Our Trip to British Columbia, Canada
We just returned from our awesome trip to British Columbia, Canada. Our flight out from Orlando to Salt Lake City to Vancouver and then a puddle jumper to Victoria on Vancouver Island.
The good:
Victoria, Vancouver Island is really pretty. It reminded me of Mackincac Island, Michigan with a pretty downtown surrounded by gorgeous water and topography. We did a lot of sightseeing, eating and drinking. We rented a car and drove north of Victoria to visit their wineries and cideries. We tried some interesting wines, really good cider and awesome local cheese! The weather here was really nice. Cool, breezy and sunny. After a few days here we took a fairy back to Vancouver.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_island
Vancouver: We did not get to see enough of Vancouver to really make a judgement either way. It seems modern, not too large, clean and fun. We hit a couple places to eat and drink and everyone seems nice and happy.
Whistler: We rented a car and drove north to Whistler. The drive up is very pretty and reminded me of Switzerland. They have been renovating a lot since they are holding the winter olympics in 2010 so the roads and signs were all new and very helpful. There are nice little towns along the way with snow capped mountains reflecting in beautiful lakes.
Whistler is regarded as one of the best ski resorts in the world. I was amazed how many people were there for the summer. Brilliantly they have turned the ski runs into mountain biking courses. The weather was amazing with clear blue skies, sunny, breezy and no humidity. Marcelle and I went zip lining www.ziptrek.com which was just friggin amazing! After we wanted to do it again and again. We also went white water rafting down catagory 2 & 3’s. I jumped into the lake we started our rafting journey which was 46 degrees. I did not stay in long. It was awesome hanging out in the hotels hot tub and pool while getting a tan and looking up at the snow tipped mountains.
The neccesarliy the Bad…but The “Interesting”:
Victoria, Vancouver Island has a bizarre amount of homeless people and beggers. For real estate that is so costly, weather that can get very cold and wet while being a remote island…what’s with this?! We were told by several of the locals that B.C. has been “relocating” their poor to the island due to the Olympics.
No A/C in B.C.! Now, some if not many of the places in B.C. do have A/C but since their weather is normally cooler they really don’t need it. However, we seemed to have visited during a very warm period and our first hotel did not have A/C. The Marriott in Vancouver did but the Residence Inn in Whistler did not. They provided us with a big fan so sleeping became a lot like camping…with a C-47 parked infront of us with it’s motor running!
Booze: super expensive in Canada. If you visit any governmental run beer/liquor store you will find beer and liquour to be at least twice the cost of what it is in Florida. Cigarettes are also $10+ a pack! On the packs they advertise that smoking will make you sterile (limp cigarrette on cover) and inside a friendly note letting you know you are going to die from lung cancer. Despite what was a solid campaign by the Canadian government to make people aware we did not see any shortage of smokers…or drinkers!!!
Not long enough! We could have stayed all summer if we had our boys. Spending everyday ziplining, white water rafting, hiking, swimming, eating and drinking. Canadians are always super nice people and fun to talk to and hang out with. We could easily visit again or even move there if not for the lack of jobs not related to the service industry and homes costing in the millions!
