Vaughan to the Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls: the outlet day by chauffeured car

The outlets, and the bridge

The Fashion Outlets sit on Military Road on the American side of Niagara Falls, five minutes from the state park and ten from the Rainbow Bridge — a hundred and fifty stores, from Coach, Kate Spade and Michael Kors through Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi's and Under Armour to the children's brands — and they are the nearest American outlet centre to Vaughan, which is why they fill with Ontario plates on Saturdays. The chauffeured version is the Luxury SUV for a couple or two friends and the Sprinter for a family or a group of five, with the bay for the bags, the chauffeur at both bridges and the CBSA's rules understood before the first purchase; the outlets' site has the store list and the hours, and the border guide has the bridges.

The route

The QEW to Niagara Falls, Ontario in seventy-five minutes from Thornhill, then the Rainbow Bridge from the Canadian falls straight across — Military Road and the outlets are ten minutes from the plaza — or the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge when the Rainbow's CBP wait is long on a Saturday, which lands the SUV on Military Road from the north in the same ten minutes. Two hours by the estimate; two and a quarter with the booth. The outlets open at ten and a family that leaves Vaughan at eight is at the first store when the doors open.

The stores, and the arithmetic

Outlet pricing is the reason for the trip and the duty is the reason for the arithmetic: on a day trip everything is declared and dutiable, and for clothing made outside North America the duty plus HST takes a meaningful bite from the outlet saving — a Coach bag made in Asia pays duty; a pair of jeans made in Mexico pays HST only under the trade agreement's rules of origin, which the booth applies by the label's country. After 24 hours each person has CAD 200 duty-free and after 48 hours CAD 800, per person including children and not poolable, and the family of four that stays two nights in Niagara Falls brings back CAD 3,200 of outlet purchases duty-free — the version that makes a big shop pay. Declare everything; the receipts envelope in the Sprinter's door takes the booth to five minutes.

The day, in shape

From Thornhill at 8:00: the Rainbow Bridge at 9:35; the outlets at 9:55 for the ten o'clock opening — Coach and Kate Spade first, the children's stores, Nike and Under Armour, the bags to the SUV twice — until 2; lunch at the food court or at the Top of the Falls on Goat Island ten minutes away; the state park's Terrapin Point and Luna Island at 2:45 for the falls the family has driven past; the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge at 4:30 with the CBSA question — under 24 hours, all declared — and Thornhill by 6:15. Ten hours of the SUV on daily hire, one number in the booking engine.

The two-mall day, and the overnight

A shopper who wants the outlets and the department stores does the Fashion Outlets in the morning and the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga — thirty minutes south by I-190 and I-90 — in the afternoon, home by the Peace Bridge; a family that wants the exemption stays two nights at a Niagara Falls, New York hotel — the Seneca casino's tower, or the Sheraton at the falls — with the Niagara Falls USA attractions between the shopping days and the travel desk holding the room. The Sprinter is a return with a Saturday afternoon on daily hire for the Galleria run.

The falls, five minutes away

The state park is the outlets' neighbour, and a family that has come this far does Goat Island's Terrapin Point above the Horseshoe and the Cave of the Winds' deck under the Bridal Veil in the afternoon — the American falls post has the park in full — or Old Fort Niagara at the lake for the history hour before the Lewiston bridge; the chauffeur builds the afternoon around the shopping's end and the family's mood.

What the chauffeur replaces

Two bridges as the driver; the outlets' lots on a Saturday, which fill and which the chauffeur manages while the family shops; the bags carried between a hundred and fifty stores; the booth's declaration done properly; and the QEW home with the trunk full and the driver tired. For a couple the SUV is a treat; for a family of five or a group of friends with a Christmas list it is the fare split five ways and a bay full of the reason.

Seasons

Black Friday — the American holiday, a normal Vaughan work week, the outlets' biggest day and a six a.m. departure; the back-to-school weekends in August; the January sales; Boxing Day, when the Canadian holiday sends Vaughan to the American outlets and the Rainbow Bridge's wait is the year's longest; the quiet spring, when the outlets are the couple's afternoon.

Pairing it

The outlets pair with the American falls five minutes away, with the Walden Galleria as the two-mall day, with the Canadian falls on the way home by the Rainbow Bridge, and with Buffalo's wings for the family that wants dinner before the bridge.

The Boxing Day run, in order

A family of four from Kleinburg on December 26: the SUV at 7, the QEW empty, the Rainbow Bridge at 8:35 before the Canadian crowd, the outlets at 8:55 for the extended-hours opening — the Coach and Kate Spade queues first, then Nike for the boys — with the bags to the SUV at 11 and 1; lunch in the food court; Terrapin Point in the snow at 2 with the mist frozen on the trees; the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge at 3:15 before the afternoon's return wave, the declaration, the duty, and Kleinburg by 5. Ten hours of daily hire, and the bridge's timing is the chauffeur's contribution.

Which stores are worth the bridge

The outlets' value is in the brands whose Canadian outlet presence is thin or whose prices are set higher in Canada — the leather-goods trio of Coach, Kate Spade and Michael Kors; Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger; Nike's and Under Armour's factory stores; the Levi's outlet; the children's brands of Carter's and OshKosh — and a shopper who checks the outlets' directory against the Canadian price before the trip knows which stores the day is for. The duty on non-North-American clothing is the number to subtract on a day trip, and the overnight's exemption is the number that removes it.

Costs, plainly

The outlet day is one daily hire in the booking engine for the SUV or the Sprinter, and the purchases, the duty and the HST are the family's own; against the fare are the QEW twice, two bridges' waits as a driver and a trunk that fills by noon. A couple does this in a car and the site says so; a family of four with a Christmas list, or five friends with theirs, split the Sprinter's fare and fill the bay.

The group version

Five friends from Maple with a bridal party's list — the shoes, the bags, the dresses for the shower — do the outlets as a Sprinter day with the tables for the coffee and the bay for the boxes, the chauffeur ferrying from the Coach store's door, and the two-mall version with the Walden Galleria in the afternoon; the daily hire divides five ways and the hourly page's logic of a vehicle that waits applies. The bridal party's dresses are declared like everything else, and the 48-hour exemption is the reason the shower's shopping is sometimes a Niagara Falls weekend.

The Seneca casino and the overnight's evening

The Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino's tower is five minutes from the outlets and is where the overnight version sleeps: the casino for the adults, the pool for the children, the restaurants with the falls' lights in the distance, and the Niagara Falls USA attractions between the shopping days; the travel desk holds the room, and the Sprinter's Saturday afternoon on daily hire is the Galleria run. A family that prefers the Canadian side's hotels sleeps in Niagara Falls, Ontario and crosses the Rainbow Bridge each morning — the exemption counts the hours out of Canada, and the chauffeur keeps the clock.

The younger children's afternoon

A family with children under eight pairs the outlets' morning — the Carter's and OshKosh stores, the Disney outlet's aisle — with the Aquarium of Niagara's sea lions five minutes away in the afternoon rather than the Cave of the Winds' storm, and the SUV's boosters at $25 each stay fitted for the day; the American falls post has the aquarium and the Discovery Center for the older ones.

The Lewiston dinner, before the bridge

A day at the outlets ends at the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge, and Lewiston's Center Street — ten minutes from Military Road down the escarpment — has the restaurants for the dinner before the crossing: the village of 1820s houses, the Niagara River's gorge end, Artpark's amphitheatre if there is a summer concert; the chauffeur times the bridge for the wave's end and the family arrives home fed. The Niagara Falls USA site has Lewiston's calendar and the American falls post has the fort at its far end.

What is not worth carrying

The outlets' arithmetic has losers: cosmetics and perfume pay duty and the Canadian price is often close; electronics are the Galleria post's question; and anything the family could have bought at the Vaughan Mills outlets on Highway 400 for the same price is the bridge's wasted hour — the chauffeur has driven Vaughan Mills too, and says so when asked.

The receipts, once more

Every receipt into the envelope in the vehicle's door as the bag goes into the bay, sorted by person, country-of-origin labels left on; at the booth the envelope is handed over, the total stated, the exemption applied — none on a day trip, CAD 200 or 800 per person on an overnight — and the duty and HST paid by card in five minutes. It is the habit that turns the bridge from a worry into a formality, and the chauffeur brings the envelope.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the day or a return with an afternoon for the overnight; tell us the stores, the falls, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the two bridges' waits on it.

Book the outlet day