trip to Niagara Falls.

Hi Melissa, planning our first family trip to Niagara Falls. Planning to visit both the US and the CAN side. From research, it seems choosing to stay in a hotel on the CAN side is preferred. We are flying from Louisiana. Should we fly into Toronto (YYZ)? 2 hour ride to get to Ontario. However, I don’t know if it would be feasible to fly into closer Niagara Falls Airport (IAG) then cross the Rainbow Bridge with all four of us pulling our carryon luggage to get to our CAN hotel. Thoughts?? Thank you. Really informative blog!

Hi Melanie, thanks for stopping by! The bridge is pretty long and I wouldn’t choose to cross on foot with luggage. Are you renting a car? It’s simple to cross by car.

Nice post. This wasn’t what I was searching for but I still liked reading it.

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Biden, after meeting with families of officers killed in NC, says the nation is grieving with them

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — President  Joe Biden  said Thursday he was praying for loved ones and all those left behind after he met privately with the families of law enforcement officers shot to death on the job. The visit came just a week after he sat down with the grieving relatives of two cops killed in upstate New York.

“The entire nation is grieving with these families,” he said from his second stop of the day in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was announcing new measures to cut lead pipes from the water supply.

Biden detoured to Charlotte for the visit that took place with little fanfare behind closed doors, as the White House wanted Biden to be seen as respecting the privacy of grieving families and avoiding the appearance of using their grief for political purposes. He also met with officers wounded during the shooting, and wished them a fast recovery.

The president took a short motorcade across the airport to the North Carolina Air National Guard base to meet  the group, which included elected officials . The location was an alternative to traveling into the city and was chosen as the least taxing one for local law enforcement officers who are still reeling from the deaths but who would have a hand in securing the president’s trip.

“The men and women of law enforcement, you represent the best of us,” he said from the podium at the second stop.

Once again, Biden was seeking to be an empathetic leader for a community reeling from gun violence, while also calling  for stricter rules around firearms  and more money for law enforcement on the front lines.

Four officers were killed this week in North Carolina, when a wanted man opened fire on a joint agency  task force  that had come to arrest him on a warrant for possession of a firearm as an ex-felon, and fleeing to elude capture. They were: Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer; and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks.

Four other officers were wounded in the gunfire; the suspect was killed. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a 40-caliber handgun and ammunition were found at the scene.

An AR-15 is among the weapons most  often used in mass shootings, and it’s the type of gun Biden is talking about when he says the U.S. should ban "  assault weapons .” Congress passed the most  comprehensive gun control legislation in decades  in 2022, after a horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But it didn’t go far enough, Biden often says.

And as he campaigns for the 2024 election, Biden has made curbing gun violence a major campaign platform,  elusive to Democrats even during the Obama era , as he fends off attacks from Republican challenger  Donald Trump that he is soft on crime  and anti-police.

“We have to get them the resources they need to do their job,” Biden said of law enforcement. “And keep the weapons of war” out of the wrong hands.

The violence came just about two weeks after another  fatal shooting of law enforcement officers  in Syracuse, New York; Lieutenant Michael Hoosock and Officer Michael Jensen were killed while looking for a driver who fled a traffic stop. After his speech, Biden met relatives of both of the officers’ families.

Biden had already been scheduled to come to Syracuse to celebrate  Micron Technology’s plans to build a campus of computer chip factories , but the local police union said officers were still coming to terms with the deaths and weren’t happy with the president’s trip and had hoped he would delay.

On Thursday from Wilmington, Biden announced his administration was providing states with an additional $3 billion to replace lead pipes across the country, building on $5.8 billion for  water infrastructure projects around the country  announced in February.

“There’s no safe level of lead exposure,” he said. “None. The only way forward is to replace every lead service line that connects clean water.”

Money for the pipe replacement comes from one of the administration’s key legislative victories, the  $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law  that  Biden  signed in 2021. The infrastructure law includes over $50 billion to upgrade America’s water infrastructure.

The new round of funding will help pay for projects nationwide as Biden seeks to replace all lead pipes in the country.

“We’re going to get it done,” he said.

EPA estimates that North Carolina has 370,000 lead pipes, and $76 million will go to replace them statewide. Biden also will meet with faculty and students at a Wilmington school that replaced a water fountain with high levels of lead with money from the law.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Matthew Daly and Josh Boak contributed to this story.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors in the  hush money trial  of Donald Trump heard a  recording  Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.

A visibly irritated Trump leaned forward at the defense table, and jurors appeared riveted as prosecutors played the September 2016 recording that attorney Michael Cohen secretly made of himself briefing his celebrity client on a plan to buy  Karen McDougal’s  story of an extramarital relationship.

Though the recording surfaced years ago, it is perhaps the most colorful piece of evidence presented to jurors so far to connect Trump to the hush money payments at the center of his criminal trial in Manhattan. It followed hours of testimony from a lawyer who negotiated the deal for McDougal’s silence and admitted to being stunned that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to Trump’s White House victory.

“What have we done?”  attorney Keith Davidson  texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer, which had buried stories of sexual encounters to prevent them surfacing in the final days of the bitterly contested presidential race. “Oh my god,” came the response from Dylan Howard.

“There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way — strike that — our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” Davidson told jurors, though he acknowledged under cross-examination that he dealt directly with Cohen and never Trump.

The testimony from Davidson was designed to directly connect the hush money payments to Trump’s presidential ambitions and to bolster prosecutors’ argument that the case is about interference in the 2016 election rather than simply sex and money.  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg  has sought to establish that link not just to secure a conviction but also to persuade the public of the significance of the case, which may be  the only one of four Trump prosecutions to reach trial this year.

“This is sort of gallows humor. It was on election night as the results were coming in,” Davidson explained. “There was sort of surprise among the broadcasters and others that Mr. Trump was leading in the polls, and there was a growing sense that folks were about ready to call the election.”

Davidson is seen as a vital building block for the prosecution’s case that Trump and his allies schemed to bury unflattering stories in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He represented both McDougal and porn actor  Stormy Daniels  in negotiations that resulted in the purchase of rights to their claims of sexual encounters with Trump and those stories getting squelched,  a tabloid industry practice known as “catch-and-kill.”

Davidson is one of multiple key players testifying in advance of  Cohen,  the star prosecution witness who paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence and also recorded himself, weeks before the election, telling Trump about a plan to purchase the rights to McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer so it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougal’s story to bury it on Trump’s behalf.

At one point in the recording, Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg about “how to set the whole thing up with funding.” To which Trump can be heard responding: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”

Trump can be heard suggesting that the payment be made with cash, prompting Cohen to object by saying “no” four times. Trump can then be heard saying “check” before the recording cuts off.

Trump’s lawyers sought earlier in the day to blunt the potential harm of Davidson’s testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he never had any interactions with Trump — only Cohen. In fact, Davidson said, he had never been in the same room as Trump until his testimony.

He also said he was unfamiliar with the Trump Organization’s record-keeping practices and that any impressions he had of Trump himself came through others.

“I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr. Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him,” Davidson said.

The line of questioning from Trump attorney Emil Bove appeared intended to cast Trump as removed from the negotiations and to suggest that Cohen was handling the hush-money matters on his own.

Bove also noted that Davidson had been involved in similar payments for clients that had nothing to do with presidential politics, grilling him about previous instances in which he solicited money to suppress embarrassing stories, including one involving wrestler Hulk Hogan.

By the time Davidson negotiated hush money payments for McDougal and Daniels, Bove asked Davidson whether he was “pretty well versed in coming right up to the line without committing extortion, right?”

“I had familiarized myself with the law,” Davidson replied.

Earlier Thursday, jurors viewed a confidential agreement requiring Daniels to keep quiet about her claims that she had a tryst with the married Trump a decade earlier. The agreement, dated less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, called for her to receive $130,000 in exchange for her silence.

The money was paid by Cohen, and the agreement referred to both Trump and Daniels with pseudonyms: David Dennison and Peggy Peterson.

“It is understood and agreed that the true name and identity of the person referred to as ‘DAVID DENNISON’ in the Settlement Agreement is Donald Trump,” the document stated, with Trump’s name written in by hand.

After the payment was made, Trump’s company reimbursed Cohen and logged the payments to him as legal expenses, prosecutors have said in  charging the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records  — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison.

While testifying Thursday, Davidson also recalled Cohen ranting to him about Trump in a phone conversation about a month after the 2016 election, complaining that he had been passed over for a job in the new administration and that Trump had yet to reimburse him for the Daniels payment.

He also recalled Cohen telling him that he and Trump were “very upset” when  The Wall Street Journal published  an article that exposed a separate $150,000 National Enquirer arrangement with McDougal, who has said she and Trump had an affair, just days before the election.

“He wanted to know who the source of the article was, why someone would be the source of this type of article. He was upset by the timing,” Davidson said of Cohen. “He stated his boss was very upset, and he threatened to sue Karen McDougal.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied relationships with either woman, as well as any wrongdoing in the case.

Before the start of testimony, prosecutors requested $1,000 fines for each of four comments by Trump that they say violated a judge’s gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case. Such a penalty would be on top of a $9,000 fine that  Judge Juan M. Merchan  imposed Tuesday related to nine separate violations that he found.

Merchan did not immediately rule on the request for fresh sanctions, though he indicated he was not particularly concerned about one of the four statements flagged by prosecutors.

The prospect of further punishment underscores the challenges Trump the presidential candidate faces in adjusting to the role of criminal defendant subject to rigid courtroom protocol that he does not control. It also remains to be seen whether any rebuke from the court will lead Trump to adjust his behavior given the campaign trail benefit he believes he derives from painting the case as politically motivated.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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