Whistler Info Needed

Has anyone been to Whistler Village? While I was looking at the Rocky Mountaineer site, I noticed that there is a 3-hour train ride aboard the Whistler Mountaineer. Roundtrip from Vancouver is $179-$289 CDN (depending on the train car chosen). Would this be worth it? I was thinking of possibly doing it pre-cruise. You have the choice of returning the same day or on a different day. Does anyone know how the scenery on the Whistler Mountaineer would compare to that on the Rocky Mountaineer? Thanks!

Has anyone been to Whistler Village? While I was looking at the Rocky Mountaineer site, I noticed that there is a 3-hour train ride aboard the Whistler Mountaineer. Roundtrip from Vancouver is $179-$289 CDN (depending on the train car chosen). Would this be worth it? I was thinking of possibly doing it pre-cruise. You have the choice of returning the same day or on a different day. Does anyone know how the scenery on the Whistler Mountaineer would compare to that on the Rocky Mountaineer? Thanks!

Oh, don't do that. Call Gray Lines. We took an excellent 10 hour tour from Vancouver to Whistler For $146.43 US for two of us.

We did Whistler and the Rockies pre cruise, but drove. Whistler is an easy scenic one hour drive from Vancouver, but if you are not comfortable with driving the bus is a much cheaper option. It is a bit of a fairytale village- everything looking the same and perfect - better than the rockies for shopping. Some people love it , others hate it- say its too "plastic". We had 2 nights and enjoyed it as we hired bicycles and rode around all the beautiful lakes (and shopped!) Also good walks in summer. It is not as scenically dramatic or beautiful as the rockies, but I think a worthwhile trip if you have the time. Sue

Has anyone been to Whistler Village? While I was looking at the Rocky Mountaineer site, I noticed that there is a 3-hour train ride aboard the Whistler Mountaineer. Roundtrip from Vancouver is $179-$289 CDN (depending on the train car chosen). Would this be worth it? I was thinking of possibly doing it pre-cruise. You have the choice of returning the same day or on a different day. Does anyone know how the scenery on the Whistler Mountaineer would compare to that on the Rocky Mountaineer? Thanks!

Oh, don't do that. Call Gray Lines. We took an excellent 10 hour tour from Vancouver to Whistler For $146.43 US for two of us.

My wife & I loved Whistler in the summer, but it is ungodly expensive. If you're doing Alaska anyway you're probably used to it. We just rented a car for a week, toured Vancouver a couple days, and then stopped by Capilano, Grouse, and the BC Mining Museum (every bit as good as Juneau's) on the way up to Whistler. The Sea-to-Sky highway is the most spectacular scenery we've ever seen from a road, and we DID drive the Seward & Denali highways in Alaska. I don't know what the trains are like, but a week's rental car is cheaper than the train prices you listed.

Then once you get there, you can ride the ski lift & hike for some more scenery, or you can take the zip line. The zip line is far cheaper than Ketchikan's, and I seriously doubt Ketchikan's is as good as Whistler's.

Whistler is geared toward the more active crowd, though. The funnest stuff is ATV'ing, mountain biking, snow-skiing (thru July), whitewater....

If you are a rail fan, this is an EXCELLENT rail tour. I took the Royal Hudson to Squamish. And any current rail trip would be the same tracks further. I have only driven to Whistler.

My family and I are spending 5 days pre-cruise in Whistler next week. We're

renting an SUV and driving. We plan on golfing, doing the zip trek, horseback riding, luge, renting bikes, hiking, river rafting and going to the adventure zone among other things. We've never been to Whistler before. We have reservations for golf. Should we make reservations for anything else before we go? Thanks.

I don't think Whistler particularly needs reservations in the summertime. If you've got 5 days you've definitely got time for more stuff. Are you into the whole thing with taking mountain bikes up ski lifts?

OH! DO check into whether you have air conditioning beforehand. Lots of places don't have it. Back when these places got built, they didn't think they needed it that much; but now it's getting "unusually hot" ... every year. You know the drill. 5 days without air conditioning could seriously cut into your vacation.

Thank you everyone for your wonderful input. I will certainly look into all these options. For those of you who mentioned the "zip line", could you please tell me more about it? My son was interested in this excursion in Ketchican, but it sounds like Whistler might be the place to do it! Can you tell me more about it? What is the name of the company? Do they have a homepage? Thanks!

http://www.ziptrek.com

Looks like they do recommend reservations. Personally I didn't need any, though--in the summer I just went to the bottom of the ski lift at Whistler Mtn. and could get tickets there. Prices are $98 Canadian/adults, $78 Canadian/kids. Last I heard Ketchikan is $150 U.S./pp.

We were in Whistler on what the locals said was a very quiet week and tried to book the zip trek and there was only two spots left later in the day. No need to book it before you leave but don't expect to turn up and be able to go straight away. Apparently it is better than the one in Ketchikan- 5 lines, the longest 1100 feet and high over the gorge. I am sure your son (and you) will have a good time. Sue

Tetleytea and Corniglia, thanks for the additional info...and Tetleytea, thanks for the link. It looks like a lot of fun!