Skisnow
Certified Ski Diva
Hey, I just wanted to make a post for any European skiiers out there. I have skiied Switzerland, Austria and France in the past and loved it, but it was only when I went to Whistler that I realised what us Europeans were missing out on.
Perfect snow, deserted pistes, no fat guys running you over (yes this has happened to me!) and all the boarders and skiiers are respectful to each other, that's when you see the boarders who are mostly in the park! No-one pushes in the lift queues!!!
I chose Supergroup lessons for the first three days and ended up with a private lesson for 2.5 of them! The weekends get busy with visitors from Vancouver/Seattle (this is still dead by European standards). The instructors are great. My Fiance (who actually proposed to me on the top of a glacier there!) was a beginner and he also loved it. For confidence building it is a fantastic place, but for experts there is a race course (I joined the Dave Murray camp on the second week) and plenty of off piste (which I can't comment on as I am hopeless at anything over 2 inches deep).
The village is nice I would imagine as quaint as you can get in the North Americas and there is not any of the pretension you can find in many European resorts, most people there seem to be having fun skiing not posing. Except the English of course who were easily spotted head to toe in Spyder gear snowploughing down black runs before running to the bar to tell everyone (I'm allowed to say that I'm English!)
One of the things I was worried about was the food being a bit heavy as North America (compared to France) are rumoured to have big stogy portions. How wrong could I be, sure there were steak and chicken wings, but during our stay we had some of the finest dining I have ever tasted, I highly recommend Araxi and next time we are going to try Bearfoot Bistro which was suggested by a friend (who preferred it to Araxi).
We stayed in the Four Seasons, some friends of my Fiance's stayed at the Fairmont, over the two I would recommend the Four Seasons, it may not look as grand but the service is outstanding, and the spa - wow I had an apres ski massage nearly every day - the hot stones are fantastic! The hotel looked after the engagement ring before my fiance proposed, when he realised the top of the ski lift was not a romantic place to propose they arranged a private helicopter tour to take us to the top of a glacier and managed to keep it all secret from me, even when it was cancelled due to bad weather and they had to rearrange! The concierge also arranged our restaurant bookings for both Whistler and our subsequent stay in Vancouver.
Highly recommended I can't wait to go back this year and maybe try some other North American places in years to come if anyone has any recommendations I'd love to know.
Perfect snow, deserted pistes, no fat guys running you over (yes this has happened to me!) and all the boarders and skiiers are respectful to each other, that's when you see the boarders who are mostly in the park! No-one pushes in the lift queues!!!
I chose Supergroup lessons for the first three days and ended up with a private lesson for 2.5 of them! The weekends get busy with visitors from Vancouver/Seattle (this is still dead by European standards). The instructors are great. My Fiance (who actually proposed to me on the top of a glacier there!) was a beginner and he also loved it. For confidence building it is a fantastic place, but for experts there is a race course (I joined the Dave Murray camp on the second week) and plenty of off piste (which I can't comment on as I am hopeless at anything over 2 inches deep).
The village is nice I would imagine as quaint as you can get in the North Americas and there is not any of the pretension you can find in many European resorts, most people there seem to be having fun skiing not posing. Except the English of course who were easily spotted head to toe in Spyder gear snowploughing down black runs before running to the bar to tell everyone (I'm allowed to say that I'm English!)
One of the things I was worried about was the food being a bit heavy as North America (compared to France) are rumoured to have big stogy portions. How wrong could I be, sure there were steak and chicken wings, but during our stay we had some of the finest dining I have ever tasted, I highly recommend Araxi and next time we are going to try Bearfoot Bistro which was suggested by a friend (who preferred it to Araxi).
We stayed in the Four Seasons, some friends of my Fiance's stayed at the Fairmont, over the two I would recommend the Four Seasons, it may not look as grand but the service is outstanding, and the spa - wow I had an apres ski massage nearly every day - the hot stones are fantastic! The hotel looked after the engagement ring before my fiance proposed, when he realised the top of the ski lift was not a romantic place to propose they arranged a private helicopter tour to take us to the top of a glacier and managed to keep it all secret from me, even when it was cancelled due to bad weather and they had to rearrange! The concierge also arranged our restaurant bookings for both Whistler and our subsequent stay in Vancouver.
Highly recommended I can't wait to go back this year and maybe try some other North American places in years to come if anyone has any recommendations I'd love to know.
