Having family members based in faraway lands can be both a blessing and a curse ! While it means that social visits might be few and far between, it also provides scope for some really fun “voyages of discovery” every now and then. In that respect, trips to Western Canada (either in summer or winter) are always high on my personal list of favorites, both for keeping up with family members and to share a few adventures along the way. Whilst Europe offers cozy cultural experiences and landscapes on a human scale, the appeal of Canada is its raw nature, wilderness and vast empty spaces stretching to the far horizons.

So just a few days before Christmas 2025, we landed a damp and grey Vancouver with the aim of spending the Festive Season in British Columbia. Despite the weather, it wasn’t long before the bright lights of the Pacific North Western metropolis started to work their magic. Despite jet lag, we made an immediate beeline for the spectacular “Festival of Lights” at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens in the south of the City, where over a million twinkling lights provided a truly magical and breathtaking spectacle. Following a short choreographed introduction, featuring psychedelic music, pulsating lights, illuminated trees and lakeshore reflections, visitors were free to explore the veritable wonderland of the botanical gardens for themselves. I must admit, I was really blown away with the whole spectacle and can most definitely recommend it !

After a slow start the next morning, we took in a few of Vancouver’s myriad of cultural attractions including the buzzing, colourful and eclectic Granville Island Markets on False Creek and the stunning Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia, to the west of the City. This world-renowned museum is one of the most significant collections of Pacific Northwest First Nations art and history, featuring totem poles, carved house posts and iconic Haida sculptures. The exhibits honour the identity, culture and resilience of the indigenous peoples of the region, whose balanced way of life was to change out of all recognition following the arrival of European settlers in the 1800s.

We finished our second day in the City with an evening journey across the harbour to visit the bustling Lonsdale Quay with its eclectic eateries, market stalls and open air skating rink, the lights of downtown Vancouver twinkling merrily across the water. The whole place was buzzing it has be said and I really enjoyed the trip across the Bay to North Vancouver.

So after a couple of busy days in Vancouver, it was time to head East over the Coast Mountains on the next leg of our trip which would take us into the interior of BC. The plan was to spend Christmas with family members at Silver Star, an unpretentious ski resort located near the town of Vernon in BC’s North Okanagan Region (about an hour from the regional airport in the City of Kelowna). As we flew East in a Westjet turboprop, the grey clouds of the Pacific coast, slowly dispersed to reveal clear blue skies and the sparsely settled landscapes and open topography of the BC interior. Disconcertingly, there wasn’t much snow to be seen when we touched down in Kelowna, however, we were keeping our fingers crossed for better things in the snow department at Silver Star.

In reality, Silver Star Mountain Resort doesn’t have quite the same big name notoriety on the North American ski circuit as resorts like Whistler or Vail. However, by my reckoning, that can only be a good thing as it keeps both crowds low and prices down (apparently Whistler is a place to be avoided at all cost during the festive period, unless you enjoy paying out a small fortune to stand in tortuous lineouts to access the mountain – No thanks !). By contrast, Silver Star is a laid-back and unassuming oasis, offering deceptively extensive terrain for all abilities; including it’s celebrated “hairy backside” which provides enough steep, black “double diamond” runs to satisfy most adrenaline junkies out there.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week in Silver Star. It’s not the place to go for those looking for a wild apres-ski scene or iconic alpine landscapes (we can experience that in the Alps anyhow), more just a place for good old fashioned ski fun, set amidst some beautiful wooded surroundings. Indeed, the snow covered fir trees really do provide a true “winter wonderland” vibe to the place (despite locals complaining about the lack of snow compared with other winters).

Weatherwise, in general, we experienced pretty variable conditions, from a crystal clear (albeit freezing-cold) bluebird day with temperatures down to -20 C, to another day when I skied blindly through a relentless and crazy snowstorm, which actually was quite an exhilarating experience in the end ! Luckily there were more than enough inviting coffee shops, pubs and eateries around the village to warm up after exposure to the raw elements. Part of the appeal of Silver Star is the unique “period” style of the place itself, which features brightly coloured wooden buildings reminiscent of the 1800s Gold Rush era.

After spending a week at Silver Star, it was time to reluctantly head off to the nearby Shuswap Lakes Region for a few days, where my brother resides. However, we also had the chance to take a day trip to Revelstoke Mountain Resort. This place offers some much more demanding ski terrain and features the largest vertical drop of any ski mountain in North America (around 1700m vertical range). Revelstoke is certainly in a different category from Silver Star altogether; it features some crazy (or “sick” if you’re cool) mountain terrain and dramatic alpine bowls, often blessed with perfect powder and sunlit slopes suspended somewhere in space above the inversion clouds (as we were also lucky enough to experience). The Resort is close to the retro railroad town of Revelstoke itself, which originally achieved notoriety through its strategic position as a stopover on the Canadian Pacific Railway and the TransCanada Highway.

Sadly, our day excursion to Revelstoke marked the end of our downhill skiing adventures on this trip (although we could quite happily have done a lot more, time and finances permitting of course !). Fortunately though, we had a few “spare” days to check out some other colourful local events and places of interest. One of the most unique experiences was surely a performance by the “Caravan Farm Theatre Company”, an al fresco theater venue located near the smalltown of Armstrong (and quite literally located down on the farm). This featured a “Midwinter Night’s Dream”, an obvious wordplay based around the better known Shakespearean namesake. Uniquely, in this version, the action all takes place on a series of outdoor stages dotted around the woods and fields and (even stranger) the audience are transported around the various stages and venues on horse drawn carriages (or sleighs if there’s enough snow, which there wasn’t).

In addition to this piece of thespian extravaganza, we were able to enjoy a few other diverse and more nature-orientated experiences. These included a New Year’s Day excursion to the Margaret Falls Provincial Park, which features a beautiful (and partially frozen) waterfall, tucked away cosily in a small, but impressive, gorge and close to the shores of the calm and expansive Shuswap Lake. It’s a real hidden gem of a place and quite special in its character, though some of the cedar and fir trees which tower over the gorge are perched at rather disconcerting angles (suggesting that moving quickly passed/under them might be the most pragmatic course of action).

On another couple of days we also had the chance to check out the local cross-country ski trails at Larch Hills, tucked away somewhere amidst wintery, rustic landscapes near to Salmon Arm (on a long and winding road by rolling farm steadings, seemingly from another era). Cross country skiing is certainly a much less adrenaline orientated activity than downhill; it’s more about being immersed in nature and gliding silently through snowy wooded landscapes – altogether more meditative and contemplative; well, until you come to a long steep downhill section and realise you don’t know how to stop that that is !!

All to soon, however, it was time to leave the Shuswap Region and to say goodbye to our snowy winter adventures for the time being. We caught a local flight from Kelowna back to the bright lights of Vancouver where we stayed one extra night, before the long flight back to Frankfurt. That was fortunate planning indeed, as it gave us time for us to be happily reunited with our skis again, which for some reason had been left behind on the tarmac in Kelowna airport by the local baggage handlers.

In contrast to the utilitarian surroundings of Frankfurt Airport, I’ve always been mightily impressed by the calming surroundings of Vancouver Airport and the many beautiful First Nations artworks on display there. They’re inspiring and uplifting to look at and add dignity to the surroundings, improving the whole nature and quality of the space. Near to the gate, we passed a beautifully carved wooden “Raven” sculpture by a local Haida artist to herald our departure; we left safely in the knowledge that Raven would be watching over us on our return travels…