Day 30 - Vancouver

Blogger: Stephanie Lynch

Today was our first road trip in Vancouver! We headed to Whistler for the day. We heard so much about this gem, we couldn’t wait to check it out. The drive from Vancouver to Whistler was just breathtaking. A drive of a lifetime along the Sea to Sky Highway. It’s a short 120 km drive (75 mile) from Vancouver, and one of the most scenic routes in the world. Be prepared for a experience driving on a mountain highway – spectacular.

On our journey, we stopped to give a man a hand who had trouble with his bicycle. It turns out he was on the Canadian cycling team(Jack Burke)…. what a lovely guy who filled us in on all the locals gems throughout our journey to Squamish(a town just before Whistler) with him. Now we can say we know this cyclists when he is off doing the tour de France in years to come.

A few local tips we learned from Jack:

Squamish is the most popular local spot for outdoor adventures(more popular then Whistler).
Squamish holds logger Olympics… events like climbing telephone polls etc. Supposed to be amazing to see.
Sea to Sky gondola in Squamish is a local favourite with better views then the gondola in Whistler(We will be back in a few days to try this when more of our crew arrive in Vancouver!).
On route to Squamish, he also showed us this climbing rock which is one of the most popular spots in the world for rock climbing. I was able to spot a few climbing as we drove past… it takes some skill to climb it.

So we dropped off Jack and stopped for a cuppa between Squamish and Whistler… can you believe we saw a bear run across the road while sitting out with our tea. We couldn’t believe it!! It ran so quickly we never got a picture. It was gone even before we realised what exactly what we saw!

We met some locals who played ‘When Irish eyes are smiling’ for us on their didgeridoo… it was an experience!! I love meeting locals to get a feel for the place and people. It’s one of my favourite things about travelling.

We arrived in Whistler and I honestly felt like I had arrived in an adventure wonderland… everywhere I looked was overflowing with adventure. Everybody was walking down the street pushing a mountain bikes! Whistler is north of Vancouver and home to the world of ski enthusiasts. With more than 8,000 acres over 2 mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb, it’s the largest ski area in North America. It co-hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately it wasn’t ski season but that didn’t stop the adventures. We got chatting to some mountain bikers off Blackcomb mountain(who were biking down a typical ski slope which will transfer to a winter wonderland in a few months).

The town is a compact, chalet-style pedestrian village and we enjoyed the atmosphere and took in all the adventure options. We are returning to Whistler in a few days when a few more crew members join us to try them. So we did some research on all the adventures and looking forward to trying a few in a few days(I must say… I was loving the quad bikes!!).

We drove back to Vancouver as the sun was setting and we pulled into lots of view spots to admire the beautiful scenery. Most definitely one of the best road trips in the world.