Canada, eh?🇨🇦
- laurenlcoon
- Feb 9, 2017
- 5 min read
Every year a group from Atlanta gets together and plans a ski trip... last year it was Beaver Creek, this year it was Whistler, Canada! And man was it COLD! I can't take any credit for planning the trip, but we did still have to make travel arrangements outside of the hotel and ski rentals.
To make this journey possible, Brandon used his Skymiles to get both of us from ATL>SEA>YVR. There were no direct flights from Atlanta to Vancouver so we had a quick layover in Seattle. And then planned to take a shuttle from Vancouver to Whistler, about 2.5-3 hours depending on weather.
The group discount on the rooms and ski rentals was pretty good and we got to room with another couple we are good friends with so we were pretty excited! We invited a few friends so there were a total of 8 of us who were close and 52 total people with the group!
We departed ATL on a Thursday with an 8am flight so getting up around 5am to get to the airport and through security. About 5 hours later we landed in Seattle and spent 2 hours in the Delta Sky Lounge. Highly recommend the one here... very nice with good food and plenty of outlets! :)
We then took a joke of a flight on a teeny tiny plane to Vancouver. We got to 30,000 for about 4 minutes before descending so it was the quickest and smallest flight I have been on to date.
Once arriving in Vancouver, we went through customs and got in a shuttle to take us to the ski resort. About 2.5 hours later we ended up at Delta Village Suites in the heart of the square. The rooms are nice and tiny but all you really need while you're skiing. After getting checked in, we were exhausted. It was 7pm there, 10pm our time and we had been traveling ALL day! We were tired but starving so we found a place called 21 Steps for dinner. It was good food and service and about the only place we found with healthy (aka gluten free) options without a 2 hour wait!
Friday Feb 3: The next morning, we got up early to hit the slopes.
I am not a huge fan of skiing. I like the actual skiing part, not the cold temps, millions of layers and crap you have to carry to get to skiing... so I can be convinced to go in and drink or nap fairly easily. The first day we skied Blackcomb peak and it was terrible. The mountain got hit with snow all day so visibility was not good and we ended up on a few runs that were steeper than I'd like to do on my first day. Around 2pm, we went to the bottom of the mountain, ate and I went back for a shower and nap!
That evening, we went to dinner at a place called El Furniture. This is a good place to eat if you like rude staff and cheap food. Everything costs $4.95 so it's good comfort food but not much else.
Saturday Feb 5: The next day we were up early again to try and beat the crowds We found a little place on the Whistler slope called 'The Enchanted Forest' and loved it... it was tightly packed trees and very curvy, a good blue, but the view was amazing... It felt like your own little forest as it had much less activity than the main slopes.
We had a good group of friends with us for the trip and it was great to get to see where the Winter Olympics took place!
We powered through our day with plenty of stops for spiked cider and hot chocolate There are several restaurants at the bottom of the slopes so mid day we took a break at Black's Pub which has a 2nd story with great views, Gluten Free beer and burgers! :)
Then we hit Enchanted forrest up again before finally calling it a day and taking a much deserved nap. That evening after 2 days on the mountain, we were exhausted so we decided to order takeout from an Italian place called La Bocca and it was so good and filling. The best part of skiing is all the food you can eat after! :) There seemed to be several gluten free options in Whistler, and this place was no exception.
Sunday Feb 6: SuperBowl Sunday!
This was a day with a lot of highs and lows! We started the day by doing Peak to Creek which is the longest run in North America! It is a 7.5 mile long run that had just gotten about 11 inches of snow overnight and we were some of the first people in line to go. This was very challenging for me as I still consider myself somewhat of a beginner and had shorter skis. With that much snow, they kept popping off and it took us awhile to get to the bottom.
Once to the bottom we decided to do the Peak to Peak Gondola which is a tri-cable gondola lift that links Whistler Mountain's Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Lodge. It is held by 4 poles and is about 11 minutes long and shuttles an average of 4,000 per hour. The views are incredible and at the highest point you are about 200 meters off the ground.
You can ride the Peak 2 Peak Gondola with a regular lift ticket so once you get off you can ski to the bottom. We had plans at 3 to watch the SuperBowl so we got down the mountain and changed into our jerseys and met at Longhorn bar.
If you're living under a rock then let me explain the next high and low of our day. Everyone from Atlanta took over this bar, Falcons Jerseys, Flags, pompoms and tons of cheer! The Falcons dominated the first half of the game only to give it up to the Patriots in the second half. We all left very sad and disappointed.
Monday Feb 7: Trying to get home
The next morning we were up early to get back home. We took our 2.5 hour shuttle to the Vancouver airport only to find out our flight to Seattle had been canceled! Yikes! We opted to get a rental car and drive across the border to Seattle to try and catch the last leg of our trip. We got the last car off the lot from National and hit the road! A storm had hit the coast and all flights had been canceled until 4pm PST. Our 3pm flight had just been delayed so we were hopeful if we made it to the airport, we would be able to get home that night.
The roads were actually not in that bad of condition and the views were very pretty. Getting across the border did take some time. We must have been the 10th car in line with took between 30-45 minutes to get through. However, the line behind us got very long very quick so I imagine the border can be very hit or miss.
We made fairly good time so we decided to check out Pike's Place Market before our flight back and had to stop in Biscuit Bitch! They have gluten free biscuits smothered in gravy and grits! It was delicious and I highly recommend!
After biscuits and checking out the gum wall and market. We grabbed a coffee and hit the road to the airport.
We made it just in time for the delayed flight time only to get delayed again.
We finally boarded around 5pm PST and got back to Atlanta around 2am! It was a very long trip but we did have a good time! I'd recommend going for a longer period of time if we were to do Whistler again! I'd love to see the area in summer as I imagine it is quite beautiful!
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