Road Trip: Vancouver, Whistler... and a few stops in between

I have been on a work rollercoaster for a while now.  It’s time to get back to writing and putting my experiences down.  We decided to head north on a little road trip and find some adventure and decompress a bit.  I’m completely inspired and missing vacation!  I feel like it was months ago.  It’s funny how that happens a day after you step back into reality.  Whistler Blackcomb has been on my list for a while.  It was the perfect mountain for someone who resorts to french fries and pizza slices when intimidated.  As a Northeast girl – I also needed some snow and less rain.  This was the perfect vacation.

Included are all of our newly discovered spots across both cities from restaurants to breweries/bars, to things you can do and see.

 Eats

Peckinpah

http://www.peckinpahbbq.com/

Walking around Gastown in Vancouver was very quaint.  It was adorable. We regret not having spent the day wandering but we did manage to have quite a few beverages there.  We stopped in Peckinpah, Vancouver’s hippest BBQ haunt.  Delicious.  The food tastes as good as it smells.  It also carries all local beers on tap.  Definitely a place to satiate fried food cravings – try the Armadillo eggs and fried pickles! 

Elements

http://www.elementswhistler.com

Whistler was a huge ski town, after eating in bars and après ski, we were craving something a little different.  We stumbled around on Yelp and found this amazing little tapas restaurant.  This place is known for its breakfast, but dinner was so good.  The waiter organizes your meal accordingly to its heaviness.  We split a bunch of different items – from salmon lettuce wraps to truffle gnocchi. 

Bearfoot Bistro

http://bearfootbistro.com/

This place was delightful.  We went on a snowshoe hike, and we were given the most amazing granola nut bars.  When we asked the guide where we could find them – they told us Bearfoot Bistro made them for the company, so we were on a hunt to find this place.  Much to our surprise, this place was not what we were expecting.  We were expecting a hunting lodge, and we found ourselves at one of the nicest hidden restaurants in Whistler.  The service was outstanding.  They have a chilled vodka room where they let you borrow Canada Goose jackets.   The ambience was beautiful and the food was delicious from start to finish.   The nut bars were just the start. 

Drink

Howe Sound Brewing

http://www.howesound.com/home.aspx

This place was so random but so good.   They have some widely known Pacific Northwest beer and seasonal brews – including their Pumpkineater that is still available at the brewery.  This brewery is in Squamish and right off the Sea to Sky highway.   My favorite beer here was the Super Jupiter Grapefruit IPA which was delicious.  They have good tasting specials and is very popular for après ski for the day trippers.

Granville Brewery

http://gib.ca/

First and foremost, Granville Island in Vancouver is amazing.  The brewery is a short walk from their indoor farmers market which hosts dozens of local vendors.  You can pretty much fill yourself up with samples before you head for your beer tasting.  At the brewery, we tasted 8 beers.  Don’t get comfortable though; once you have your beers, you have to move on.  Their license doesn’t allow you to have more than just a pint or so in total.  Their Brockton IPA is highly rated across the board and went down smoothly - by far my favorite out of this experience.  When you are finished with your tasting, there is so much going on around the island, you can pop over to 'The Keg' to have a few more pints or go shopping in all of their little art shops that line the streets.

Do

Biking in Stanley Park 

http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx

This was so much fun.  Approximately 10 miles to go completely around the park, we stopped at the aquarium and enjoyed beautiful views of the mountains and the waterfront.  You can rent bikes from most hotels or find one of the many bike shops around the park. 

Skiing

http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/

Skiing in Whistler was so much fun.  I love these mountains.  They are filled with greens and blues and there are few opportunities as a beginner/intermediate skier to find yourself “lost” on a black diamond, which I appreciate.  Their peak to peak makes it easy to back and forth between mountains and provides amazing views to snap some cool pictures. 

Dogsledding/Snowshowing

http://www.canadiansnowmobile.com

Two easy activities to give your legs a break from skiing for an afternoon.  We did a dogsled ride on one day and then snowshoeing on another in the Callaghan Valley.  Lots of discounts throughout the village, you just have to keep an eye out.  We did ours with Canadian Guided Tours.  It’s a fun way to be outside and make some new four legged friends.  Both tours lasted about 2 hours. 

Scandinave Spa

http://www.scandinave.com/en/whistler/

After our last day skiing, we decided to take a break and venture to the Scandinave Spa for some “hydro-therapy.”  This was interesting.  It was relaxing and confusing all at the same time.  The spa is about a 10 minute drive from Whistler village.  Hydrotherapy is where the thermal recuperative and healing properties of water are used to revitalize and restore health. Hydrotherapy uses hot and cold stimuli to elicit specific reactions from the body to relieve stress, soothe the skin and muscles, calm the organs and improve circulation.  Basically you go between the hot tub (10-15 minutes) and then polar plunge for as long as you can.  It was addicting after you do your first 2-3 plunges.