My Highlights of Whistler, Canada

Just after Christmas I went away for a week with my family to Whistler Village, Canada to go skiing. There is really nothing more magical than going away after Christmas and seeing some real snow. I was looking forward to this holiday for a very long time as it's the first skiing holiday I've been on in a while.

Whistler is a picturesque resort town up in the mountains in British Columbia. The Canadian people are just so lovely, warm and welcoming. Even the people over the airport tannoy sounded wayyyy more cheerful than any I've heard before. We stayed in the Hilton in Whistler village. I shared a room with my three sisters which was pretty manic but so much fun. My only complaint is that we were just not there long enough to fully adjust to the time difference. I was pretty jet lagged the first few days and New Years Eve was the latest I managed to stay up! I've done a summary of my highlights below along with some of my favorite pictures.

The Village lit up at night- Instead of eating in the hotel every night most nights we ventured out. My Mum did some research before we went and picked out some different style restaurants for us to try out. At night time in the village it some times reached -10. No amount of jumpers and layers could shield me from that cold. I think the pretty lights were just enough of a distraction from the freezing cold although at times I wished I could wrap my scarf round my eyes.

The Mongolie Grill- I think this restaurant was a unanimous favorite between us. It was self service, you pick up a bowl and add whatever you fancy from their selection of vegetables, meats, noodles and spices, then add a sauce and then you que up to where the grill is and they cook it in front of you. Each portion is charged by weight. We ended up going to this place twice. It tasted amazing and it was so fun to watch. Apparently there are places like this in England although I've never come across one.

The Breath Taking scenery- I can't really say enough things about how beautiful this place was. Just so stunning at times I had to pinch myself.

The shops- On the days we didn't go skiing we kept ourselves entertained by browsing the local shops.  My two favorites were a Canadian lifestyle brand called "Roots" and another shop called "TNA" I purchased a few things which I'll be wearing on the blog soon. We also had a kitchen in our room so it made sense to make ourselves breakfast, which was also quite fun to shop for. It is safe to say my heathy eating went right out the window and was replaced by a solid diet of pancakes, waffles and maple syrup.

My desert on fire on NYE- We had a really fancy 5 course meal in the hotel on New Years Eve, not totally my cup of tea especially as I'm vegetarian but I thought the desert on fire was pretty interesting. On this plate there is a homemade macaroon, Ice creams covered in cream with rum poured over and some sort of fruit/sauce?

The Skiing!!!- I was pretty nervous about going skiing for the first time in 3 years, however what I found was that the runs we did whilst not being steeper than the runs I did in Switzerland, were much easier because there was far more snow, less ice and they were wider. This meant I felt a lot more confident about going faster and I just enjoyed it a lot more overall. I'm not the kind of person that has any desire to throw myself down double black diamond black runs and hope to make it down alive so I kept in my comfort zone with the easier runs. Maybe next time I'll challenge myself a bit more!

Our Mad hatters cocktail at Earls-I was told by our Canadian relatives that we met up with while we were there, that Earls is a big chain of restaurants in Canada. When the women came over to greet us she listed their specials and this crazy cocktail was on the list. As soon as she mentioned the Mad hatters cocktail my sister and I looked at each other and said "lets get that!".  It arrived in a large tea pot and tasted so refreshing. I can't remember all the ingredients but it's the first time I've had tea and vodka in the same drink!

Cheese fondue at Table 81- This was our last evening and having been to the Mongolie grill for lunch it was a bit of a squeeze to fit a second large dinner in although we all rose to the challenge! I'm a massive fan of cheese fondue. We also had a hot pot fondue, which is where you have a pan of oil and a selection of meats and vegetables which you cook in the oil and then there are a selection of sauces to dip into, this was followed by a chocolate fondue for desert. So we were completely stuffed but it was a perfect way to spend the last night.