I’m planning on going to Canada next February to go snowboarding and need some recommendations on who to book with? I will be taking my own board and I’ve been to Europe with Crystal Ski and to be fair they were pretty good value and their Canada trips don’t look too badly priced.

Any info/recommendations would be great!

Greg

Go to Fernie.

These guys keep coming up on the snowboarding threads for Fernie:
Canadian Powder Tours

Not sure if you’ve been to Canada before but it’s worth pointing out some of the differences between North America and the Alps.

– Catered Chalets are relatively rare in Canada
– ‘unlimited wine’ until coffee is almost unheard of even when a catered chalet is available
– Majority of Accommodation in Canada is ‘condo-style’ i.e. it’s often based on groups of 4+ which can often make solo/couple travel expensive (look at local Motels as alternatives
– Ski in/Ski out is less common in Canada – often short drive/ride required to get to the ski hill

Fernie is awesome [except when it rains … then it’s just wet]
Have a look at NONSTOP ski/snowboard courses. You could combine your trip with some improvement.

Where in Canada and for how long? A few other things to add to Digby’s list…

-Canada resorts (excluding Whistler/Blackcomb) are much smaller so if you’re wanting to cruise the reds for weeks you’ll need to move around to keep interested.
-Canadian resorts have a lot of trees
-Canadian resorts are fantastic when it snows but when it doesn’t they get skied out quickly.
-Canadian resorts are much quieter than the Alps mid-week.

Personally I’d DIY and fly drive but I live in Calgary so I know the area. To experience the best snow flexibility is even better e.g if it’s raining in Fernie then perhaps it’s powder at Panorama or Kicking Horse. If it’s -30C in Banff it might be a bit warmer in Fernie / Revy.

Depends where you want to go I think.
I’ve been twice for 6 weeks at a time between jobs etc . Best one was hiring and F-150 and hunting powder, and staying in motels .

Other time we based ourselves in Banff and hired a ‘condo’ basically this Canadian dudes basement house. Was great too but meant we were more limited with resorts and cooking for ourselves was actually quite expensive

Virgin used to be very good, not sure if they are still doing packages.

Fernie is amazing if it snows (which it probably will!)

Beware lift passes are lots more expensive than Europe and the tour operators aren’t always the cheapest source. If you are booking this early you might be able to get early bird season passes for your chosen resort online over the summer. We did this for US once and it worked out cheaper than a 14 day pass through the tour operator!

I’m about to get my 9th season pass for Fernie…. you can get the cost of the pass down to approx $15 a day if you work at it. The earlybird pass is on sale till the end of June.
If you go for the winter, you will want to stay for the summer.

The locals live other peoples holidays.

Fernie is an amazingly beautiful place, the terrain is among the hardest in the world, and they really don’t care too much about grooming the runs; you just take whats there. And then go for a beer. Or two.

I’d fly to calgary, rent a pickup and drive around. I’d hit fernie, banff, KICKINGHORSE (near golden and absolutely amazing) and rossland/red mountain. Done this twice and happiest days ever. Don’t stay put

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the input so far – some really good advice!

Unfortunately it will only be a 2 week trip so not sure I’m going to want to travel around loads – Fernie looks really good and I am looking at going there. I have sent Canadian Powder tours an email and hopefully they will get back to me. Are there any other reccomendations for a package trip? Or is it likely to be better to do a fly drive trip?

Greg

yeah plus one on kicking horse. it’s STEEP and therefore RAD.

Even if you don’t want to travel around loads 2 weeks in Fernie is a long time unless it snows every day (which it might). I think (it’s a long time ago) that I used Canadian Affair before I emigrated so they might be worth a look.

It requires an internal flight (to Kelowna) but Big White and Silver Star are both worth considering. They are a bit more ski-in/ski-out and the snow can be fantastic at both.

Canadians are very fly drive orientated with condos. Even somewhere like Fernie the town is not right by the resort and so you either rely on shuttles or drive. It’s even worse in Banff where Louise is a good hour away and Sunshine is probably 20 minutes by car. They do run buses but there was some controversy (maybe last year) where Banff town wasn’t going to run them as the ski resorts weren’t going to pay and subsidies.

If coming from Calgary then resorts to consider are:
Banff (Sunshine / Lake Lousie) – Both big resorts; less snowfall than those listed below as further East; active town. Busy (by Canadian standards) due to proximity to Calgary.
KIcking horse (Golden) – Very steep and fantastic if it snows. Icy, mogul hell if it doesn’t.
Panorama – Lots of vertical; more intermediate terrain, Intrawest designed resort so compact with lots of ski-in/ski-out.
Fernie – Bigger than KH; loads of trees; heaven if it snows; not as bad as KH when it doesn’t.

If you’ve never been to Canada before I’d recommend a week in Fernie then a week in Whistler. If you really don’t want to move then go to Whistler, there’s more than enough to go at for 2 weeks.