{"id":8680,"date":"2025-11-12T08:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/from-vancouver-to-whistler-the-most-incredible-view-in-canada\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T09:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:55:18","slug":"from-vancouver-to-whistler-the-most-incredible-view-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/from-vancouver-to-whistler-the-most-incredible-view-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultimate Vancouver To Whistler Day Trip: Seaplane Views And Summer Adventures In Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have no idea how to make this post short, so I\u2019m not even gonna try! Once you see the photos from that flight to (and from) Whistler<\/a>, you\u2019ll understand why it was a struggle to stop taking photos. That place is gorgeous.<\/p>\n

As soon as we were done with breakfast, after our lazy day in Vancouver<\/a>, the sunshine was starting to peek out from behind the clouds and by the time we were done with breakfast at the Hyatt Vancouver Downtown Alberni<\/a>. And down by the harbour, it was clear that the rain had properly disappeared.<\/p>\n

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Suffice to say, the flight we couldn\u2019t catch the day before was all fine for this day, and before long, we were off to Whistler<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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That flight to Whistler<\/a> is one of the most scenic flights, though as impressed as I was with it on the way out (and boy, was I impressed), the view on the way back totally trumped this already incredible sight.<\/p>\n

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We effectively flew out the same way we\u2019d kinda driven a couple of days before, with a view of Squamish<\/a> on the left and the Sunshine Coast<\/a> on the right.<\/p>\n

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Before long, we\u2019d arrived at Green Lake, which is where our seaplane (akin to the ones you\u2019d find in the Maldives) would be landing for Whistler.<\/p>\n

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The thing about Whistler, though, is that it\u2019s a ski destination, so I was a tad sceptical about what it would be like in summer. Our flight arrived early enough for us to make the most of the day, though that, of course, meant that we arrived before the town had started to get really busy (which didn\u2019t help that niggling worry at the back of my mind).<\/p>\n

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Turns out, my worries were all for nothing. Whistler<\/a> thrives in summer (in fact, by afternoon, we struggled to find seats at a local bar \u2013 it was that busy).<\/p>\n

After a bit of panic shopping (I still hadn\u2019t gotten my Canadian souvenir yet), we headed over to a much-recommended place for lunch \u2013 Bar Oso<\/a>. We arrived super keen (i.e. a few minutes before it had even opened) and were one of the first to get in there and get stuck into lunch and cocktails. And yes, I did get a sneaky espresso to fight that jetlag; there\u2019s a huge time difference between Vancouver and London.<\/p>\n

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The cocktails here are absolutely delicious, and the lunch (also pretty good) is very much tapas style, i.e. made for sharing. And share we did! Tortillas, bocadillos, charcuterie, soups and even chorizo. Suffice to say, you won\u2019t be leaving here hungry.<\/p>\n

Done with lunch and totally fuelled for the day, we headed over to Alta Lake, where we would be canoeing that afternoon towards Green Lake \u2013 all part of our plan for the day.<\/p>\n

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For the canoeing, Lloyd and I had to canoe together, and due to our rather equally irrational fears, we must have spent the first 5 minutes or so just arguing about the other person not canoeing right. I was in charge of the \u201cpower\u201d, and Lloyd was in charge of the \u201cdirection\u201d.<\/p>\n

I would go on and on about how Lloyd wasn\u2019t taking us in the right direction, and he would retort with how I wasn\u2019t steering enough (or sometimes, steering too much).<\/p>\n

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Oh, and our fear! Well, mine was that I would fall into the lake, and I just wanted to try every way I could, not to (stupid because if I fell in, all I had to do was just climb back into the canoe). Lloyd\u2019s was that he would get smacked in the face by, get this, branches of the bushes. We both realised the other person\u2019s fears as being stupid, but somehow, we didn\u2019t realise ours were.<\/p>\n

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Eventually, we settled down into the swing of things and by the time we hit the river, you\u2019d have sworn we\u2019d had proper experience in doing this a while.<\/p>\n

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The thing is, the river turns and curves, and so you have to steer in a way that lets you negotiate the curve well. It\u2019s a lot easier than it sounds, and fair play to us, we did pretty well at this and didn\u2019t fall in once.<\/p>\n

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I did, however, (due to some enthusiastic rowing on my part) drench Lloyd in water at one point. I didn\u2019t actually do it on purpose, but couldn\u2019t stop laughing when it happened (you should have seen the look on his face), and so, he was still convinced for days after that I did it intentionally.<\/p>\n

The views were absolutely stunning, and the whole experience was incredible (again, totally recommend this if you visit Whistler in summer).<\/p>\n

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Back in the centre of Whistler, over beers and poutine in that aforementioned jam-packed bar, Lloyd and I watch the mountain-bikers come down the (you guessed it) mountains \u2013 some with stunts, others who are a bit more focused on just getting down to the finish line.<\/p>\n

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*Random, I swear, I saw one of the guys from The Hunger Games<\/em> (the blonde one), washing his bike here. Turns out he\u2019s from Vancouver (he\u2019s the one who plays Cato in the first film), so I could very well be correct. <\/p>\n

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Eventually, we headed back to the \u201cairport\u201d (i.e. Green Lake). You get free transfers by the way, to and fro. It\u2019s only like 5 – 10 minutes down the road, so it\u2019s not far, but it saves having to figure out how to get there when you\u2019ve flown in.<\/p>\n

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This time, after missing his opportunity on the way in, Lloyd went straight for the seat next to the pilot (someone else had bagged the seat earlier in the morning \u2013 Lloyd didn\u2019t even think to ask that morning because you never get the chance to do that normally). Lloyd always wanted to be a pilot, but he\u2019s colourblind (hence why he can\u2019t), so his excitement was understandably through the roof.<\/p>\n

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Going over Whistler, I had my camera out with me, not really expecting to use it that much as I\u2019d taken loads of photos that morning, and it wasn\u2019t until the pilot said we would be going a different route over the mountains that I finally reached for my camera.<\/p>\n

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The views, by the way, are incredible!!! Even in summer – we\u2019re talking mountain lakes, forests that span for ages and ages, snow-capped mountains, frozen lakes and part of Canada you\u2019d never be able to see on foot!<\/p>\n

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Like seriously, you\u2019re constantly turning from left to right to left to right and back over and over again with all these incredible views!<\/p>\n

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I genuinely did my best to whittle down the photos as we flew over, with the scenery changing every minute, but still ended up with hundreds of photos from up here. You can probably now see why that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n

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By the time we arrived in Vancouver, Lloyd and I were almost speechless thanks to the awe and adrenaline from the amazing views. So different from this morning\u2019s views, right?<\/p>\n

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It was all we could talk about for the next couple of hours, right up until it was time to go out for dinner.<\/p>\n

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For dinner, we headed back to the harbour, where we ended up going to the Cactus Club Cafe<\/a> off the back of a rather lazy last-minute research.<\/p>\n

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FYI, Cactus Club Caf\u00e9 is not anything like what it sounds! It is busy, lively, loud and full of quite an eclectic crowd. It\u2019s the kind of place to start a proper night out in town – it\u2019s like a bar, restaurant and club all rolled into one.<\/p>\n

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We dove straight into mains, brilliantly accompanied by cocktails (Moscow Mule for Lloyd and something tart and lemony for me \u2013 can\u2019t remember what it was now).<\/p>\n

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Cocktails were soon switched with wine once our entrees arrived \u2013 chicken for Lloyd and steak for me, both of which were absolutely delicious and further reaffirmed my decision to do my best to research a restaurant before visiting (even if it\u2019s just a quick look online).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m too impulsive to naturally just check restaurants long before eating, but after a long spell of being disappointed by restaurants in my early days of travelling, I just make a conscious choice not to pay to be disappointed by food. \ud83d\ude42 It\u2019s as simple as that, really.<\/p>\n

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Anyhooooo, long story short \u2013 food was delicious, drinks were amazing, would have loved to have stayed out longer but the jetlag got the best of me, and I was in bed by 1 am!<\/p>\n

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The next morning, after our final breakfast at the Hyatt Vancouver Downtown Alberni<\/a>, for that trip, I decided we had to squeeze in a bit of culture before leaving the city, and with that, we headed over to the Vancouver Art Gallery.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019d actually had plans to visit this on that day when it rained, but faced with the choice of an art gallery or a day spent being pampered at the Hyatt Vancouver Downtown Alberni<\/a>, I went for the obvious choice \u2013 the pampering!<\/p>\n

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And so off we went, roaming through the hallways of the Art Gallery, amazed at quite a lot of the art here, feeling a bit \u201cMeh!<\/em>\u201d at a few of them and carrying on with my long-running boring joke about how I could personally \u201chave done any of the art here\u201d (which if you have seen my atrocious drawings, you would know to be far from the truth).<\/p>\n

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Done with the gallery, it was time for a big Vancouver farewell!<\/p>\n

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It\u2019d been an amazing week exploring not just the city, but the wider British Columbia area and a reaffirmation of why Vancouver is one of my favourite cities and why I would still very much like to move to this city to live for, at the very least, a few months.<\/p>\n

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Vancouver<\/a> is incredible, and you absolutely have to visit when you get the chance \u2013 trust me, if you haven\u2019t visited yet, you\u2019ll see exactly what I mean once you do (and if you have visited, then you already know exactly what I\u2019m talking about).<\/p>\n

See ya later, Van-city!<\/p>\n

Read more: Best things to do in Vancouver<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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12 Best Places to See in Vancouver, Canada (Parks, Views & Hidden Gems)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n