Go with the flow: The traveller's guide to waterfalls - pulished in The Independent 3 July 2010

We were featured in Harriet O'Brien's excellent piece on waterfalls yesterday.

Here are some excerpts that cover our world of travel:
 

The world's most visited?

Putting on a magnificent show on the border of the US and Canada, the Niagara Falls receives around 25 million visitors a year. Yet in terms of size, the water features here are relative minnows. With the longest drop measuring 57m, Niagara Falls is only about the 50th highest waterfall in the world. What makes it spectacular is the combination of volume, height and width. During the summer, 154 million litres of water cascade here every minute, with four of North America's Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie – funnelled through this space en route to Lake Ontario. There are actually three separate falls: on the US side, the American Falls and the narrow Bridal Veil Falls are divided by little Luna Island. These pale in comparison to the stunning Canadian Horseshoe Falls that form a great curving wall of water some 670m across. Contrary to national stereotypes, it is the Canadian side that is the most commercialised – wax works, amusement malls, casinos, you name it they have it. But that's because the views are best here: simply walk along River Road and you get stunning panoramas of all three falls. In Canada the Niagara Falls is an easy day-trip destination from Toronto, about a 75-minute drive away, while in the US the falls are a 45-minute drive from Buffalo airport.

Elsewhere in the Americas?

Canada, meanwhile, boasts several "reversing" falls, a phenomenon in which fresh water tumbling into the sea appears to be forced back in the spray and turbulence of incoming tides. The most accessible – and best known – are the pragmatically named Reserving Falls (actually more rapids than waterfalls) just outside St John in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick.

Making a splash in Africa

A great curtain of water falls between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Measuring some 1.7km across, Victoria Falls is said to be the world's widest and is known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, or the Smoke that Thunders. Both sides are fairly easily accessible – via Livingstone in Zambia and Victoria Falls town in Zimbabwe, each with a well-served airport.

Which side of the falls is best? Tourism in Zimbabwe all but stopped recently yet with the country now slowly showing signs of recovery, visitors are starting to trickle back.

While in Africa, visit the world's second-highest waterfall: the 948m-drop Tugela Falls in the Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Bridge & Wickers (020-7483 6555; www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk ) offers a trip to this area in its new, luxury programme of African holidays. Its two-week KwaZulu-Natal self-drive itinerary starts with a visit to the Drakensberg Mountain region, with three nights spent at the beautifully positioned Montusi Mountain Lodge, an easy drive from the Royal Natal National Park. The Tugela Falls can be seen from the road into the park; better still there are two spectacular hiking trails – one to the foot and one to the head of the water. The 14-day holiday costs from £2,645 per person (based on two sharing) which includes accommodation, most meals, and car hire but not international flights. 

And the very highest?

Equally inaccessible and majestic is the Sutherland Falls in New Zealand's South Island. This dramatic, tiered waterfall is in the remote and beautiful Fiordland National Park and can be visited only on foot. It lies off the Milford Track, a spectacular walking trail that takes four days to complete, with accommodation provided in Department of Conservation huts along the way. Adding to the challenge, from the track you see the 580m waterfall at a hazy distance and you need to take a tough, 90-minute detour to get a close-up view. Information and booking from the Department of Conservation – 00 64 3249 8514; doc.gov.nz .