Niagara Falls:The first Mrs to choose the falls as a honeymoon destination was Theodosia Burr, daughter of future US Vice President Aaron Burr. In 1801 she changed into a no-nonsense travelling outfit of nine packhorses and a palace of servants and set off for the frontier lands of Niagara Falls. Three years later Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, Jerome Bonaparte, followed suit, and a honeymooning tradition was born.

The falls (not to mention the venerable institute of marriage) got a bad rap with the release of the film Niagara Falls; the two minute shot of Marilyn sashaying provocatively toward the falls did for marriage and fidelity what Genghis Khan did for democracy (ie not much). The falls lost their dewy-eyed romanticism and started looking more like a convenient accident waiting to happen for a bride with a widow-wish.

Despite the film, over 50,000 honeymooners still visit Niagara Falls each year. Undoubtedly the biggest attraction is not one, but three falls - the Rainbow and Bridal Veil Falls on the American side and the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. The Rainbow and Bridal Veil Falls are straight curtains of water falling 55m (180ft) down over a lip 33m (110ft) wide. Impressive though they are, the Horseshoe Falls outclasses both of them; at 750m (2500ft) from one side to the other and 50m (170ft) feet high, most of the water rushing in from the Great Lakes gravitates toward the Horseshoe Falls - there can be as much as 20 billion litres (5.5 billion gallons) per hour spilling over its edge.

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