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I feel a bit like a broken record, but another year and another fantastic holiday.  I wanted to thank you both very much.  We had a great season, and really enjoyed the long break from work.

The Delta Residences were a great place to stay. It was a bit disappointing that construction was running so far behind, but on the whole the apartments are fantastically appointed, and have everything you could need for a great stay, from high-speed internet, well-appointed kitchens (we want a bigger oven and twin sinks in our own kitchen!), internal washing facilities etc. 

The room change went okay, and the Delta were accommodating in moving us to a different apartment than originally planned, which was better suited for noise.  The amount of noise between the apartments would be the only real negative comment of any weight.  I've attached a letter that I'll be sending to the Delta to thank them - I wanted to copy you as well.

The skiing of course was fantastic, and the snow and weather on the whole excellent.  It was great to get fit over such a long time, although unfortunately we both had knee problems towards the end.  Too much of a good thing!  I've attached a couple of photos from the trip.

We will probably be giving the next season a miss (beaches for us next time), but will definitely be in touch for our next ski trip.

All the best,
Tim Gole

Dear Sir / Madam,

RECENT STAY AT THE DELTA RESIDENCES

My wife and I recently stayed as guests at the Delta Residences, from mid December to mid March.  I wanted to take a moment to briefly thank you and your staff for a wonderful holiday.  While it was unfortunate that construction was running behind schedule, we feel that everything possible was done to make us feel settled during our stay - right down to the Christmas tree in the room.

While the facilities at the Delta are certainly first-rate, above all else I wish to pass on my thanks to the staff.  During the first few weeks of our stay, while internet service was no available in-room, I spent quite a few hours checking emails from the lobby.  I would imagine few guests spend that much time observing how your reception staff deal with other guests - I've certainly never done had the occasion to do it before. 

I was impressed with the pleasant and diplomatic manner in which all guests were treated, even if they were being less than polite at times.  This warm and friendly attitude extended to all staff that we encountered, from management, bell boys and concierge staff, restaurant and bar staff, and notably also your housekeeping staff.

Thanks again for a fantastic holiday, and we look forward to visiting again in the future.

Kind regards,

Tim Gole

Well, holidays in Canada over and holiday time in Sydney now finished, time to get back to some sort of work and routine.

Just wanted to thank you for organising our trip.   I know we mucked you around quite a bit but it all worked out very well and we had a great holiday.

Air Canada went well.....It was really great having a direct flight and not having to land in the US  first and go through their immigration etc.  Believe Air Canada had an issue with one of the pilots in the last few days, glad we weren't on that flight.

Sal and I had a great time in Vancouver and loved the train trip. Very much more spectacular in winter than the summer train....although because it was winter we had quite a few delays , plus an avalanche on the line used by the freight trains which were then diverted to our line. Meant we were very late in to both Kamloops and Banff and much of the trip was in darkness which was a pity......  but the staff on board were very good and they brought around  extra food etc as there was no scheduled meal.

As it turned out Sal and I saw most of the missed scenery from the bus on the way back to Kamloops.

The Delta Residences were very comfortable. They weren't joking when they said it was not finished, but the walk to get in and out was good for us and most things in the rooms were up and running although the fire alarms covered in plastic were a bit of a concern. The staff were always very helpful and they were on a learning curve themselves with having apartments rather than hotel rooms to deal with.  The only comment I could really say was that if you didn't want to eat out all the time the supermarkets didn't have much choice, however that is all to change soon I believe when the new one opens.

Xmas day was wonderful.  skiied all morning and then spent the afternoon eating and drinking a feast Tim and Liz had prepared (including a 5 kilo turkey). while we watched the snow fall.   Had about 15 centimetres that evening.  The powder snow was just unbelievable and for me who has not skiied for so long it was fantastic.

New Years Eve on the slopes was lovely .....   fireworks and a torch run down the mountain....done early in  the night so those that wanted could get an early night...... of course  there were quite a few who decided to party on and see the new year in with much mirth and merriment!!!

It was a really lovely holiday and I can see why Tim and Liz chose to go back there for their 3 month stay.

Thank you again for all your patience

Regards,
Libby Gole

We all just wanted to say thank you for such a fantastic holiday!!

Everything ran so smoothly and we all just loved Big White. Sundance was perfect for us and the kids loved the ski school. We even had Luke, our 3 year old skiing the ridge rocket and bullet runs after the first week.

Big White was a perfect spot for us, and there were many dissappointed faces when we had to come home. In fact, I think next time we'll stay even longer!!

Thanks again for organising such a great trip where everything worked perfectly and thank you also for the lovely chocolates, they didn't last very long after a day of skiing!

Kind regards

Sarah and the Tan family

I just wanted to touch base to say thank you for all your wonderful advice.  Your local knowledge and recommendations were awesome.  Our trip was perfectly planned without a hitch.

It was wonderful to hire the car to drive up to Jasper to see those incredible ice fields.  We felt like we were in heaven. We have been back a week and we miss Canada already.  Each night I dream I am skiing like a pro. 'I wake up exhausted'.

So, I want to get started on our ski trip for next year.  The family is now committed.  Yaa Hoo 'my devious plan worked!'

Snowbird Lodge at Silver Star holds a very special place in our hearts. The size of the village, the accommodation on the snow, 'the hot tub', powder, after 5 activities - everything worked well for us.  It was especially great for Stella.  She could go back to our condo when she was tired by herself and watch us ski out the window.

Next year we will most likely have around 4 weeks.  We have a very high benchmark.

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Thank you for your welcome home post card! All safe and sound after a fabulous holiday.

Many thanks firstly for all your booking/planning/cards before and after.

Well Air Canada's new direct flight home was good, especially as we had 80 spare seats leaving lots of room for everyone to spread out.  The direct flight is great, especially on the homeward journey when youve already 9 flights around the World!  The new plane was good too, as on previous flights this route has suffered from aging planes and aging staff.

Star Alliance Round the World fare was a good price and the only hiccups we had were caused by weather in Europe delaying a couple of flights, which meant we missed a dinner in New York as we arrived at 12.30am.

The Avis collection/drop off of car is good at Vancouver airport.  The Chevy Trailblazer was a basic 4WD, but economical, safe and we did 1550kms, with plenty of bag room, roof rack (took own straps!) and people room.

The transporting of our 4 ski boot bags and 2 double ski bags (4 sets of skis, plus pants, gloves, 2 helmets, etc etc) worked really well via Matzen Cargo at Matraville, via Air Canada Cargo.  For $360 we sent 56 kgs.  If recommending this to others, make sure they are there in business hours -Mon-Friday. Both the shipping co and customs only work Bus hours.

We arrived in hire car (5 minutes from Avis-who gave us directions/map), then they sent us with paperwork to customs, across the carpark, then back to AC cargo to collect.  They even helped load the bags.  All took 15-20 minutes.  Only other tip, is to have list of contents written out for the customs.

Also we had no problems getting the double ski bags home, but this was probably because nearly everyone had double ski bags and the plane was not full!

After collecting bags, we drove the 20 minutes to the Tsawwassen ferry, where we waited for the next ferry to Victoria.  The Empress Hotel was lovely, hardly anyone staying, but Victoira was pretty with lights (and dry!), walked the shopping area, picked a good seafood restaurant near hotel.  Next day we toured around Victoria, very exciting huge seas, then drove up to Campbell river area in the rain.  Stayed at Qualicum Beach motel before getting ferry from Nanaimo to North Vancouver. Would recommend this side trip to any of the skiers who have done Vancouver to death over the years.

The Sheraton Wall hotel in Vancouver. was also excellent, ended up in a 2 bed suite, with kitchen and 2 bathrooms on 32nd floor.

The car trip to Sun Peaks started off with rain for first hour then changed to dry and no traffic.  We paid the toll and went the Coquihalla highway (no. 5). A mostly pretty trip, but the pass near Merritt was pretty poor conditions (snow and ice and trucks), but only took 3.5 hours to Kamloops.  We did the shopping at the very well stocked Safeway.  Chris new to get a Safeway card as we arrived in shop which saved a further $45 off the bill!  Then on up to Sun Peaks 40 minutes.

All in all the car was much quicker than the plane last year and we didnt loose the luggage!

The return trip 2 weeks later, was even better as we went the Thompson Valley on Hwy 1, then down the Frazer Valley to Hope.  A spectacular road trip with lots of snow falling, frozen waterfalls, raging rivers, no traffic, roads cleared.  We'd packed some sandwiches in Sun Peaks so picniced in the car on the way.  This route took about an hour longer but was great to see the scenery.

The Delta Residences:  Still being finished at a furious pace, but our condo was complete except for a few niceties and some items that we needed like a potato peeler,  a masher, sharp knives, pasta bowls, salad bowl.   The use of the ski conciege, spa/pool, the internet in the business office (the rooms only got connected on our last day) and preferential bookings at Mantles Restuarant were all enjoyed by all. Plus it was fun to have friends in the same building, so we did a lot of socialising in house.

The restaurant, supermarket, reception etc not working at Delta Residences yet.  The cafe, ski shop and new grog shop are all good tho.  The other supermarket is worse that last year, so Im very happy we stocked in Kamloops.
Another thing the 2nd week to know about is the Ice Wine festival.  Only that we got a cancellation at Servus did we manage to attend the wonderful 5 course dinner and wine night.  The Delta Ballroom also had a similar deal but it was booked out by the 'professions from Australia' conference all 150 of them.   There wre other nites and event that were available, but the dinner suited us much better.

The Sun Peaks Cup.  Another successful race with about 120 competitors on Sat 12th brought a lot of people together for skating Friday night, presentaiton dinner and tubing after the race.   Better course this year and very competitive.  Australia won the cup!

MTM had good numbers again this year and lots of kids doing their Ski Instructor levl 1 and 2 all staying at Cahility.

Hope this rave on gives you a few tips from the Heaths who now think we know a few things about Canada skiing after 6 trips, but we are still learning!

Best regards,
Toni Heath

I hope you all had a great Christmas break and New Year as with your help we had a wonderful time on our holiday to Canada.

We had our day at the Vancouver Aquarium which was a lot of fun, but pretty wet.  The only problem was getting a taxi to take us back to the Hotel.  We booked one and waited an hour and a half.  After calling to verify and then eventually calling another cab company we ended up walking back which took quite a while.  When we asked about cabs, we were told that as the locals don't use them, there are not a lot of them in the Downtown Vancouver area - they are mainly out at the Airport.  Elise returned to the Aquarium on 31 Dec to spend time with the Beluga whales and when she had finished I actually took a cab from the hotel across to Stanley park, picked her up and then had the taxi take us back to the hotel.

Our stay in Whistler was just wonderful and it snowed every night we were there.  Blackcomb Lodge was perfect for us and being right in the centre of the village made it even better.  Seeing the village at night was like the image I have always had in my head of the perfect Winter scene.  We did not do any skiing but we did Tree-Treking, Zip-Treking, Snow-Shoeing and Snow Mobiling along with watching special ski and snow-board demonstrations.  Christmas Day appeared to be  just another day in the snow for everyone so not a lot of decorations etc and as everyone wanted to be back out on the mountain the next day there did not appear to be a lot of celebrating.  We did the sleigh ride and Fondue dinner.  The dinner was booked through the Fairmont but as it was fully booked they had put the overflow into their Golf Club and then we were in the next lot who ended up at the Bavarian restaurant.  It didn't feel very Christmassy but we enjoyed it all the same.

There were a lot of Aussies in Whistler but not as tourists.  When I spoke with one of them she said that it took 5000 people to "run the mountain" of which 3000 were aussies and many of them had been there for a number of years.

The day we left Whistler it snowed all the way through to Seattle so I am glad I decided not to do the drive myself.  The train from Vancouver to Seattle had been cancelled so the bus we were on was packed to the hilt with people and luggage.  The stop to go through immigration at the border was interesting and took about an hour, which according to the "Cantrail" driver was record time.  We were dropped off at Seattle station and got a cab to the Holiday Inn and collapsed into bed as we were so tired.

The next morning we picked up the hire car which was a real experience - it took nearly an hour to go through the process even though we had already paid for it.  After driving around the city looking for a specific shop that sold Harry Potter "stuff" for Elise we headed off to Olympia to stay with friends but we only ended up staying there for two days instead of the three that we originally planned.  As I had paid for the car for three days I asked whether I could drive it back to Vancouver but was advised that I could not take that particular car across the border.  I had to return it, with no refund for the day I did not have it and then it cost me $300AUS to drive a car from Seattle directly to Vancouver International Airport (i.e about 4 1/2 hours).  I'm sure they see a tourist coming.

We got to see an ice hockey game (Tim secured the tickets off E-Bay the night before we left Australia).  It was the game between the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Mighty Ducks.  We were in seats in the very top row and I reckon they were the best seats in the house.

We went across to Vancouver Island for a couple of days and met a family from Sydney who had also booked their trip though Ski Canada.  Most of the places we wanted to re-visit were gone and it has certainly changed a lot since the last time we were there.  It has lost its "little piece of Britain" personality probably due to all the additional building and people now living there. 

We spent our first morning in the BC Museum which is absolutely wonderful (again very different to the last time we saw it) then went across to see the Underwater dive but for some reason they could not go ahead with it and we got our money back.  As the weather was pretty miserable and we had time on our hands I took the kids across to see the Fairmont Hotel which is also undergoing major renovations.   You now walk out the back of the Fairmont into a very modern Foyer type area (First Nation statues, totem poles etc) which is apparently part of a new convention centre.  With nothing to do I decided we should have afternoon tea at the Fairmont.  We had to line up and hope that they could fit us in, which luckily they could and boy was it an eye-opener for Tim and Elise.  We each had a own very large sterling silver pot of tea and a three tiered tray of goodies was put in front of us.  It was lovely but the kids felt very out of place (especially as we were all only in jeans and warm tops) but I think they enjoyed the experience for what it was. 

The trip out to the University was a bit of a disappointment, the lecturer we had gone across to see just told Tim to go home to Australia and send him an email.

At each of our returns to Vancouver we stayed up at the Sheraton (cost a lot more than when booked through you) but it was easier and we were able to leave extra luggage etc there which made things very easy.  The second time we were there they put us in a room on the 27th Floor with a view up to the mountains which was absolutely spectacular, the third time, after Vancouver Island we were on the 27th floor on other side.

Overall the trip was wonderful and we didn't want to come home.  When we walked off the plane in Sydney it was so hot we just wanted to turn around and go back.

Thanks again for our wonderful holiday.

Sue Wheeler