Canada Trip Advice

Me and the wife have decided we’d like to go on a two week biking trip to BC, so looking for some advice.

Is Whistler a good base? I’d like to visit both Squamish & Pemberton so thinking about basing ourselves close to Whistler as it’s fairly central and I’d also like a day or two in the bike park. I also believe there’s loads of riding around Whistler that isn’t the bike park.

The other main thing is what time of year to go? Thinking last week of August, first week of September as it should have started to have cooled down by then and there shouldn’t be to much snow around at that time.

Lastly, accommodation, is an AirBnB the best bet? Thanks.

Honestly, as a person who made a life bringing tourists to Whistler for mountain bike holidays, I wouldn’t go choose to Whistler.

I live in squamish and try not to go to Whistler 😉 might have to this week though to catch up with old industry friends who are in town for crankworx

Most small towns in BC have some great riding and the BC interiors bike parks are actually pretty great if you’re after lift assisted riding. More appropriate for partner based riding too unless your wife is a closet park rat 😉

If I’ve not put you off, airbnb isn’t the best for Whistler (or squamish) as prices are high and plenty aren’t legal.

VRBO and local property managers are the better option for Whistler, hotels for squamish.

Yes, Whistler has lots of trails outside the bike park and has lots more accommodation options than Squamish or Pemberton.

Try VRBO for accommodation – not sure about AirBnB as I rarely use it

One observation about late Aug/early September is the increased possibilities of air quality being adversely affected by forest fires if the preceding weeks have been crazy dry/hot like they have been the last couple of summers. The trails in the bike part are also likely to be in a rough shape towards the end of the season…

Does Johnny smoke still do guiding . Went there 3 times with him all over bc

Bushpilotbiking

Bearback+1

I live in Calgary and mountain bike in BC a lot but I’ve not gone to Whistler in years.

Squamish has lots of good riding but accommodation is a problem (finding suitable).

I’d venture further towards the interior. Rossland, Revelstoke and Fernie for pedal stuff are favorites.

My favorite bike park is Sun Peaks (both Revy and Fernie bike parks are not much to write home about).

In terms of timing September is good although some bike parks are shutting down. You’ll get cooler weather and the trails should be less dusty.

Fire season is definitely a thing. Late July into early August is peak. The coast has less smoke than the interior due to prevailing winds. The Okanagan in August is really, really hot.

I’ve been to whistler (once with bear back in 2015- thanks it was awesome).

I loved the bike park. I loved the couple of days outside the bike park

If better riding is available outside there I’m even more jealous of living there than I was. Unfortunately I’ll not me moving anytime soon.

Get travel insurance. It was £3000 for an afternoon I don’t remember in the whistler clinic after something happened and I crashed my bike. I’m not being mysterious, no one saw me crash and I still don’t remember..

Thanks everyone. Plenty to have a think about, had’t considered fires tbh.

Neither of us are park rats, in fact it’s our least favorite type of riding,  just want one day at Whistler BP so we can do Top of the World.

I’ve done top of the world and honestly it’s good but not great. Things might have changed but when I did it it was a real hassle to get to the top.. they were prioritizing other tourists and so we queued for the gondola, then queued for the lift etc. The descent is okay but nothing special.

If you have fitness Lord of the squirrels is considerably better in my opinion.

If you want Alpine riding then Frisby ridge and Keystone in Revelstoke or 7 summits in Rossland will give you views and much less crowds.

If you’re not going to Whistler for the bike park then don’t go to Whistler. It’s super expensive as a base so there’s no point being there if youre not all about the park.

We went as part of our RV tour one July and haze and smoke were bad due to worldwide fires. And Crankworx was on. Which made it super duper ace. Recommend.

I did a little riding on the north shore guided by a couple of folk from here.  The toughest riding I have ever done I think and that was the easy trails.  Dunno if the bit you want to go to is similar but be warned!

for insurance I used these folk.  They cover MTB on waymarked trails but not racing or off piste as well as of course your basic medical insurance

https://www.allianz-assistance.ca/en_CA.html

It’s super expensive as a base so there’s no point being there if youre not all about the park.

Hmmm, I’m no fan of Whistler Bike Park but thats harsh about Whistler itself. It has tons of world-class trails outside the park (as well as a ton of other touristy shit to open your wallet for).

You are right about it being super expensive though!

I’d do a day in the park. It is good, but I honestly reckon Morzine / Les gets / Les arcs are better, though the not park stuff is stunning

Yon can pre-book your lift ticket “to avoid the queues” yeah right, you then have to queue in the very same queue to pick your ticket up. ??‍♂️ possibly try and pick it up the night before.

And you will queue more. After queuing for your ticket, you’ll queue for the main lift, the lift above that, and the one above that.., lunch, the bogs, entry to the popular trails, bike hire, we even queued for an actual hour to hire a Thule trailer for our kids! it can be really quite busy.

we Vrbo’d a condo in whistler for 4 nights as part of a much bigger road trip. It was nice, slightly away from the insanity of the town and allowed us to cook our own stuff as eating out in town itself can be $$$$. I would suspect staying in Squamish or Pemberton might be a lot less expensive all round

I’m just back from 2 weeks in Whistler. Pretty much no queue on the main lift. In years gone by it’s been bad at the main lift at times, but this year they have the new lift that’s more than doubled the capacity, which I assume is probably a factor.

One of the great things about Whistler is how late the lifts stay open. The Creekside lift shuts at 7pm and the main lift stays open til 8pm for periods during the summer. Makes for a much more relaxed day, no point rushing for the first lift, you can pick and choose when you want to go out.

If you want Alpine riding then Frisby ridge and Keystone in Revelstoke or 7 summits in Rossland

+1

Frisby ridge is superb and Mrs Kilo loved 7 Summits.
Big fans of Canmore as an initial base.

Depends what your into.

We went to Whistler spent most of my time in the lift queue. Didn’t enjoy the trails but I am not really a bike park rider. I did enjoy the trails the other side of the road Lord of the squirrels was a good one.

Squamish is much better in my opinion nicer town less commercial good tech trails.

However the best place we went to was Cumberland on Vancouver island. If I was going back I would just go there as the trails were awesome. The town was nice and if you hire a campervan or want to go camping just north of there are amazing free spots with nobody around next to beautiful lakes.

I don’t think I’d base myself in Whistler, it’s OK but, it’s mostly just retail shops, the food is OK, but supermarkets are expensive, and it’s full of tourists (ha) The trouble then is that apartments surrounding it – places like Creekside, Function etc etc  are $700-800 dollars a week. If that’s Ok, then download Trail forks, and fill yer boots.

You can find rooms and apartments in Squamish for less (often half that price) but then you’re driving up and down the highway once you had enough of the local riding, and the riding at Squamish isn’t what you’d call average/beginner friendly.

My advice really would be; treat it as a once in a life-time and do the thing you want. It’s fashionable to knock the park, but honestly the riding is world class, and so much fun, it’s worth a few days to explore IMO, the whole thing is so well set up  the trails in the surrounding countryside are amazing, and with you’re own car (you’ll need it) you can do day trips up and down the sea to sky.

We spent some time in Nelson, BC last summer.  Can’t comment on the mountain biking (though there are local trails) but we totally fell in love with the town.

If we had gone there on holiday about thirty years ago we may have ended up moving there.