Canadian skiing. best way from ireland

Dr Nic

Looking for advice on how to get to Banff or whistler from here for Jan 2015?
Cheaper is better but would like some comfort too!
Thanks
John

Northern Monkey

Whistler would be fly into Vancouver and hire a car/get a bus (there are frequent buses from the airport/downtown). For Banff, Calgary would probably be the handiest airport, I'm sure there are public transport options from there, but I'm not familiar with them.

There won't be anything cheap about it, lift passes are crazy money compared to Europe!

Edit: Air Canada have a direct flight to Toronto, which I presume runs all year round and from there you can connect to Calgary and Vancouver. Its nice not having to transfer in London on the way back, but you will get a more modern plane going via the UK.

lovelytomatoes

All i know about is skiing in Banff. The only option for an airport is Calgary and the cheapest way to get there is probably fly through the states (Dublin to Chicago to Calgary) although i always avoid the states cause its just awkward with all the extra security. Defo worth spending an extra $100 to fly through Heathrow or Toronto.

I would advise getting a greyhound bus to Banff (only 90 minutes away) and staying in Banff for the holiday because its a beautiful town and everything is geared towards skiers. You could pick up a cheap enough hostel room or hotel room if you book early enough. There are buses running from banff to every ski hill in the mornings and they are fairly cheap too. but that is where the cheapness ends. Skiing in Canada is not cheap. Lift tickets for a day will be around $80+ and the cost of food and drink in Canada is frightening. Specially when you will be in a tourist area.

The best ski hills in that area if you are still interested are sunshine and Lake Louise.

Fattes

Look at Dublin Toronto - Toronto Calgary and your options are Bus/ Car hire from there. Or you can do Dublin - London- Calgary

Hotels Food, drink etc will all be cheaper in Banff as it is their off season (Seriously Winter is there slow time!) Lake Louise and Sunshine are epic resorts and Kicking Horse is a bus away. You have to go to Kicking Horse

Lift passes will be about $80-90 dollars a day in all the Canadian resorts, food and drink is really reasonable and huge portions.

Also Big White might be an option and resorts like Big WHite, Kicking Horse, Revelstoke do stay and ski packages

FortuneChip

I can't offer advice on flights, as I was living in Canada at the time (got a bus from Toronto to LL - 58 hours), but you can get a bus from Calgary to Banff in under 2 hours.
I'd definitely agree with the above regarding accommodation. Stay in Banff, it serves as a good hub for Norquay, Sunshine & Lake Louise (the latter two being the better mountains). It's also a lovely town. You could stay in Lake Louise, but while puts you less than a five minute drive to the lifts, there's no direct route to Sunshine Village if you wanted to try there (you'd have to go back to Banff, then out to SV). Lake Louise is also a pretty small town, 2/3 hotel bars, and a small number of shops.

You can get a ski-pass that gives you access to all three mountains (with a slight discount) if you want to limit yourself to just those mountains (I say limit, there's more than enough terrain there on just LL or Sunshine alone to keep you busy for a week!).
But as Fattes said, Kicking Horse in Golden really is awesome (maybe 2 hours beyond LL).

Tommy Crowne

For Whistler, I flew to Vancouver (through Chicago) with Aer Lingus in December 2013 for about €600.00. Booked in July. Cheap hotel in Vancouver for a night (about €40 each) and then rented a car through Avis and drove to Whistler where we dropped the car off as we didn't need it again. Cost was €80. We did the same for the way back down - 1 day hire. There is also a bus but between 2 the car was cheaper and easier. Easy 2 hr drive too.
€115 for equipment for 6 days, €400 for 6 day lift pass. Roughly the same per person for twin room in a small hotel in the main village (3 min walk to the lifts).
The one thing that surprised me most was the high cost of alcohol in Canada in general. Nothing like cheap drink in the states.

Fattes

Drink is considerably cheaper in Alberta than in Western BC even in Revelstoke and Red there is a big difference to Whistler and Vancouver

lovelytomatoes

Some people have mentioned that you should visit Kicking Horse as it is a really great ski hill. They are completely right! Its amazing there! Deep powder bowls, huge amounts of territory, great snow and even a grizzly bear! I do want to warn you though that this ski hill is not for beginners, its steep as church steeple and the runs are very long. Make sure you are decent skier if you want to tackle this hill or you will have some scary moments ahead.

Fattes

In fairness Boo the Grizzly is behind a fence and normally asleep in the winter! and there is one green run from the top ha ha

FortuneChip

I think Revelstoke is the same, one 15km green run from top to bottom. Wouldn't even call it a run, just a CAT track. But the blacks, the blues... Oh my! Revelstoke just edges Kicking Horse in my opinion. Even the groomers become epic after a decent snowfall.

Kicking Horse & Revelstoke are both a fair bit tougher than Lake Louise & Sunshine, no doubt about it. The latter two would better cater to beginners (not to say they don't have terrain for more advanced as well).

Revelstoke is about 5 hours from Calgary, so a bit more effort to get to.

Fattes

Revelstoke is 6 Hours dead from Calgary and a nightmare to get to road closes about 3 times every forthnight.

masseyno9

Just came across this thread as I'm getting ready for ski season again. Living in Calgary at the moment and I can hopefully add some helpful advice.

Flights: Just use skyscanner or kayak or whatever and pick the cheapest. There really isn't too much extra security for the US. I personally don't like Chicago airport as there are generally large queues for their security but apart from losing one bag that I got back 2 days later, it's not that bad. If the price was right, I'd consider it, but I'd prefer not to. Other routes through the states have been fine, but as mentioned, the Toronto route is good too. Also check out WestJet, who are now offering flights from St. John's Newfoundland to Dublin and all manner of connecting flights throughout Canada. I haven't found them terribly cheap, but I've heard some good stories of deals to be had.

Transport: There is a bus from Calgary to Banff as others have said. Not sure of the price, but Banff is probably where you'd want to stay (if you choose this side over the Whistler option) as you can access the 3 main hills pretty easily. I've never ridden at Norquay though, and I've been here 2 years.

Lift Tickets: If you're interested, you can get tickets for $65/day (rather than $80/90 quoted above)by using "discount cards" (Lake Louise Card, Sunshine card RCR card etc.) which are generally about $100 each and give you 1st, 4th and 7th days free. You can weigh up where you'd be spending most of your time and purchase accordingly. The only issue is they don't sell them after Dec. 31.

If you do look at Banff, be aware that all the hills are privately operated/owned and remote from the town, i.e. it's always a bus to the hill (unless you stay at Sunshine, but then you're away from the town at night). From my experiences in Europe and here, it seems as though in Europe, the towns were generally there and the lifts etc. were built up in/around them (Portes du Soleil in France/Switzerland is a good example) where as here, the lift stations seem to be remote from the nearest towns for the most part. Whistler is more of the European style where lifts go directly from the town and pistes arrive back there, I believe, but I've never been there so can't be certain.

As others mentioned, Kicking Horse, and even Revelstoke and maybe Fernie would all be within day-trip distance, but without a car it's going to be tough. I've day-tripped to Kicking Horse from Calgary and it's a long long day. Also, the mountain pass over to Revelstoke closes quite regularly for avalanche control. A couple of our party got stuck in Revie for 2 days last winter after being stuck in Golden for a night on the way out.

I just re-read the OP - for cheap options, Banff has the hostel, but I believe they have private rooms available. Be warned though, it'll probably be a bit loud with parties etc. if that would bother you. Most of the hotels in Banff are in a long line on Banff ave. and have a bus stop outside (or at least within a block or 2) so I have used hotwire.com with some success in the past for weekend hotel bookings.

All in all, Banff or Whistler will be a great trip, but it won't be cheap! Lift tickets are expensive, even if you find the cheap options. Beer/food is comparable-ish to home. Accommodation isn't cheap either, but not overpriced for what you get.

Hope this helps. Any other questions feel free to PM me if you like.