Get to know your Canalside neighborhood
- 44 minutes ago
- 4 min read
If you're coming to Fling in Buffalo, you'll be staying in the heart of Buffalo's Canalside—the 1825 terminus of the Erie Canal and now one of the most attractive and popular areas for visitors.
Right across the street from the Buffalo Marriott LECOM HARBORCENTER, the Fling hotel, you'll find the Buffagrow Learning Garden. Mere feet away is a restored 1940 carousel that runs on solar power, a beer garden, an ice cream stand, bike tours, and kayak and waterbike rentals.
A short walk from there is a boardwalk with boat tours, the Explore & More Children's Museum, The Erie Canal Museum, Buffalo Naval & Military Park (featuring ships and submarine tours!), the Liberty Hound restaurant, and the instantly Instagrammable Sharkgirl—all along restored canals and canal bridges.
The visitors bureau, Visit Buffalo, operates the Buffalo Visitor Center here, with folks to help plan trips, answer questions, and you can shop for souvenirs.
Beyond that is the Erie Basin Marina—with walking paths along Lake Erie, more restaurants, an observation tower, war memorials, and an extensive trial garden with a view across the Buffalo River to Lake Erie's 1833 Light House.
The hotel itself is attached to the KeyBank Center, home of the Buffalo Sabres and all the best concerts—Sir Paul was just here!
The hotel shares the building with the Southern Tier Brewery and a Tim Hortons. If you're unfamiliar, Tim Hortons is Canada's beloved coffeehouse chain known for coffee, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, and more. Around Buffalo, it's a staple.
A block in either direction gets you to two more breweries and a couple of pubs, all very near the downtown baseball stadium.
All these locations are within walking distance of the hotel. In fact, you can see the hotel from nearly everywhere listed.
Longer Walks or Short Drives or Rideshares
Longer walks, or short rideshares, can get you to Buffalo RiverWorks, a brewery (yes, another brewery, we like our beer!), a sports bar/outdoor deck restaurant with a Ferris wheel, ziplines, high ropes course, watersports, silo climbing, tiki boat tours, and old grain silos painted to look like a LaBatt's six pack. Labatt's U.S. headquarters is around the corner from the hotel (and there's a pub in the building).
The hotel is located on a Metrorail line, allowing you to take it into the city center. The ride is free where the Metrorail operates above ground.
Even More to See and Do
If you'd like to explore the area further before or after Fling, Visit Buffalo offers plenty of options on their website. Beyond the country's largest garden tour (though those Experience Memphis Gardens folks are catching up every year!), Garden Walk Buffalo, and the July tours of Open Gardens across two counties, there’s a Garden Art Sale, Urban Farm Day, and 16 other garden tours throughout the summer. Buffalo also boasts world-class art and architecture worth exploring. We even have a little water feature up the road in Niagara Falls to visit—a short 20-minute drive or rideshare ride.
While here, you might notice our city smells like Cheerios—and if you're lucky, Lucky Charms. Both are made across the river from the hotel at the General Mills plant.
We hope you'll join us and take in the sights and smells!
Ready to sign up? Apply First, Register Second
Don't delay, start the reservation process now. We're about half full as of this posting—plenty of spots left!
Fill out this Garden Fling Qualification Form. Completing the qualification form does NOT guarantee registration. It is to verify your online presence credibility. Visit here for qualifications to attend.
If confirmed, we will send you a link to the Fling Registration Form to reserve your spot by credit card ($300) and make hotel reservations ($199/night). You’ll get a confirmation email. If you don’t receive an email, check your spam folder.
Organizers process applications on a first-come, first-served basis. We look forward to the chance to see you at the Buffalo Garden Fling.
Watch this space—and look for regular email updates—for more specifics on the Buffalo Garden Fling.
