Whistler is located 75 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia. About ten thousand residents live in Whistler year round. A picture-card perfect, pedestrian-only village, it is renowned as a top ski resort in winter and a top golf resort in the summertime.

Besides skiing, winter activities include snowmobiling, tobogganing and snowboarding.

Besides golfing, summer activities include, hiking on designated trails, mountain biking, bird-watching, picnicking and swimming.

Shopping is also a popular pastime for tourists with fat pocketbooks. Local arts and crafts shops are filled to the brim with excellent quality merchandise, and clothing stores are amply stocked with designer fashions from Paris, London, Tokyo and other parts of the world.

Seasonal festivals take place year round, such as jazz, folklore, vintage auto, food fairs and more.

The area, then called Alta Lake, was first settled in 1911 when Alex and Myrtle Philip built Rainbow Lodge. At that time, the only way to get there was by water. It wasn't until 1914, when the Great Pacific Railway (now BC Rail) connected Whistler with Vancouver and beyond. Traffic increased and over the next several years, Whistler was a popular summer destination, with good fishing and other wilderness attractions that appealed to the outdoor lover, such as hiking and mountain climbing.

Its location at the base of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, planted a thought in four entrepreneurs and in 1962, the decision was made to built a ski hill and to put in a bid for the Winter Olympics. The bid for the Winter Olympics fell through, however, the dream to construct a full service ski mountain went ahead. The Garibaldi Whistler Mountain became an official ski hill in 1966 and Whistler became the first resort municipality in Canada in 1975.

Now the second half of the dream has come true. In July of 2003, Whistler was awarded as the destination of the Winter World Olympics in 2010.