pillow
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
Hello fellow travelers! In an attempt to preserve one of the most fantastic trips we’ve taken, and to also help those of you who are in the planning stages, I’m attempting my first trip report. I’m new to this, so take it easy on me please. Please feel free to ask any questions.
A little about us . . . DMyself47 Jodie - love to travel and especially love to plan said travel (over plan is more like it); DH49 Mike - just enjoys being away from work and lets me plan away; DS17 Cary (who just turned 18) – not a big fan of travel and would rather be home with friends instead of spending 18 days with his very un-cool boring parents; DD15 Jill – loves to travel like her mom.
We’ve taken lots of fun trips as a family and enjoy independent travel over tours. We have also enjoyed cruising Disney (this would be our 8th Disney cruise). We enjoy both, and it can be hard to choose between the two. Since DS will be starting college in August (our travel budget will be pretty much nonexistent for years to come), we decided to do one last big family trip, combining both independent travel and a Disney cruise. Thus, the Canada/Alaska Mega trip was born.
We began planning this trip over a year in advance and decided that we would book a porthole room to save some money (it was an additional $2K for the verandah for our family of 4) and that we would fly in 10 days early to explore Canada on our own. Independent travel takes more work, but we enjoy the freedom of renting a car and doing what we please. The #1 goal when planning was to schedule some fun active activities but to also have some relaxing down time. The #2 goal was to not break the bank and to get the most bang for our travel buck. I think we pretty much accomplished both. So, here we go . . .
The overall travel plan was as follows:
Nights 1-3 Whistler
Nights 4-6 Tofino (west coast of Vancouver Island)
Night 7 Victoria
Nights 8-10 Vancouver
Nights 11-17 Cruise
Night 18 Airport hotel before early flight next morning
Day 1
Does anyone else hate those early morning flights?? Ugh – up at 4:40am east coast time for our 7:25 flight. I had booked our Delta flights using air miles that I had been accumulating for years. The flights weren’t the greatest, but they were free, so we made do. After way too many hours of travel, we arrived in the Vancouver airport somewhere around 2:45-3:00 or so. The customs process was super easy with no lines, and we were out in fresh air in no time.
(Side note for planning purposes: Since we were planning time in Canada, we wanted some Canadian currency. Just before walking out the main doors, we stopped at the ATM machine. This is the best way to get the best rate when converting currencies. We withdrew the max of $400 CAD to make the most of the ATM charge. While traveling, we used our Amex Delta Platinum card first since there is no foreign transaction fee. Then we used either the cash or our credit union Visa (1% fee) as a backup.)
We were greeted by lovely but warmer than usual weather – blue skies and NO HUMIDITY! Hallelujah! We had reserved a mini-van through Costco for a week for a crazy cheap price. We were planning to pick up a cooler and some supplies, and with luggage for four, I figured we needed the space. We were given a Ford Flex, which really didn’t have that much space. Our stuff barely fit, and I pined for my old beat up 2005 230K mile Honda Odyssey, which was sitting all alone unused at the airport. At 3:30, we were off in search of the Interstate and happily on our way to Whistler. A pic of our van, which DD named the "blue mobile" . . .
I want to stop here and address my overly ambitious planning . . . I knew we would be pooped after flying all day – especially with the 3 hour time change. But I figured we could suck it up for the day. The plan was to get our car, stop at Wal-Mart for groceries (I had one picked out), and make our way up to Whistler. I had naively assumed we would just hop on the interstate and be on our way after renting the car. NOPE! First of all, there is no highway access to the airport. You don’t actually get on an interstate until after crossing the Lions Gate Bridge. So, we were driving on regular city roads on a Friday afternoon at 3:30 in major traffic while trying to convert my printed MapQuest directions which were in miles to the car’s odometer, which was in kilometers. It took us about an hour to get to the Lions Gate from the airport. We were in “lets just get there already” mode, so we skipped the grocery shopping plan in an attempt to, well, JUST GET THERE ALREADY! In hindsight, we probably should have spent the night in North Vancouver before grocery shopping the next morning and driving to Whistler. Oh well . . . live and learn.
The drive up to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Highway was spectacular. Here are some pics lazily taken from inside the car on our way up . . .
We rented a 2 bedroom condo in Whistler Village so that we could spread out and also so that we could cook our own meals. We would have three nights and two full days here. The plan was to hike, zip line, and putz around the village a bit, with the Peak to Peak gondola as a possibility if time. I had researched two possible hikes, Wedgemount Lake and Joeffrey Lakes. More on the overly ambitious hike from hell in the Day 2 report .
We stopped for convenience store sandwiches on our way which were surprisingly delicious. After arriving in Whistler and checking into our condo, we walked over to the IGA to pick up food for the next few days. This is where we realized that skipping the Wal-Mart shopping stop was a mistake. Holy mother of God, the groceries were expensive here (even after converting to USD)! Just for fun, here is a sample . . .
1 gallon milk (not organic) = $5.99 CAD
Cereal (regular size box) = $6.29 CAD
Chicken breasts non organic (about 1.5 lbs or so) = $16.56 CAD
2 bars Dove soap = $4.99 CAD
Half gallon Breyers ice cream = $6.99 CAD
Back at the condo, we passed out from both physical and mental exhaustion. Condo pics . . .
DS opted for the pull-out versus sharing a room with DD.
We enjoyed having a balcony.
Our condo was on the 2nd and 3rd floor here.
Up next . . . Wedgemount Lake hike . . .
A little about us . . . DMyself47 Jodie - love to travel and especially love to plan said travel (over plan is more like it); DH49 Mike - just enjoys being away from work and lets me plan away; DS17 Cary (who just turned 18) – not a big fan of travel and would rather be home with friends instead of spending 18 days with his very un-cool boring parents; DD15 Jill – loves to travel like her mom.
We’ve taken lots of fun trips as a family and enjoy independent travel over tours. We have also enjoyed cruising Disney (this would be our 8th Disney cruise). We enjoy both, and it can be hard to choose between the two. Since DS will be starting college in August (our travel budget will be pretty much nonexistent for years to come), we decided to do one last big family trip, combining both independent travel and a Disney cruise. Thus, the Canada/Alaska Mega trip was born.
We began planning this trip over a year in advance and decided that we would book a porthole room to save some money (it was an additional $2K for the verandah for our family of 4) and that we would fly in 10 days early to explore Canada on our own. Independent travel takes more work, but we enjoy the freedom of renting a car and doing what we please. The #1 goal when planning was to schedule some fun active activities but to also have some relaxing down time. The #2 goal was to not break the bank and to get the most bang for our travel buck. I think we pretty much accomplished both. So, here we go . . .
The overall travel plan was as follows:
Nights 1-3 Whistler
Nights 4-6 Tofino (west coast of Vancouver Island)
Night 7 Victoria
Nights 8-10 Vancouver
Nights 11-17 Cruise
Night 18 Airport hotel before early flight next morning
Day 1
Does anyone else hate those early morning flights?? Ugh – up at 4:40am east coast time for our 7:25 flight. I had booked our Delta flights using air miles that I had been accumulating for years. The flights weren’t the greatest, but they were free, so we made do. After way too many hours of travel, we arrived in the Vancouver airport somewhere around 2:45-3:00 or so. The customs process was super easy with no lines, and we were out in fresh air in no time.
(Side note for planning purposes: Since we were planning time in Canada, we wanted some Canadian currency. Just before walking out the main doors, we stopped at the ATM machine. This is the best way to get the best rate when converting currencies. We withdrew the max of $400 CAD to make the most of the ATM charge. While traveling, we used our Amex Delta Platinum card first since there is no foreign transaction fee. Then we used either the cash or our credit union Visa (1% fee) as a backup.)
We were greeted by lovely but warmer than usual weather – blue skies and NO HUMIDITY! Hallelujah! We had reserved a mini-van through Costco for a week for a crazy cheap price. We were planning to pick up a cooler and some supplies, and with luggage for four, I figured we needed the space. We were given a Ford Flex, which really didn’t have that much space. Our stuff barely fit, and I pined for my old beat up 2005 230K mile Honda Odyssey, which was sitting all alone unused at the airport. At 3:30, we were off in search of the Interstate and happily on our way to Whistler. A pic of our van, which DD named the "blue mobile" . . .
I want to stop here and address my overly ambitious planning . . . I knew we would be pooped after flying all day – especially with the 3 hour time change. But I figured we could suck it up for the day. The plan was to get our car, stop at Wal-Mart for groceries (I had one picked out), and make our way up to Whistler. I had naively assumed we would just hop on the interstate and be on our way after renting the car. NOPE! First of all, there is no highway access to the airport. You don’t actually get on an interstate until after crossing the Lions Gate Bridge. So, we were driving on regular city roads on a Friday afternoon at 3:30 in major traffic while trying to convert my printed MapQuest directions which were in miles to the car’s odometer, which was in kilometers. It took us about an hour to get to the Lions Gate from the airport. We were in “lets just get there already” mode, so we skipped the grocery shopping plan in an attempt to, well, JUST GET THERE ALREADY! In hindsight, we probably should have spent the night in North Vancouver before grocery shopping the next morning and driving to Whistler. Oh well . . . live and learn.
The drive up to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Highway was spectacular. Here are some pics lazily taken from inside the car on our way up . . .
We rented a 2 bedroom condo in Whistler Village so that we could spread out and also so that we could cook our own meals. We would have three nights and two full days here. The plan was to hike, zip line, and putz around the village a bit, with the Peak to Peak gondola as a possibility if time. I had researched two possible hikes, Wedgemount Lake and Joeffrey Lakes. More on the overly ambitious hike from hell in the Day 2 report .
We stopped for convenience store sandwiches on our way which were surprisingly delicious. After arriving in Whistler and checking into our condo, we walked over to the IGA to pick up food for the next few days. This is where we realized that skipping the Wal-Mart shopping stop was a mistake. Holy mother of God, the groceries were expensive here (even after converting to USD)! Just for fun, here is a sample . . .
1 gallon milk (not organic) = $5.99 CAD
Cereal (regular size box) = $6.29 CAD
Chicken breasts non organic (about 1.5 lbs or so) = $16.56 CAD
2 bars Dove soap = $4.99 CAD
Half gallon Breyers ice cream = $6.99 CAD
Back at the condo, we passed out from both physical and mental exhaustion. Condo pics . . .
DS opted for the pull-out versus sharing a room with DD.
We enjoyed having a balcony.
Our condo was on the 2nd and 3rd floor here.
Up next . . . Wedgemount Lake hike . . .
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