Background

Whistler is going to be the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is an excellent and pricey ski resort. We were attracted by its reputation as the "best ski resort in North America", and found that both outstanding skiing and outstanding food are available there. We only explored the cross-country trails, however. We are going to try Whistler's impressive one mile vertical drop when we really learn how to ski downhill.

What We Did

We enjoyed the extensive network of cross-country skiing trails, groomed for diagonal stride as well as skating. Be careful, because some of the "intermediate" trails are really close to being "advanced", with steep downgrades and turns. There is also a gentle beginner trail that loops around a lake. The trail pass was inexpensive, and the ski boots we rented were very comfortable.

We had several opportunities to walk around the "pedestrian-only" Whistler Village. In reality, it is very hard to get out of Line-of-Sight from a paved road, and only a single alley winding through the village is pedestrian. Anyway, we had a hard time choosing from a number of good restaurants, so we ended up eating at "Crepe Montagne"---across from our hotel---most of the time.

On our way back, we allocated some of our time to exploring the Vancouver downtown. We visited several shops along Robson Street. While the major U.S. clothing stores are present, there were many stores with a clearly European feel, offering the smaller sizes, and for non-overweight body proportions. In the evening we went to see "The Nutcracker" at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Our opinion is that the San Francisco performance is better. We stayed over at Listel Vancouver, which is a nice artsy hotel. Our only complaint was that the heating system was too noisy so we could not sleep well. Stanley park is a nice place where you can take a walk and see the Totem Poles, but unfortunately it was raining when we decided to do that and we could not enjoy the experience so much.

How We Got There

We flew to Vancouver. We got there before noon and took the (paid) shuttle to the Grayhound Bus Station, although it turned out that for two people a taxi costs the same amount. There is a company at the airport that provides round-trip transportation to Whistler, however that seemed too expensive. We caught the bus from Vancouver to Whistler around noon and we were at our lodge about two and a half hours later. You don't need any transportation in Whistler: everything is within walking distance.