I'll be spending the whole mth of Feb on a work trip to Vancouver, so looking to do Whistler on the weekends plus the first week of March off thinking to fly to Calgary & Banff.
Given I have free accommodation in Vancouver, is it worthwhile to do day trips only to Whistler and bear the 1.5h each way? Looks like there is coach 35CAD each way or pop-a-ride which might be hit and miss but more like 15CAD.
Day trips to Whistler are perfectly bearable. I've done several over the years.
Couple of things to bear in mind for the day trips:
1. the skiing day starts to end about 2.30pm /3.00pm, when the upper mountain lifts are closed and so it goes down the mountain until everything's closed by 3.30pm, but check the opening hours as these get a little longer as the daylight hours begin to lengthen;
2. the bus doesn't take you all the way to the lifts, and personally I'm not prepared to walk that far in ski boots, so you may want to rent a locker at the Whistler base to leave your shoes and any bus paraphernalia you bring. I've done this on previous day trips;
3. when someone else is driving, the day trip is pretty easy to bear;
4. if there's decent falls of fresh snow, take as early a bus as possible!
