Voyage to Canadia

Tef

I'm travelling from Perth, Western Australia at the end of this year (around Dec28) landing in Vancouver. I'm planning on doing a lot of skiing at Whistler. I'm fairly experienced at skiing and I'm looking to make the most of my 4 week holiday.

just some quick info:
I'm 26

I'm travelling with my girlfriend, my big brother and his fiancee

We're really keen to experience the nightlife in the area of Vancouver, Whistler and Victoria. We'll have a car so travelling won't be an issue if there's a good place to go to that's a bit out of the way

The only locations booked in is Vancouver, as it's our fly in/fly out point. We'll be there on or near the 28th and be there for just over 4 weeks. Every other location on our itinerary is flexible.

I'm not trying to do this trip on a shoestring, cost isn't really a factor (within reason of course) I've budgeted at around $2.5k spending money, but it can be more if I need to.

PAers, I need suggestions on the best skiing, the best nightlife and the best tourist attractions around! This'll be an extra special trip as well as I plan to propose to my girlfriend of 3 years

Wezoin

Montreal is pretty great for nightlife, but being on the other side of the country could get a bit pricey.

onceling

Hi Perth buddy, I moved from Perth to Vancouver 7 years ago. Good choice, I love it here.

Whistler, you'll want to book some accomodation, it's the most expensive and in demand part of your trip that you've outlined. Some stuff is booked a year in advance, so depending where you want to stay you might want to take a look now rather than later. It doesn't really matter *too* much where you stay, anywhere in the village you can walk to the gondola to get up either Whistler or transfer to Blackcomb halfway. Creekside is a bit more out of the way, there's buses so its no big deal but your hotel isn't going to be walking distance from the nightlife. Upper village basically means being on the slope of Blackcomb and ski in-ski out ($$$$$).

As you might know, there's 2 mountains, and a regular lift ticket starts at $93 CAD for a day, access to both mountains. See if you can find early bird discounts on flexible tickets or coupons, since its pricey. The resort is big but you will probably have time to ski everything. If you want advice, I'd try to get over at least once into the glacier (its not always open) on Blackcomb, but people differ in their preferences. Lots of people swear by Whistler (has great snow boarding parks) but I prefer Blackcomb, which has multiple gladed black/double/triple black runs in the trees, and I love the steep groomed speed over on Crystal Ridge. I think you'll be able to see everything with enough time there. You could take the night dinner gondola thing and propose on the top of the mountain in the dark. That'd be cool. I wouldn't bother with the horse drawn tour thing btw, unless you can find one that isn't 85 people crammed in together with screaming children.

I don't think you need advice about the Whistler nightlife, just follow the music. The village isn't that big, and pretty much everyone will be Australian there (for serious) so they'll tell you where to get your groove on.

Local mountains, I don't think they will impress you much if you're also doing Whistler. There's Grouse, Seymour and Cypress. But, they are closer to the city so if you are like OMG MUST SKI and its 5pm on a Tuesday, you can still get your kick in since theres night skiing. They range from 20-45 min drive from the city.

Downtown there's lots of clubs and restaurants. I'm not really a big club person so maybe someone else can recommend. I like the Memphis Blues BBQ food, Cupcakes (self explanatory) store which are scattered around the city, Carderos down on the water is nice enough....

Don't know shit about Victoria really, I never go there in the winter. I know that you can take you car on the ferry over there, and both ferry terminals are at least an hourish from downtown. One takes you to Victoria the other to Nanaimo. I liked the Butchart Gardens but I think in winter it would be crappy.

saggio

If you are up for driving into the Interior, you can find some really nice ski hills for cheaper than Whistler, most of which will be in a drier climate (for what that's worth - it never stops raining in the Lower Mainland during the winter).

Up the Valley is Hemlock, that's about 1.5-2hrs out of town going East, but the drive is quite nice once you get past Maple Ridge. If you go further up through Hope you can hit Manning Park, which is also a provincial park. So you can hike, downhill and cross country ski all in one place. If you continue on up the Coquihalla, you'll get to Kamloops and just outside of down is Sun Peaks, another great ski hill. Definitely cheaper than Whistler, less celebrities for sure, but I think it's nicer than Whistler.

Of course, Kamloops is about 3-3.5 hours East of Vancouver, so you may not want to make the drive.

Another suggestion would be driving to the Okanagan. You'll have to drive the same way as you would to get to Kamloops or Manning Park, but instead of turning North you continue East. The Okanagan is a desert, and is the prime winery region in British Columbia. Other parts of the country claim to have wineries, even here in the Valley, but all of the very best wines come from the Okanagan. In the summertime, it's basically like California, you can golf in the morning and ski in the afternoon. In the wintertime there can be snow, and it will get a little colder than the coast, but there won't be much rain at all. If you want to make the trip to Kelowna (main city in the Okanagan), I'd suggest booking some sort of wine tour.

Victoria is my favourite city in the province and I think it totally beats Vancouver hands down. If you go to the city proper, you'll need to go to the Sticky Witcket at least once. It's a pub. Or, rather, the pub. You can also check out the Legislature building, which is right on the inner harbour. It'll probably be closed to tours in December, but the building itself is pretty gorgeous - I even prefer it to the Parliament buildings in Ottawa. Kiddy-corner to the Leg building is the Empress Hotel, probably the most famous hotel in the province. It's elegant, and played host to King Edward when he was but a prince and ol' Victoria herself was still alive and kicking. They offer high tea every day at 2pm, which is probably the best thing you could do while in Victoria. It's pricey, at about $50/person, and very popular so you will most certainly need a reservation.

Also various museums all around the inner harbour are worth looking at, if you are into that sort of thing.

In Vancouver, there are also a shit ton of touristy stuff that you can do. Most of which can be reached via SkyTrain or bus. I don't live in Van and maybe some of the other Vancouverites on the forum can point you in a better direction, but you should check out China Town, which is around lower Main St. and the surrounding areas. Commercial Drive, aka "The Drive" is the hippest part of town and has loads of cool shops and coffee bars/hang outs. It's the focus for the art scene, too. Hastings street has a number of pretty cool, historic shops around, including the headquarters of the Marijuana Party and Marc Emery (Cannabis world? I forget what it's called). Be warned, though, East Hastings (also known as the Downtown Eastside) is literally the poorest place in Canada, and is home to a terrible AIDS and intravenous drug epidemic. You'll want to steer clear of that, so when you check out Hastings on foot, don't go much past the cenotaph.

Granville Street is a pedestrian and bus only street (unless they've changed it recently) that is basically the centre of the entertainment district. Lots of bars and night clubs active after dark, but during the day it has loads of shops you can also check out - they just generally aren't as hip as what is available on the Drive.

My favourite place in Vancouver is around Main St. and Langara College. It's south of Chinatown quite aways, and is home to Little India. If you like Indian food, you will want to go here. Not as much stuff to do around here, as it starts turning into a residential neighbourhood but there are some shops and eateries worth checking out (Sangham Sweets has my recommendation).

That reminds me. Vancouver is the best place in North America for gastronomy. I say it's better than New York because I like sushi more, and Vancouver and the surrounding area have loads of really good sushi, sometimes expensive, but often cheap. To give you an example: I've lived all throughout the Fraser Valley, which is East of Van and really hick central. One town has about 6000 people and 3 separate sushi establishments. Compare that to Halifax, largest city on the East Coast of Canada, with 1 sushi place (that sucks balls).

The most expensive and well known place for sushi is Tojo's. The guy, Tojo, came to Canada in the 1970s. He invented the California roll and the BC roll, and his restaurant makes fucking awesome stuff. But it's freaking expensive, you'll be looking at between $50-$100 per person for a meal there. It's worth it, but only if you like sushi.

There's a number of other neighbourhoods and places you could check out. Science World is a bit of a draw, I guess, if you like that sort of thing. There's Davey Street, which is the center of the gay village in Vancouver. Some good restaurants along there. You could always drive out to Point Grey and check out UBC, very pretty campus. While you are there you could also go to Wreck Beach. If I was a bastard I would say it's a must go and you should go there as soon as you get off the plane, but I'm not: it's a clothing optional beach, and you are going in December so your opportunities for 'adventure' may be limited in that regard.

If you want to drop some coin, I recommend you take a flight up to Haida Gwaii. It's called the Galapagos of the North, and with good reason: it's truly an eden on earth. It missed the last ice age and is home to beautiful rain forests and the freshest halibut and salmon you could ever want. No skiing, though, and it's quite a ways north.

That's all I can think of for now. Good luck.

Atheraal

My recommendation for your group is that you dress warmly when heading out to check out the nightlife. Vancouver is notorious for making people stand in line for ages to get into where you want to be unless you know the right people. Though the flipside of that is that it's easy to find clubs, just look for the lineups.

Saggio, have you been to Toshi's? That's been my favorite sushi place for a while now, price vs. quality wise.

Gafoto

I have never personally been but I hear great things about Banff. At that time of the year weather might present access problems though.

strakha_7

You will find the scenery in the interior to be paltry after experiencing Whistler and the Island. As a former resident of Kelowna, I advise against going to the Interior for any part of a four week winter holiday. If you're ok going that far from Vancouver, you might as well hop on a plane or bus it to Banff for the last week of your trip. That is a very slow time of year for Lake Louise/Sunshine, and is generally the other "must-see" part of the western ski experience. Most Okanagan (the Interior) wineries are also shut down after christmas time, and don't run more than bare bones tours.

Now, as a former ski town (Banff) resident, my only advice is you live close to the nightlife for your stay. It kind of sucks being far from the action at night, as driving (and parking close) to the action is a pain. Also, it's somewhat random when a night goes off into the stratosphere, and you don't want to be DD for that night.

Ignore advice that suggests bundling up to travel the streets of Vancouver and Victoria. Cold snaps can happen, but they are essentially mediterranean climates. Apparently with Victoria that's somewhat official. You are visiting the most temperate and wet part of the country by far.

Granville island is a must. Vancouver is too big for me to say more than that. Have a great trip!

EskimoDave

Whistler is almost exclusively Aussies in the winter. It won't be a true trip from home.

Vancouver has fucking amazing food and great beer. You have to go to The Alibi Room for a few pints.

I'll be moving back to Victoria in a 3 weeks(ish). I can show you a good time.
I'm not sure what strakha_7 is going on about, but Victoria is plenty cold enough. There is a lot of moisture in the air, being 'The Harbour City' and all, that it feels a lot colder than what the thermometer says.

To onceling, Butchart Gardens is incredibly beautiful in the winter. They set-up a 12 days of Christmas thing every year. I prefer it to the gardens in the summer.

Tef

Thanks for the advice guys, certainly given me some food for thought. So many things to do! I have heard that there's a lot of Aussies in Van, when I was skiing near Lake Tahoe in CA I found there was quite a few as well. We really seem to get in everywhere.

My brother is keen to go and see a hockey game, how far in advance will we need to book a ticket, or do they not sell out because of how many games they play?

Thanks again for the help and suggestions everyone

saggio

Tef wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys, certainly given me some food for thought. So many things to do! I have heard that there's a lot of Aussies in Van, when I was skiing near Lake Tahoe in CA I found there was quite a few as well. We really seem to get in everywhere.

My brother is keen to go and see a hockey game, how far in advance will we need to book a ticket, or do they not sell out because of how many games they play?

Thanks again for the help and suggestions everyone

Depends which team you want to see play. Hockey is huge in Canada, and since Vancouver has its own NHL team (the Canucks) it's even bigger than it would be normally. The Canucks have had consecutive sell-outs for about the last 8 or so years, so you will want to get a ticket to that before hand if you can. It's also expensive, because the demand is there for it.

There are a couple of alternatives I can recommend if you don't want to shell out the coin for an actual game. The first is to go to a sports bar/pub. There are a lot right near GM Place (the arena) that usually have good beer and/or wing specials (or something similar) on game nights. Atmosphere can be pretty good, especially when the Canucks are on a winning streak or making a playoff run (until Luongo chokes again...sigh).

Or, if you want to experience a live game but don't want to pay big money, you can see either the Vancouver Giants, who play in the Western Hockey League - part of the "major-junior" system for player development (no players older than 22) - or you can drive East and catch a game for the Abbotsford Heat, who are the farm team for the Canucks' bitter rivals the Calgary Flames. Here you can see grizzled veterans who never quite made it and up and coming stars who are the future of the franchise. The Vancouver Giants play in the Pacific Coliseum, which is on the grounds of the PNE, the Pacific National Exhibition. The Abbotsford Heat play in a new arena built in Abbotsford right next to my university. They literally had to tear down the old bookstore to build the new arena. The benefit for both of these teams is that they play generally good hockey, but the tickets will be quite a bit cheaper. Especially Abbotsford; their inaugural season just happened and they had serious attendance problems, so you will be able to get tickets for $100 easy for a party of 4.

Victoria also has a hockey team, the Salmon Kings who play in the ECHL. I wouldn't really recommend going to their game...they are really only notable because Alexandre Burrows used to play for them before the Canucks found him and plucked him up.

Also beware of the hideous price for souvenirs, jerseys, and beer at GM place. If you want a jersey or something you'd be better off just finding a sports store in town and buying from them.

P.S. I forgot to mention Robson street in my last post. That's the high-end, shopping-in-a-boutique part of town. That's where all the Yaletown and West End douchebags go to shop, and it is unforgivingly pricey. You may want to check it out, or you may not. I definitely prefer Main St. and the Drive to Robson.