Drove up there with a buddy from colorado. Camped and stayed at hostels. Cooked our own food, ate at furniture warehouse a lot. Nightlife was getting high and recovering. Got a fall pass for cheap. Rode 10 days in 14 days. Cost was under $600. Best bike park ever. Long live the dirtbag!
I would agree with 95% of your review. As a mid 40s dude who doesn't do the meat market dance club night live anymore, I give the night life a 7. Lots of patio coffee shops or the movies are about your only options outside of bars. I did do the brewery places, but still SO packed and loud, it was not enjoyable to me. I will say there is affordable lodging if you don't want a big place. I stayed at an AirBNB in Blackcomb, 1 bedroom with a pullout couch in the living room, and it was $100 a night. Not bad at all. If I was going and taking the family and kids, I would stay a week in Squamish, as the cost is much lower, and more access higher off mountain activities. Plus, it's not a bad drive up to ride every other day or 3. Parking at Creekside was still free, so start and end the day there to save $$. Overall I'd still put it a 9.5, as compared to the other bike parks I've been too, it is SO rider oriented, and the trails are hard to beat.
$200 for a room is cheap. Where are you going to fine less, especially a ski are? This isn’t a brothel. Went to a ATV park a month ago in the middle of nowhere and the double bed room, kinda janky was $70.
I think your scores are bang on. I live in Vancouver, been skiing at Whistler for about 20 years but only biking since 2014. I remember being up in the summer in like 2008-2009 and it was pretty dead in the village but super affordable, I imagine the trails were in way better shape and lift lines probably didn't exist. It's for sure a must visit but the crowds and cost are legit downsides that are noticeably worse than even 5 years ago. Highway traffic in the summer is getting pretty bad too.
Great review lads . I'm from England and one day I must get to Whistler .... surprised at the prices and Obviously the pound has taken a hit recently so exchange rate isn't great but it still seems expensive compared to European bike parks and air BnB . Looks Amazing trails for sure
It's certainly a rating we thought very hard about! I've been to parks in Europe, specifically in the Italian Dolomites that score higher than Whistler in many areas. However, pertaining to North America, we've not yet visited every park, specifically Highland. Many people we highly respect consider this THE best park, so we're hesitant to throw a 10 out. In our opinion a 10 is a perfect score, not THE BEST score, and Whistler is not perfect by a long shot. It's absolutely amazing, but not perfect. And, since nothing is perfect, chances are we may not be giving any 10s out...but maybe that's cuz Drew is a salty, cynical bastard! haha.
this last summer during the end of july/beginning of august my family got a 2 bedroom condo in the north village (blackcomb springs) for $150 CAD a night. that’s super cheap compared to pretty much anywhere else i’ve been on vacation
Trestle bike park in Colorado is great! Thought it more towards the Midwest, it’s definitely worth the travel out. Their jump trails are nice (specifically the trails rainmaker and 36th chamber)and and there is also a bunch of tech options (specifically the trails called Jury Duty, Trestle downhill and search and seizure). If you are a more advanced rider there is a trail called ‘Banana Peel’ which is their slop style corse which is really sick! The trail rainmaker is great for learning jumps as they start out smaller and progressively get bigger as the trail goes on just like B line or Crank it up is at Whistler. When I was there, I met a LOT of riders who were learning how to jump or working on bigger jumps. Another trail I would recommend is Boot camp because the jumps are small and easy to read. There are many other bike parks to chose from but I would HIGHLY recommend Trestle Bike Park.
Thanks for the review. We are planning our first trip the 25th of May, 2020. Can't wait! We are flying in from Ohio to Vancouver. We are not bringing bikes, plan on renting there. I know you brought your own bikes, but did you happen to look into this while you were there or know anything about it?
There's plenty of great shops to rent from in town that fit any budget. We recommend Evolution (linked in the story on our site) but there's lots of others!