“The Impulse to Travel is one of the Joyous Symptoms of Life”.
Hence, just after completing the exciting cruise to Alaska with Seabourn and later exploring the beautiful city of Vancouver, you now embark upon traveling to the legendary Canadian Rockies with ‘Rocky Mountaineer. Via the Whistler Village route.
Leaving Vancouver
It is 6.45 am and representatives of Rocky Mountaineer are at your hotel lobby with the Boarding pass. You then board the waiting bus that will take you to Vancouver Train Station. In a little while you cross some famous landmarks of Vancouver, the Stanley Park, English Bay & Lions Gate Bridge.
Lions Gate Bridge, interestingly, is the replica of the legendary ‘Golden Gate Bridge’ built in San Francisco.
Rocky Mountaineer Train
To begin with you walk over a Red Carpet and board the immaculate 55 seated Glass dome “Rocky Mountaineer. This train No 8018” has ‘Rocky Mountaineer’ conspicuously painted over each if its coach. Moreover a Independent Pantry Car attached with each compartment is a portend of the gastronomic journey you could be in.
Being seated on a comfortable reclining leather chair, you realize being a part of a quintessential melting pot. You are overwhelmed seeing fellow travelers come in from different parts of the planet. A superlative ride during the ensuing 3 day seems to be in offing..
Soon, ‘Epharim’ & ‘Mary’, the Coach’s two young hosts introduce themselves. Both of them shall take care of each ones comfort as well as educate importance of landmarks on the way.
Shortly after, ‘Korilina’, the Chef of this Coach, enters and introduces herself. As a responsible host, she requests each passenger to inform her of their likes/dislikes and allergies if any.
A little later, the train begins to move slowly and so is your three day journey towards ‘Jasper’.
Now you can watch the quite city of Squamish pass by from your left. It is from here now that the Rocky Mountaineer has begun to scale-up the mountain.
Looking at pristine wilderness of Pacific rain-forest and some fabulous fjords, your mind is elevated by its drowning serenity. You are compelled to be captivated by the nature’s marvel.
Besides crossing the awesome Cheakamus River, a tributary of Squamish River it then passes from close to Mount Garibaldi. Interestingly, Mount Garibaldi is a potentially active stratovolcano (stratovolcano – is a volcano built up of alternate layers of Lava and Ash).
Finally, after travelling 119Kms from Vancouver, the train takes its first halt. It is 12 noon and the beautiful “Whistler Village” has arrived.
Whistler Village
‘Whistler’ village is ensconced amidst magnificent snow-peaked Coastal Mountains giving it a surreal and fairyland look. Interestingly, Whistler has also been the co-host with Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics.
After alighting from the train, you board the assigned Bus. This bus soon drops you at your Hotel where a impressive suite awaits you for the night’s stay.
Hotel
Olympic Logo
As you take a stroll around, you come across slew of quaint, alluring shops, bars, restaurants and hotels. No doubt, Whistler has caught the imagination of people from across the Globe.
Interestingly, the Snow covered Whistler during winters is supposedly a delight for Skiing enthusiasts; both Amateurs and Professionals.
Whistler-village 1
Whistler-village 2
As you walk through the vibrant village street towards Gondola Base Station, the overcast sky and clouds surrounding both the peaks give you a disquieting sensation. You doubt if the Gondola’s operation will continue in such a challenging situation.
With fingers crossed, you reach the base and to your delight you find that the Gondola services are on.
On reaching the foothills of Whistler Mountain, the tri-cable Gondola attracts your attention. Just by its base station is another station that arouses your curiosity. Some youngsters have queued up here to go up in the open-air chairlifts with their bicycles by their sides. From there, we expected them to ride down on their bicycles along the trail, presumably for a unique experience.
To Whistler Mountain in Gondola
Once the cable car ascends, you spend the next 30 minutes enjoying the enchanting view of Whistler Mountain and the village below.
At the altitude of 436 meters, on the summit, you are now welcomed with a temperature that has dropped to 6deg C.
Coming from a tropical country, such cold weather is not what you are used to. Bracing the chill, you, however, enjoy the 360 deg panoramic vista of these pristine alpine.
Now, there is a restaurant and also a souvenir shop on the top. So, a hot cup of coffee from the restaurant is in anticipation of mitigating this biting cold. It helps!
Next in the itinerary is to experience Peak2Peak Gondola.
Peak to Peak Gondola
As the name suggests, ‘Peak 2 Peak Gondola’ connects the two peaks, “Whistler and the adjacent Black-Comb Mountain”.
The distance between these two peaks is 3.03 kms or 1.88 miles. And the rope-way, on which the Gondola is suppose to travel is seen hanging precariously between the two towers. No doubt this rope-way boasts itself of it being the longest unsupported span in the world.
During the next 30 minutes, looking out from the glassed Gondola, you are in for a delightful ascend up the Whistler Mountain. Once on the summit, at the altitude of 436 meters, you are welcomed with the temperature drop to 6℃.
Coming from a tropical country, you are really not accustomed to such a chill. However, bracing the weather, you keep enjoying the 360 degree panoramic vista of pristine alpine around.
There is a restaurant as well as a souvenir shop on the top. After a hot cup of coffee, you are now reasonably pleased with the mitigation of the cold. Next in the itinerary is the Peak2Peak gondola ride from Whistler to Black-Comb Mountain.
During the next 11 minutes you find yourself literally flying over the tall alpine forests before crossing over and finally landing on the Black-Comb Mountain peak.
Subsequently, in the evening, you get prepared for the pre-booked “Whistler Tasting Tour”. On reaching the site, you get introduced to ‘Mr. Luhe’, the guide for this evening. Furthermore, he promises to take you for four patently mouth-watering courses of dinner at four different award winning restaurants situated within the Whistler Village.
To begin with is the memorable visit to huge 15,000-bottle wine cellar. This impressive cellar is incidentally situated in the basement of one of the restaurants. Here the cellar manager displays a delightful prowess wherein he effortlessly uncorks a Champagne Bottle with a large blunt sword. Sounds incredible!! Isn’t it ?? Yes, but he did it.
Next was another remarkable restaurant where Luhe offered you some wine and snacks. This was followed by the third place where you had a perfect dinner along with some more wine. And finally was the place that served desserts.
So then, as you return to go back to your room, the well lit streets of the village have begun to look incredibly alluring. As a result, you decide to stop for a while and take a few pictures of these fascinating area.
Whistler Night
Soon after reaching your suite, you hit the pillow so as to wake up early the next morning and continue the beautiful journey with Rocky Mountaineer.
The next halt of this exciting trip is the small town called ‘Quesnel’ (Pronounced – Kwan fell), 500kms away from Whistler.
Do visit the 2nd Part as well as later parts of this unforgettable journey to the Rockies.
Anonymous
1
Anonymous
The places you visited are specially built and maintained by nature for people like you who are nature lover and valued the grace of God. It’s a dream world. Great!!!
Anonymous
Wonderful keep it up
Anonymous
Wonderful pics enjoy👌
Anonymous
5
Narinder Singh
Just wonderful! Beautiful!!! Adventurous!!!
Anonymous
Amazing description! Can feel we are there..
Compliments..
Anonymous
1.5
Anonymous
Too good, it feels as though one is there as YOU beautifully explain & picturize.
Anonymous
4.5