Whistler with Kids? - The Free Life Travel

We just got back from snowboarding Whistler with our kids and we are now ready to give you our honest review!

A friend of ours says that Whistler is his favorite ski vacation spot. However, he is a single guy with no kids. We had a bit of a different outlook than what he does though since we went as a family.

Below you’ll get the things that we loved and then the things that we were disappointed in. Hopefully, by providing you with this, you’ll have all of the of the information to know if Whistler is the right ski / snowboard destination for your family.

The Good

I’ll start off with the positive before I get into the negative. Whistler / Blackcomb mountains are known around the world for a reason. There were many great things that stuck out to me, which I have listed below.

1. Views

A dad and his two kids at Whistler snowboarding.

The amount of varying viewpoints that you get between these two mountains are definitely breathtaking. In fact, the views may just outweigh the negative things and take us back.

The views that we loved the most were the top of Symphony Express, Seventh Heaven and Peak Express.

The view of a peak of a mountain and various snowy mountains all around it at the top of Blackcomb ski mountain.

A man snowboards down Blackcomb mountain with stunning mountain views all around him.

A woman stands with her snowboard and takes a picture of the mountains behind her.

They were absolutely stunning and worth the trip. As far as terrain at these locations, my daughter and I (who are most comfortable on blues and greens) were just fine on these runs.

In addition to the views, Whistler / Blackcomb has a couple of fun things to see at the top of the mountains like the Olympic rings and the Inukshuks.

Inukshuks are people statues made from stone. Story has it that these were erected to help people find their ways on the mountain. Both the Olympic rings and the Inukshuks are good photo ops as the mountainous views are in the background.

A stone statue shaped like a person is at the top of the mountain with a snow mountain range behind it.

Olympic rings in front of a beautiful snowy backdrop at Whistler mountain.

A family holds their snowboards above their heads in front of the Olympic rings at the Whistler Blackcomb mountains.

2. Longest And Highest Gondola

Whistler / Blackcomb are two separate mountains connected by the Peak 2 Peak Gondola. This Gondola is the world’s longest and highest gondola connecting two mountains. It is a must ride when you are at Whistler with kids (or without – it’s just a must!)

The gondola is much larger than other gondolas and has 4 rows of seating.

The inside of the Peak 2 Peak Gondola showing that there is a lot of room for families who crossing the Whistler mountains with their kids.

It takes roughly 11 minutes to cross and is a really smooth ride. It will be a highlight of your trip!

3. Lots Of Gondolas

Not only is there the Peak 2 Peak, but I found it nice that there were many gondolas (5 in total) so that I didn’t have to ride as many chair lifts. Let’s face it, gondolas are a much more enjoyable ride than chair lifts. I will always choose them if they are available. Make sure to take a min for a photo op in the cute gondola inside the lodge too!

A picture of a red gondola that is in between the trees with white snow capped mountains behind it.

A little girl sits inside of an old gondola that has a neon pink "Whistler" sign above it. Next to her is a bunch of directional signs with names of other ski places.

Word of warning though – because there are so many, make sure that you are getting on the correct one! My daughter and I accidentally got on the wrong gondola and ended up in the Creekside village, 20 minutes away from where we were supposed to be! We had to take a bus to get back to Whistler Village.

I would chalk this up to my blonde hair under my snowboard helmet; however, we were not alone in the mix-up. Two men, who are well-seasoned skiers, were in the exact same situation as us at the same time. Once I re-looked at the map, it was a very easy mistake to make and not that I’m directional-ly challenged.

Even with this mix-up, I still put the gondolas in my “good” list. I enjoyed that they had so many and it kept me from having to ride the chair lifts so much.

4. People Are So Friendly

One thing that really took us by surprise was how many Australians are in this part of Canada. We probably met more Australians than we did Canadians! Canadians are known to be really nice and that was our experience for everyone we met, Canadian or Australian.

We actually even asked one Aussie, “Are all Australians this nice or has Canada rubbed off on you?” Lol. He answered, “We are nice but I definitely think that we get nicer when we are here.”

As a homeschool mom, I loved that we had so many interactions with people from all over the world. Typically, when we are in Colorado or Utah snowboarding, we meet people mostly from the United States. At Whistler though, there were people from all over. A lot of Europeans too, which surprised us since they have the Alps. We asked them why they came to Canada and they said it was to try something different. Totally get that and that is why were were at Whistler too. 🙂

So if you go to Whistler with kids, expect them to be around a lot of culture, kind people and friendly service!

5. No Weed Smells

One thing that I hate about boarding in Colorado is that sometimes you’ll ski / snowboard right into a skunk smell, that didn’t come from a skunk.

I did not experience this at Whistler though and it was so refreshing. A big part of snowboarding is to be out in the fresh, mountain air. To have it be ruined by someone who smoked a joint before hitting the runs is so frustrating! Also dangerous as they are on the mountain with you and your kids impaired!

6. Village

A picture of the village of Whistler where trees are all lit up in multi-colored lights.

I love a village. It makes the whole experience so much better. From coming off the mountain and immediately seeing people Après Ski to having easy access to stores to walking to dinner, village life is a good life.

We have snowboarded other places that didn’t have villages and it definitely impacted the experience. So the fact that Whistler has a village is noteworthy.

However, we have stayed in villages that were more family friendly. I’ll get to some of the points further down in this blog post. It was a nice village though and I was grateful that they had it.

7. Didn’t Experience As Many Reckless Riders

Last year, we did a 2 month family snowboarding trip to Snowbasin, which you can read about here. While we had a great time there, we did experience several instances of reckless riders. I think it is because this is more of a “local” place. You get a lot of teenagers coming up that think they own the mountain.

However, we found that the riders in Whistler seemed to be more considerate and not so reckless. Now, we did go when it wasn’t perfect conditions which didn’t bring out the locals. You could have a different experience with this than we did if weather is great and the locals are out. This is just our own personal experience while on our trip.

8. Cute Areas To Explore In Whistler With Kids

There are cute little areas like this “Enchanted Forest” that are fun to do in Whistler with kids. They also have a playground on the mountain that you can ski / snowboard to but it was closed when we were there.

A little girl snowboards through the a kid-friendly route in the trees at Whistler.

The Bad

1. The Lodges

I’ve got to say, I was super disappointed with the lodges at Whistler / Blackcomb. Maybe I’ve just gotten spoiled by other ski resort lodges, but when you are paying so much money for your trip, you want good lodges. They are a part of the whole ski experience!

We are used to ski resorts having places at the bottom of the mountain where you can warm up around a fire pit and watch other skiers come down. This was not the case here though. There were restaurants at the bottom, but no place for you to just sit and chill while you wait for the rest of your group.

The lodges on the mountain were disappointing too. They need a serious remodel as the carpet looked gross and you could smell the bathrooms from the halls. I really hated how they collected liquids too as it turned my stomach every time I saw it. They had stations where you would pour any liquid into these canisters but anything solid would sit at the top looking like someone threw up. They smelled, looked disgusting and were all over the lodges next to the trash cans. Just gross.

While we were not able to make it to every single lodge, we made it to several and not once did I see a fireplace to warm up. A ski lodge with no fireplaces is just wrong in my opinion. Again, we are paying so much money to be there that we want the whole experience.

Warming up by a fire in between runs is something that we love. Other resorts have them so if that is something that you value also, you may want to look at booking your vacation somewhere else.

Here are a few photos of the lodges. See the captions with each one.

You can see that there isn’t anything special about this lodge. No fire place but just a bunch of crowded tables.

The place above is actually called a “hut” instead of a “lodge”. We actually kind of liked this hut; however, the one window where I could look out and watch the skiers was blocked by a ton of snow. This isn’t fresh fallen snow. It is that they had pushed the snow and this is where it landed. I wish a little more care would have been taken and pushed it away from the window so that I could actually see out while sitting here.

2. No Freebies Upon Check-In

Ok so this is a super small compliant but just something that I noticed. There have been ski resorts hand out small goodies when picking up our lift passes and Whistler did not do that.

Small things go a long way with me and when a ski resort gives me a free chapstick or free stickers to the kids, I notice. I also notice when places don’t do the small things and then write about them in this blog lol.

3. Ski Patrol

Maybe it was because we were there when it wasn’t super busy (due to the conditions), but I noticed that in the “slow zones” there weren’t any ski patrol making sure that people were slowing down.

It always makes me feel a little better when I see ski patrol actually patrolling the mountain. It could be that they just don’t have many reckless riders, like I mentioned above, so they don’t feel the need to be present but as a mom with kids on the mountain, it would make me feel better if they were around.

4. Après Ski For Families Not As Strong As In Other Places

Another huge part of skiing / snowboarding is Après Ski! Après Ski means “After Ski” meaning anything that you do after your day on the mountain to enjoy the evening and recharge the body for tomorrow’s ski / snowboard day.

I would say that there are other ski resorts that cater more to a family Après Ski experience than Whistler. You have places like Beavercreek in Colorado that hand out free fresh, warm cookies right at 3pm that kids (and adults) very much look forward to and Vail’s ice skating is much better. Whistler’s rink was small and kind of lacking.

Whistler also had a small little sledding hill next to the rink, which were my kids were excited about; however, we quickly found out that they needed their own sled. We kind of figured that there would be an abundance of sleds that Whistler just provides for the kids to use, but that wasn’t the case.

Another example that I kind of already mentioned is having a lodge at the bottom where the kids can get hot chocolate and watch the other skiers / snowboarders come down the mountain after they finished for the day. It was a bummer that they didn’t have this.

A big part of Après Ski is also where you stay so I definitely don’t want to focus on Whistler itself not catering to family Après because your hotel very much could instead.

Our hotel, Delta Hotels Whistler Village and Suites, did have a great indoor / outdoor pool, three hot tubs and a sauna. All of that was wonderful, but Whistler mountain and Whistler village itself was a little lacking in the family Après experience.

Where To Après Ski in Whistler With Kids

So where do you Après with your family then? It isn’t like there aren’t any options, just fewer than other ski resorts in my experience. However, here are a few Après options where your family can refuel, recharge and make some great memories outside of skiing / snowboarding.

1. Beaver Tails – My kids absolutely loved these Canadian treats! Beaver Tails are a fried dough that are topped with various things like cinnamon sugar, chocolate, candy pieces, etc. There is a Beaver Tail store just off the mountain making it an easy stop after a day of boarding.

A "smores" flavored fried dough dessert on a red table.

A peanut butter Reece's pieces fried dough treat called a Beaver Tail on a red table.

2. Hot Chocolate and Pastries to refuel and warm up – Check to see if when you are going to be there if the “Hot Chocolate Fest” will be happening. If so, try several of them and see which hot chocolate in Whistler you and your kids love the most!

I also need to let you all know about Purebread Bakery and coffee. This is a must stop when in Whistler with your kids as it was so, so good! They have a sea of pastries and I really don’t think you could go wrong with any of them!

A sign reading "Hot Chocolate Fest" and showcasing two different hot chocolates.

A ton of pastries ranging from donuts to croissants to cakes.

3. Garibaldi Lift Co. Bar & Grill – While there are other restaurants right at the bottom of the lifts, this one has some fire tables on the 2nd floor that are nice. It’s not like a lodge where you can just come and warm up though. You have to actually book a table but for a quick bite after skiing this is a descent spot for the family.

This was the only fireplace that we were able to get at the bottom of Whistler. You can’t just go and sit at it though. You have to either have a reservation or hope that it is free when you come up to the hostess stand. The way that it is situated looks at the other restaurants and not at the mountain so that was disappointing.

4. Shopping the Village – There are lots of shops ranging from high end ski gear to souvenirs. It’s always fun to walk around the shops while passing time.

One note worthy shop is this vintage shop where you can look through their old vintage ski jackets. Not my style but I know some of you like them so thought I’d share the info.

A row of colorful, vintage ski jackets in front of a Vintage shop in Whistler.

5. Ice skating – Like mentioned above, they do have a small rink so there is this option also for your littles if they still have energy after a day on the mountain.

6. Library – The Whistler Public Library is an awesome and unexpected spot to Après Ski with your kids! What I really loved was that there was a couple rolling carts in the lobby with free books to take. So if your kids are wanting souvenirs but you don’t want to spend a lot of money, have them go pick up a free book from the Whistler library. 🙂

A library cart with free books at the Whistler library.

How To Save Money When At Whistler With Kids

Grocery Stores

Because we have snowboarded as a family for many years, we have learned that our first stop after checking into our hotel is the local grocery store. We no longer purchase expensive, subpar lodge food, yet instead pack our own lunches.

We typically do breakfast at the hotel, a packed lunch and then a nice dinner out. This helps save a ton of money. Whistler Village does have a range of dinner options from high end restaurants to lots of budget-friendly restaurants that is a bit easier to do when traveling as a family. We loved the restaurant La Cantina Tacos and found it really affordable for our family.

There are some places on the mountain where you can’t get free water. We always wear water backpacks like this Camelbak that helps keep us hydrated and saving money.

Epic Pass Discounts

If you are an Epic pass season ticket holder, you should already know about this but it is still worth saying – you get discounts with your season pass.

For us, we only had a 5 day pass so those discounts do not apply for our passes.

Take The Bus From Vancouver Instead Of Renting A Car

We typically like to have our own car when traveling with the kids, but this time we opted to take the bus from Vancouver to Whistler. It was a really nice, enjoyable ride and one that my husband was glad that he didn’t have to drive himself!

It will definitely be less than renting a car and you also won’t have the parking fees from the hotel.

A kid writing while on the bus to Whistler. — We really loved how soft the seats were, that there was a foot rest, and a water bottle holder.

The Wrap Up

A family stands in front of the Canadian flag while in Whistler with their kids.

Does the negative outweigh the positive for vacationing in Whistler with kids? Let me say this, we do feel like we will go back to Whistler one day as we weren’t able to experience the whole mountain due to poor conditions; however, it won’t be anytime soon.

There are so many places that I think give the whole ski vacation experience and Whistler just didn’t do it for me overall. Whistler / Blackcomb has so much terrain that we didn’t see though that I do think we will eventually go back and try to experience more of the mountains, but we will go knowing what I’ve listed above.

When it boils down to it though, the views were absolutely breathtaking, the people were super friendly, there is a village, and as of me writing this, the USD is stronger in Canada so it might be worth you taking the trip.

If you do go, make sure to spend a day or two exploring Vancouver first as that city has a lot to offer too! However, not all information out there about Vancouver is accurate and/or safe for a family.

We got ourselves into a really dangerous situation by listening to other people’s blogs. Learn from us and read all about what to do and what not to do in Vancouver with your kids here.

Thanks for reading…now go live that Free Life, my friends!