Skiing With the Stars at Vancouver Olympics
VANCOUVER (TheStreet) -- Don't fork over thousands to stare at a mountain and watch dots that are supposedly Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller when there are better ways to enjoy the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
With the opening ceremonies a little more than a week away (Feb. 12), there are still a few venues in Vancouver and Whistler that will let you make your own medal-worthy runs on the slopes, at least, "party and socialize at an Olympic level" -- as Miller did during the 2006 games. Though the Olympians will have Whistler Mountain all to themselves, neighboring Blackcomb Mountain and its cushy base camp,
, will still be open to the skiers and snowboarders who put up their best numbers apres ski.
For rates starting at $850 a night, guests at the Chateau Whistler get ski-out, ski-in access to Blackcomb Mountain, where 90% of the trails will be open for skiing during the games. If guests get the urge to see how the world's best handle the powder, they can take the Peak to Peak gondola from one mountain to the other to catch the downhill events. That is, of course, if Chateau Whistler's resort partner, Whistler Blackcomb, can avoid a
scheduled for Feb. 19 -- right in the middle of the Olympics. Private-equity and hedge-fund firm Fortress, which owns Whistler Blackcomb's resort-operating parent company Intrawest, is trying to refinance loans it used to buy the property in 2006 as Intrawest sells off other resorts like Panorama in British Columbia and Copper Mountain in Colorado to keep Blackcomb running through the games.
The other option is a vacation rental. For slightly less than the cheapest room at Chateau Whistler, you and nine of your friends can rent a three-story
Whistler
cabin from TripAdvisor vacation rental site FlipKey. There's no concierge or spa with a vacation rental, but you do get a hot tub, fireplace, free Wi-Fi and ski-out access to nearby Whistler Village. For around $8,500 a week, however, a party of eight could have a 2,200-square-foot chalet with an unobstructed view of
Olympic skiing events
, satellite TV for watching the other games, a fireplace and a six-minute walk to the town center.
Vacation-rental site HomeAway, meanwhile, has more than two dozen properties available near the action, though
Winter Olympics
"deals" at properties including an eight-guest townhouse in Whistler Village with a fireplace, hot tub and five-minute shuttle ride to the lifts fetches $1,800 a night for a minimum five-night stay. For about half that, fans of the
can score a seven-person townhouse with similar amenities, but with ski access, Wi-Fi and a magnificent view of the mountains thrown in.
If the whole idea of standing outside in the cold seems a bit crass for such a cosmopolitan event, head to the city and the heated, homier confines of Vancouver's indoor venues. Monied, lazy hockey fans still have time to round up five friends and $825 a night to rent a 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom
Vancouver townhouse
with a fireplace, 55-inch plasma television and a location literally across the street from the men's and women's hockey venue. If you're more about the medal rounds, a four-person townhouse in
Vancouver's Yaletown
district is a short walk from the BC Place venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as GM Place for the late-round hockey matchup. For $12,000, the cost of its two-week-minimum stay, or its monthly $14,000 fee, guests receive two secured parking spaces, wireless Internet, home theater with HDTV and a bare minimum of outdoor time.
-- Reported by Jason Notte in Boston.
Jason Notte is a reporter for TheStreet.com. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Esquire.com, Time Out New York, The Boston Herald, The Boston Phoenix, Metro newspaper and the Colorado Springs Independent.