The advantage of living in Seattle, is that it’s so close to so many fantastic getaway options across the border in British Columbia, Canada. A weekend in Victoria,a beautifully vibrant city on its own, or the Vancouver, both within a 3 hour ferry ride or drive is rarely out of the question in any season. For that reason, I thought it was time to venture out further and we planned to spend a week up in Whistler.
Driving through West Vancouver to Whistler is easy! It takes approximately two and half hours in one of the most scenic routes in Canada: The Sea to Sky Highway. Its a windy road up to the ski resorts, but amazing scenery with lots of mountains and lakes along this route.
We arrived in Whistler around late afternoon. Our hotel was right in the Whistler village and within walking distance of everything. The village is nestled at the base of the mountain, surrounded by apartments, houses and hotels. We wandered around the village for couple of hours and checked out the scene. Whistler village has a great resort town vibe.They have festive lights for the whole winter ski season and was full of people walking and looking and shopping.The village had range of the fast-food type eateries, plenty of restaurants, and shops specializing ski & outdoor wears. The streets around the central square , the main thoroughfare through the village is pedestrian-only so the kids can walk and run anywhere in the village.
Since we had our 4 year old and 18 month old with us, we did not plan on going skiing. Next morning we headed to the Visitor information booth at Whistler Mountain to explore non-skiing and kids friendly options. The Customer service people were really helpful and gave us trail maps to the best options for our needs. There are so many non Skiing activities in whistler like tubing, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snow mobile tours, and many other activities.
Next we went over to check out the Upper Village towards Backcomb Mountain, where the famous Four Seasons and Fairmount hotel is located. There seemed to be plenty of ski in/ski out options between Whistler and Blackcomb and plenty of other upscale hotels built recently for the Olympics.
We did cross country skiing with the kids around Lost Lake .You can rent skis for all ages and sleds specially designed to pull the the kids along at the entrance to Lost Lake Park. We spent the entire morning in the groomed lost Lake trail system
Apparently the Peak to Peak gondola is the top attraction of Whistler and a must do. It is a gondola that takes you between the peak of Whistler to the peak of Blackcomb and back with amazing scenic ride along the way . Unfortunately we couldn't do the Peak to Peak gondola with little kids, but that something I want to try next time.
In the evenings we would go to to Whistler’s Olympic Plaza in the heart of Whistler Village for some ice skating. The admissions to the outdoor rink is free and skate rental is available for just $5. They has plenty of pushers to assist little ones on the ice. We went there quite a few times and by the time we left Whistler My 4-year-old girl was pretty much ice skating on her own without falling.
Everything about the Whistler experience screams easy, accessible mountain fun.and there’s plenty to do for the non-alpine skiers.
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