Seriously considering a bike holiday, something I've never done outside of the UK before.
How much should I generally expect to pay for a biking holiday to Whistler and surrounding area? I'm guessing most people go for more than 7 days?
Do you take your own bike or is it cheaper/easier to hire?
Thanks!
£lots!
Cheaper to take your own bike definately.
You could do it cheaper, there is a campsite in whistler in easy reach of the town. Expect accomodation and eating out to be pricey but there is a rather nice supermarket called nestars opposite the campsite which sells very high quality food. You won't need a car. Look at bearback biking they get good reviews but the canadians recommend bushpilot biking (bit of a legend apparently) http://bushpilotbiking.com/
Own bike is usually cheaper, but depending on what it is, and the type of riding you're wanting to do when on holiday, hiring may be better.
Hiring is obviously easier, as it means you don't have the faff of packing/unpacking twice, and hauling it through the airports. I always take my own bike, as it's what I'm used to, and it's sufficiently beaten up for me not to worry too much about airport staff abusing it.
For flights, check out Canadian Affair, as they're normally the cheapest, but BA is often not much dearer, and may be the better option depending on airports.
I think I paid about £470 for return flights last year, plus lots for the T2R bike park tour, but you should get basic accomodation for about £250/week. I normally take the equivalent of £500 cash for two weeks, and use the credit card for lift passes/bike repairs.
Time wise, if you go for 1 week, you'll scratch the surface of what there is to ride there. 2 weeks, you might get bored of the bike park if you solely stick to it, but you'd struggle to ride all of the stuff that involves pedalling. Then you've got Pemberton/Squamish.
I went in 2007 and did 2 weeks for £1000 all in. That was self catering, no guiding, own bike and cheap living. The big thing that helped me with that was staying in staff housing. It's slightly out of town but the rates were very good.
I used to ski over there most years. The surrounding areas were always much cheaper than Whistler - went to Banff more often for his reason. Don't know whether this pans out for summer riding. There was a Norco sponsored video on Pinkbike recently showing the different places. Noticed that Kicking Horse now has a mtb scene. Enjoyed skiing it. Trails looked great.
Kind of depends _how_ you want to do it.
Flights from Heathrow to Vancouver about £450 per person with BA + extra charges for bikes if you take them
Hire a truck about £350 for a week
+ holiday of your choice i think about £750 for the week (accommodation and guiding)
Could be done much cheaper, but that's how I'd do it for the maximum level of fun
I'd also suggest go with a guiding company, especially if you've never been before. What one will depend partly on what type of riding you'd like to do.
If you're going to ride the park above all else then a guide is not needed. It's easy enough to find people running trips to pemberton/squamish etc if you fancy a day elsewhere. If you've got a more trail bike and want to do more exploring then a package deal with guide is probably best.
I have alsways found Canadian Affair or Air Transat to be cheapest and they only charge ~£30 each way to take your bike, which is effectively another 32kg of luggage so worth doing 
With a couple of the budgets going bump in the past years, there isn't any competition these days, (both the above use Thomas Cook planes so are the same price), and returns start @ £269.
For the first time I'd recommend you go with a holiday provider such as http://www.ticket2ridebc.com who are the biggest out there and offer a range of holidays based around a basic full board holiday package. There's a 15% early bird booking discount available at the momment too 
With the current discount, one weeks holiday will cost Btw £380 to £510 depending upon exchange rates, time of visit and package.
They can tailor your holiday to exactly what you want to do, DH, Freeride or XC, with daily trips avaible to various places out of Whistler, such as Squamish, Pemberton and North Shore. As mentioned above you can get sucked into the bike park every day which is only about 30% of the available riding over there.
Spending money wise, beer is circa £4 a pint in the cheap places, (double that if you drink imported bottled beers)and you can lunch in GLC overlooking the bike park finish for about £10 a day.
Due to the cost of the flight, I'd say you really need to go for a Min of 2 weeks and you'll still be able to ride something different every day.
I went in 2008 for 2 weeks (included a few days in Sun Peaks) and I reckon it cost £2,000
I'm hoping to go out to BC this summer with my gf... any recommendations for holiday companies that have a reasonable number of female guests too, and/or reasonable expertise in non-biking activities?
My gf does ride and is pretty good, but struggles for confidence sometimes. Consequently somewhere we can get tuition blended with guiding would be great, riding in a group where not everyone is super fast!
Cheers, B
go with bushpilotbiking. johnny smoke sells dreams 
depends what time of year you go accomadation is cheaper in the summer
we had 2 weeks in bc and the accomadation in whistler was the cheapest and also the best we had stunning place
I have been with ticket2ride and they were fantastic had a great holiday.
Wife went as well and I think she enjoyed it
Bazzer
Robertgray05 - Check out ticket2ridebc.com. They get a high % of female guests there every year plus they have a number of female staff who ride every week and can also advise on all the best shoe and bag shops in Whistler
I have been 3 times and going back in again in Sept.
Its worth going with a company like T2R or Bearback especially if its your free trip. Its not the cheapest option but they have all the experience and knowledge you could ever need. Its also well worth having a guide from them (its comes free with bearback). As I said I have been 3 times already and yet will use a guide again this year as its great seeing and trying their lines etc.
I have booked with Canadian Affair flying from Manchester and its £530 return plus £30 each way for bikes.
We have gone with Bearback again this year as been with them all 3 times now and its been great every time. Have heard good things about T2R as well
Hey Devon_Roadie,
Drop us a line (email in profile) and I will answer any questions you have.
The best thing about a package like our Whistler Experience (and in the interest of fairness, T2R's BBM) is that all you have to do while you are in town is think about riding.
We provide breakfast, evening meals, choose where you will ride that day - Which is ALWAYS tailored to YOUR needs, ability and expectations (optional too if you want to opt out).
We collect you from and return you to Vancouver Intl airport. We take care of all the boring stuff that means you can look after yourselves and concentrate on the FUN stuff
Anyway, 2 share pricing from £385-£550 per person. No $ exchange rate fluctuations or the 12% tax to worry about. Flight prices as above mean its really not that expensive when you consider what you will get from the experience and more often than not, how much your riding will improve.
Check out our Whistler Experience page for more info
I look forwards to answering any questions you may have
Kind regards
Jonny
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