I turn 40 in two years on Monday , and I fancy Whistler/ Squamish to celebrate the end of my life and plummeting testosterone levels.

3 weeks self catering with my wife and 2 children ( 6 and 10 when we are out there) will cost…..?

Won’t be riding everyday, but say a week in the bike park total, plus a little Squamish , a little Vancouver city visit.

Or should I just go to Morzine?

Just came back from 2 weeks of this! Did north shore, Squamish, Cumberland in vc island, coast gravity on Sunshine Coast and whistler bike park and pemberton. It blows morzine out of the water in a big way. Not cheap but a trip of a lifetime. Got a uhaul van and air bnb and either paid for a guide or Trailforks. Spent £3.5k for 1 person. You only live once! Have to ride every day it’s really that good.

Staying is Squamish for the entire trip will be much cheaper than staying in Whistler.

From Squamish you can access ( with a car) Van North Shore, Squamish, Sunshine Coast, Whistler and Pemberton (amongst othere )

The other benefit is that you can mix your days up between uplift days and leg powered climbs.

Morzine is good fun, but Whistler and BC are on a different level. There’s a reason Pink Bike are based there !

Go for it,

As above, Morzine just doesn’t compare!

I just did 3 weeks in Whistler and could easily have stayed longer!

Air BnB or similar allows self cook so saves a fortune on eating out, allows easy laundry etc etc.

Budget 800 gbp a week accom, 300gbp a week for a car. Plus flights and food and bike park tickets. Cheaper if as above you split your trip between Squamish and Whistler.

Beware that even food shopping in Whistler is crazy expensive, load up at walmart at squamish on the way up. Petrol is cheap though and Whistler is only 30min from Squamish, but then you’ll miss out on some of the Whistler vibe. Lots of folk just visit as a holiday who aren’t even interested in biking.

DO IT!

Also, Vancouver is a great city for a visit.

It’s all been said above but Whistler is just leagues above anywhere else. I’ve been to Morzine 6 times and have owned a place by Leogang for the last 7 years. They’re not even comparable. I did 8 days 3 years ago (aged 47) and rode the best I ever have. Day 1, warm up on Crank it Up then hit A line in the PM.
By day 3 we were clearing Crabapple hits. Mix in a bit of XC on rented enduro bikes in the middle of the week.
Just do it mate.

Me pulling up like hell on Crabapple

View post on imgur.com

Bookmarked for more detailed response on Monday.

Use VRBO or Airbnb to get an idea on prices. It’s going to be expensive; there’s more choice in Whistler but squamish will be cheaper if you can find something.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Personally I prefer squamish with odd day in Whistler from a biking perspective but I think a 6 year old would have more fun in Whistler…..  (I have a 5 year old and he had a great time 2 weeks ago) There’s all sorts of day camps and play grounds in Whistler. Plus lost Lake trails etc.</span>

Petrol is cheap though

LOL – the locals seem to spend half their lives moaning about how expensive it is here.

Depending on kids, and whether you are urban or rural type people, but personally I’d try and see some of the province during the ‘non-biking’ period rather than spend much time in Vancouver. It’s nice enough (I lived there for around 8 years) but the inner city is nondescript, has some not bad beaches but so does Rhyl 😉

Is this a family holiday or a biking holiday ? Whistler might be good for biking but it really isn’t impressive for anything else.

The scenery is bland, it’s expenSive, it’s busy.

Although Morzine itself isn’t the nicest there are lots of nice places the same distance away that Whistler is from Squamish.

Cheers righto. @funkydunc it is a family biking holiday 😄

I want to do it, really do!  Just want to balance it between me riding (and the10yo lad too) and the others having plenty to do! Any good resources for me figuring out prices? Accomodation tips in squamish?  Would be going in July

Have just spent three weeks staying in creekside and have been before and done the package experience. Next time I’ll be going and staying in Squamish for a few reasons. The Bikepark although good isn’t ‘all that’, there is TONNES of riding outside which is for more interesting and challenging. From Squamish you can easily drive up to whistler in 40 minutes and ride there as well as getting back down to ride the north shore and Squamish has a LOT of its own variety as well, plus you can visit Pemberton and Vancouver island as well. Whistler is good if you want to do the whole ‘park vibe’ staying out partying or just riding your bikes through village despite signs saying not to but as I’m not into that at all and I sense as a family holiday you won’t be either, staying in Squamish would be a lot better for the family or stay in creekside as we did. Close enough but far enough. Squamish has an AWESOME community for biking with organised rides for you and family that you could join in with that whistler doesn’t have because I think it attracts so many visitors. Biking there is a way of life for whole families, I saw mums out with their kids or mums out with daughter or son, whole families out etc. It was really refreshing that everybody gets it and loves it.

As others have said supermarkets are pricey, we stocked up at Walmart in north Vancouver for the whole three weeks to save money. Prepare yourself for the size of everything! We visited Vancouver for the one day and came away disappoint d. It’s just a huge nondescript city with nothing unique about it. We much preferred the smaller towns we stopped in like Duncan on Vancouver island.

I’ve not done morzine and don’t plan on rushing over either having heard reviews and done Les Arcs but I’m already trying to plan my third visit to BC because the riding is just amazing and my preferred type.

As above AirBnB or VRBO for looking up prices.  Make sure the currency conversions are all aligned as both those websites sometimes display USD not CDN (which matters more to me in Canada)

Anecdotally (not actual proper knowledge) it’s harder to find accommadation in Squamish because of local restrictions on short term lets and holiday rentals.

When I stay in Whistler (3 times in last 5 years) I always stay here.

https://www.whistlerpremier.com/whistler-vacation-homes/montebello  (some of them are on VRBO etc as well at cheaper prices)

It’s not cheap but for me it’s got a number of excellent features.

1) You can pedal to the lifts.

2) It’s got a garage for storing bikes and kit – You’d be surprised how many places are not bike friendly in Whistler.  Despite the mtb communities impression we are not their #1 customer or even season.

3) It’s close to the lost lake trails which are ideal for short rides with young ones.

4) It’s close to the supermarket.

We visited Vancouver for the one day and came away disappoint d. It’s just a huge nondescript city with nothing unique about it. We much preferred the smaller towns we stopped in like Duncan on Vancouver island.

Oooohhh, harsh!
Granted, it doesn’t have the buzz of New York or the architecture of Paris or the history of Rome but what were you really expecting as someone who prefers a run-down logging town like Duncan (of which there are plenty in North America…ask my girlfriend as I’ve dragged her to some of the worst whilst on mountain biking road trips!)?

😉

If you fancy a break from riding at all check out http://www.scenicrush.com if you like Supercars. Great guys and you get plenty of opportunities to open them up on the Sea to Sky highway out of Vancouver

Just back from 21 days in BC, OR and WSH. 4 days in whistler with a day for me to play without the family. It was ace. You queue a lot though so be prepared for that (2 hrs from picking up bike to first run). Blue velvet is the perfect place to start. By the end of the day I was begging for more time. I’d go back in a flash, with the entire family again as they loved it (5,4 & 1). At this time of year the lifts run to about 7pm which was brilliant.

We used AirBnB in tofino and Expedia in whistler to get a condo with hot tub at Glacier’s Reach, everything else using booking.com. Fuel is expensive in Canada – roughly similar to uk prioces. Still cheaper than pepsi south of the border.

How much impact will the damage to the sea to sky lift have?

You’re asking about the recent vandalism on the squamish Chief gondola?

In terms of biking zero impact as bikes never used it anyway. In terms of there being parts of the community who apparently resent all the tourists enough to commit vandalism with real consequences then perhaps.

{Huge generalization coming up}

Like many towns in BC the revenue streams are shifting from resource extraction (mining, forestry etc) to more of tourism. This creates lots of challenges as well as some winners and loosers.  People can struggle with the shift in identify.

Chilling in an RV in Whistler at the moment and heading North tomorrow after 4 days here. It is as others have said, next level. Didn’t find any of the queues too bad, apart from at the very bottom, even then it wasn’t much more than 15-20 mins.

Unless you have the discipline of a monk it is ruinously expensive! If I come back which I may well do, then I will look to do it a bit cheaper.

It is so so worth it though, although my usual surplus of confidence over skill has resulted in bruised and painful ribs, thankfully on pretty much the last run!

Unless you have the discipline of a monk it is ruinously expensive!

Amen brother: just found a curry receipt for over £100, we basically had a butter chicken, a lamb rogan and some sundries between the five of us! (My wife reminds me that I may have had “some” beers.)

We’ve done a few holidays like this now. Something we’ve noticed about the US and Canada is that they punish you for renting regular blocks of time. Bizarrely it’s often far cheaper to arrive on a Tuesday and leave the following Monday than complete the full week. Have seen this in Hawaii, LA and now in BC.