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It’s easy to fill your days in Whistler with skiing, cycling, gondola rides, and hanging out at beautiful lakes … but what about when night falls?
Well, the good news is that your nights in Whistler certainly won’t be boring – especially not with this list! When we lived in Vancouver, we came to Whistler all the time and often stayed overnight so we could spend an evening partying, wining and dining, or enjoying some after-dark adventures. I mean, how good do stargazing and night ziplines sound?
So if you’re planning on visiting Whistler anytime soon, we highly recommend reading up on the best things to do at night before you go – hence why we created this list!
Things to do in Whistler at Night
1. Party the night away!
Like any good ski resort town, Whistler knows how to throw a party! Après ski here is fantastic, but things are just as pumping during the summer months.
After a day on the slopes, we love relaxing with a beer by the fire at the Garibaldi Lift Company (or the GLC for short). It’s right by the main run into the village, so you can’t beat it in terms of location. Buffalo Bills also has a great vibe and you can often find live DJs, then later on in the night we like to head to Après Après. This popular spot is basically the après ski after party, as it stays open until the wee hours!
Of course, these places aren’t just for ski season. You can enjoy drinks and dancing here during the summer too. During the summer, we tend to head to Dusty’s Bar and Barbecue to enjoy their beer garden, live music, and delicious smoked meats.
And if you really want to party, Moe Joe’s is beloved among locals and tourists alike. We like it because it’s fun, but not one of those pretentious clubs with a mile-long line to get in. It’s the place to be on Sunday nights, and why not? You’re on holiday, so there’s no work tomorrow!
2. Vallea Lumina
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Whistler is a magical place. And the best way to feel that magic after dark is with this enchanted night walk!
I love learning about a place’s myths and legends. Whistler is steeped in them, and Vallea Lumina brings those stories to life through light displays, mesmerizing holograms, and crazy special effects.
You take the walk at your own pace, but there are sounds to guide you through the forest after dark. It’s so atmospheric and new surprises are waiting around every corner. I don’t want to spoil too much, but personally, I thought the shooting star scene was just incredible! During the summer, the trail is 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles), and during the winter it’s 1 kilometer (0.6 miles). We spent about 2 hours exploring!
You can also combine it with a zipline experience for a bit more action, but more info on that soon! The tour is amazing at any time of the year but I will say it’s extra special when it’s snowing.
Time slots for the Vallea Lumina are available between 8:30-10 pm, and for $52 CAD, I think it’s a fantastic way to spend a night in Whistler. If you don’t have a rental car you can always choose to include transport for an extra $10 CAD, which is very reasonable for how convenient it is!
This experience is popular, so book your Vallea Lumina experience here before it fills up.
3. Go for an incredible meal and drinks
You might be surprised to find that Whistler has an incredible food scene. We had a hard time deciding where to go on our first few visits! Luckily, we’ve traveled to Whistler many times and therefore have found the best restaurants in town.
Our absolute favorite place to eat is The Mexican Corner – I mean who doesn’t enjoy tacos and margaritas? We honestly love everything we’ve eaten there, but the tacos stand out with short rib barbacoa, baja cauliflower, rajas poblanas, and more. I’m drooling just thinking about it! The cocktails are equally amazing, and the decor makes us feel like we are back in Mexico (almost!).
For an authentic Canadian experience, head to Splitz Grill for a Ceasar! These aren’t your average Caesars (similar to Bloody Mary’s), here they top them with your choice of a deep-fried pickle, bacon, chicken fingers, and onion rings. If you’re not full from your drink, their burgers are also really tasty, perfect after a full day of adventuring!
If you’re looking for something a little more upscale, Sidecut Steakhouse is worth a splurge! They offer a beautiful array of locally sourced cuts of beef or fresh fish. I had the New York Striploin last time I was here and while the meat was cooked to perfection, I thought the sauces and sides made it all work together so well. Sidecut is located in the Four Seasons hotel, so it was a fun excuse for a fancy date night and delicious food.
Check out our entire list of Whistler’s best restaurants here!
4. Go on a fine-dining dinner tour
We just scratched the surface of Whistler’s incredible food scene, but to get the full experience we really think you need to wine and dine a bit! When we say wine and dine, we mean visiting the Bearfoot Bistro and Whistler’s top fine dining establishments on this Finer Things Dinner Tour.
We joined this tour because it makes for a convenient and lavish night out. The Bearfoot Bistro is famous for its wine cellar with over 20,000 bottles. We learned how to saber a wine bottle and found out that it’s as difficult as it looks!
This is a progressive dinner, so we moved from restaurant to restaurant over each course, which let us find new amazing places! We enjoyed a 4-course tasting menu with some of the best salmon and ahi I’ve ever tasted. Along with truly amazing food, we had wine samples, including BC’s famous Icewine, and stopped at Rogers Chocolates for some specialty-made truffles.
This tour was 3.5 hours, and by the end, we were absolutely stuffed! The cherry on top was our guide who taught us about food and drink pairings and made our experience super fun. This fine dining experience starts at $194 CAD including all of your food. You can upgrade the tour to include alcohol tastings as well! If you’re a foodie, we highly recommend joining this tour.
Check the dozens of 5-star reviews and book the same tour we went on here!
Related Read: If you’re visiting from Vancouver, make it a road trip. Here are 20 amazing stops on the drive from Vancouver to Whistler that you can’t miss!
5. E-bike tour
We love cycling around Whistler, and for first-timers, this e-bike tour is the perfect way to get acquainted with the town. E-bikes are ideal because you can enjoy that fresh mountain air and cover lots of ground without getting too sweaty or tired. Plus, the sun doesn’t set until quite late during the summer, so it’s a lovely evening activity!
We recommend booking this tour for your first evening in Whistler to learn your way around and discover its history from Patty, who is a wonderful guide. She’ll take you to places you probably never would have found on your own as you cycle past pretty lakes and streams, and through old-growth forests. There’s also a stop at a local bakery if time allows, which I would say is a great incentive to pedal a little faster!
The last tour of the day leaves at 5 pm during the summers, and since it lasts for about 2.5 hours, you’ll be back in town just in time for dinner. The tour costs $167 CAD, including e-bike rental, and it tends to sell out so I would recommend booking in advance. You get free cancellation up to 24 hours beforehand when you book through Viator, so you might as well secure your spot.
Book this top-rated e-bike tour in advance here!
6. Distillery tour and tasting
There is a fantastic distillery just 15 minutes outside of Whistler. We joined this distillery tour to Montis Distilling, that way we didn’t have to worry about driving and could enjoy their array of spirits.
Function Junction is a super fun neighborhood to explore, full of trendy shops, craft breweries, and the star of the show, the distillery! Our guide picked us up from Whistler Village and we loved the small group size of 14, that way we could make some new drinking friends without it being too big of a group.
Once we got to the distillery we took a guided tour, which taught us all about the distilling process. I gained a lot of respect for all that goes into the spirits we drink! We loved the part where we got to sample all of the Montis’s creations and even picked up a bottle of the Alpenglow Gin to take home – it was so tasty. The tour also offered a charcuterie box to add on, which was nice to have some food in the belly while sipping liquor.
We finished the night by visiting The Raven Room, Whistler’s best craft cocktail bar. Because we were on the tour, we got exclusive foods and drinks there too!
This 2-hour tour starts at 5:30 pm, making the perfect evening out. It is available on Fridays and Saturdays for $88 CAD, including transportation and all of your alcohol tastings – a good deal if you ask me!
Secure your spot on this Montis Distillery tour with FREE cancellation when you book in advance here!
Why We Book Tours with Viator
Viator is a trusted online booking system for tours around the world! We almost always book our tours using Viator for a couple of reasons:
- Free cancellation on most tours – Most of the tours on Viator allow you to cancel and get a full refund up to 24 hours in advance. This is handy in case plans change, or if booking an outdoor activity, the weather forecast is looking grim.
- Reserve now and pay later – You can secure your spot on some of the most popular tours well in advance and not pay until closer to the day of the tour.
- Lowest price guarantee – If you happen to find the same tour at a lower price elsewhere, Viator will refund you the price difference.
- Pay in your chosen currency – Avoid costly international transaction fees by choosing to pay in your home currency.
- Peace of mind – When booking with tour operators you find in person on the street or in small booking offices, you are often promised one thing and given another. This online platform holds tour operators accountable with a written description of inclusions as well as the opportunity for customers to leave reviews.
Check out the Viator website here! Or, for more info, read our detailed review about Viator here.
7. Soak in a spa
Can you think of any better way to wind down from a day of adventure than a relaxing soak in a spa? I certainly can’t! Luckily, the Scandinave Spa is open until 9 pm, so it’s the perfect evening activity!
There are plenty of services offered, such as massages, thermal and cool baths, and lounge areas with hammocks, solariums, and a yoga studio. My personal favorite part is the eucalyptus sauna, and they also have a cedar and Finnish sauna! Ideal to soak those achy muscles fresh off the slopes.
The atmosphere is quite tranquil, as they don’t allow phone usage in the baths and ask people to remain quiet while there. It’s nice to truly get to relax!
Rates vary depending on when you go and what services you get. Check their whole list of offerings and availability on their website here. I recommend booking as early as you can, as this place is popular.
8. Night zipline
Ziplining is one of the best things to do in Whistler at any time of day, and there are plenty of options if you’d like to go at night. I actually think going at night is a great idea because it frees up time during the day for even more activities, and doing it at sunset certainly adds an extra thrill.
Zipline Adventure in Whistler
This zipline tour is super popular – in fact, it has over 1,000 five-star reviews! The adventurous Eagle Tour is available all year round, with the last departure of the day at 5:30 pm. It’s a pretty extensive course so the experience lasts for around 3 hours depending on the time of year that you go, you may well finish in darkness, which I find so exciting.
Alternatively, during the peak summer months, the Bear Tour is available, which is a fantastic choice for families or beginners who are nervous about ziplining for the first time. This takes about 2.5 hours, and the ziplines aren’t as steep or fast, but it’s still a lot of fun. I also like that there are information boards throughout the course teaching you all about the forest and the creatures that call it home.
The Bear Tour costs $168 CAD, while the Eagle Tour is priced at $189 CAD. The Eagle Tour is slightly more expensive because it includes a ride on the Whistler Gondola to get to the starting point, which I must say is a pretty great bonus!
You can check the details for both tours and book your favorite online here.
Night Zipline and Vallea Lumina
If you’ve been paying attention to this blog post, you may remember that we talked about the Vallea Lumina earlier on! Well, with this evening tour, you can actually combine that enchanting multimedia walk with a zipline experience for a truly unforgettable night in Whistler. The light displays of the Vallea Lumina are wonderful, but flying over them on a zipline really takes it to the next level – and don’t worry, you still get to do the walk itself afterward!
A ride on this zipline honestly feels like being in a dream. With the holograms and visual displays, and all of the sound effects, it really is an experience unlike any other zipline we’ve ever done.
The zipline is only available during winter, but what a way to spend a cold, snowy night in Whistler – I recommend dressing warm! The experience costs $137 CAD per person, and we think that this is another great option for families visiting Whistler. The zipline course isn’t an extreme one, but it’s the light show below that makes it super exciting!
Keep an eye on the dates and reserve this Vallea Lumina zipline in advance here!
Related Read: Looking for some daytime fun? Check out our favorite zipline tours in Whistler – there are actually quite a few thrilling ziplines!
9. Go stargazing
The night sky in Whistler truly is a sight to behold, and we love going stargazing here. All you need to do is wrap up warm (especially during the winter) and drive out of town, away from all of the lights until you find a suitable spot.
Pack some coffee, because it’s actually possible to spot the Northern Lights in Whistler between 10 pm and 3 am from September to March. Of course, there are never guarantees and sadly, we have not been lucky thus far, but it has been known to happen!
Anyway, even if the Northern Lights don’t show themselves, the stars look amazing. It feels like gazing out at the entire universe … which I guess it is!
There are plenty of fantastic places to stargaze around Whistler. The Tantalus Lookout in Garibaldi Provincial Park is an ideal spot, and it’s only about a 30-minute drive from town. Or, if you don’t want to go that far, we also like Lost Lake, which is only 5 minutes from the center by car.
10. Wander the Whistler Stroll
As you may or may not have guessed from the name, the Whistler Stroll is Whistler’s main walking street. It’s got such a fun and vibrant atmosphere, and I love exploring at any time of day, but especially at night!
This is where you’ll find lots of the fun bars that we mentioned earlier, like Après Après and Moe Joe’s. We also love stopping at Tapley’s Neighborhood Pub for the friendly atmosphere and a pint of craft beer, of course! Meanwhile, the tapas and the cocktails at Bar Oso are always a winner in our eyes, and when we need to refuel after a long day of exploring we head to Il Caminetto to carb load!
I love the shops and boutiques here, too. My favorite place to buy souvenirs is Cool as a Moose, which just so happens to stay open until 10 pm every day. It’s perfect for a bit of late-night shopping!
11. Axe throwing
We’ll finish off this list of Whistler’s best nighttime activities with a truly unique one – axe throwing! This is about as Canadian as it gets, and it’s a really fun thing to do with friends (better with friends than your enemies!).
Axe throwing is essentially what it sounds like, you throw axes at targets and keep score to see who wins. I describe it as like bowling, but dangerous! Although, don’t be alarmed, it’s much safer than it sounds!
We joined this guided axe-throwing experience and it was super helpful for our first time. We took a few practice shots, then were ready to go and a little more competitive than I expected! Best of all, this place is open until 10 pm, so we threw our axes late into the night.
We booked our axe throwing ahead of time to ensure our spots (it’s quite popular in Whistler) and it was $45 CAD per person.
You can book the same axe throwing tour we took here!
Other Things to do While You’re in Whistler
While you’re in Whistler, don’t miss out on more of the best activities in the area! Below, I have just listed a glimpse of my favorite things to do in Whistler to add to your Whistler itinerary!
- Brandywine Falls – The nature all around Whistler is stunning, and the 70-meter (230-foot) Brandywine Falls surrounded by rough cliffs is not one to miss! This is a short hike – only about 15 minutes one-way starting from the parking lot. It’s accessible from April to October.
- Ride an ATV/buggy – One of our very favorite tours in Whistler was a buggy tour! In our small 4-wheel utility vehicle, we zoomed the mountain tops and admired all of the panoramic views (when we weren’t splashing in the puddles, that is!). If you prefer to ride an ATV, that is possible too with the same company. The buggy tour is $335 CAD whereas the ATV tour costs $209 CAD.
- Via Ferrata – Whistler is one of many places in Canada to try Via Ferrata, an introduction to rock climbing. Challenge yourself to climb the entire summit of Whistler Mountain with safety cables and metal rungs. The scenery is indescribable and well worth the $209 CAD price tag. You can reserve your spot in advance here.
- Scenic flight – While not cheap, these are 100% bucket-list worthy! There are a few different options here but the most unique are the scenic helicopter flight with a mountain landing and a seaplane flight that departs and lands from the water. Both options have mindblowing views and the helicopter tour even includes a glacier landing!
Where to Stay in Whistler
There are tons of choices when it comes to hotels in Whistler, below are some of my very favorites:
Adara Hotel – Our Top Choice
Our go-to hotel in Whistler is the Adara Hotel. For us, it is the perfect mix of luxury and affordability, with everything you need for a comfortable stay. They offer underground parking and are only a one-minute walk from the Whistler Stroll, so you can park your car and leave it while you explore Whistler Village.
They also have a beautiful outdoor pool and hot tub offering mountain views – perfect for relaxing in the evening. The loft rooms are our favorite, and most also offer mountain views from the upstairs patio.
Rooms start around $150 CAD. You can check prices, availability, and book Adara Hotel on Booking.com here.
Delta Hotels by Marriott Whistler Village Suites – $$$
For a luxury hotel in the heart of Whistler, the Whistler Village Suites is my top choice. For Whistler, it’s still a great value hotel and has a swimming pool, 3 hot tubs, a bar, a fitness center, and a restaurant. The rooms a very nice and for groups they have 2-bedroom apartments. Some of the suites even have balconies with mountain views!
So whether you’re looking for a place to stay for your very special honeymoon or just fancy an ultra-relaxing vacation, it doesn’t get much better than this! Rooms here at the Whistler Village Suites start at around $300-400 CAD and you can check availability here on Booking.com.
The Listel Hotel Whistler – $$
The Listel Hotel is a beautiful place to stay in the heart of Whistler. It has an almost unbeatable location close to the village and to the gondolas, which is convenient if you are planning to ski! I still consider it a budget option for Whistler, but the hotel has lots of luxuries, including a spa, restaurant, and bar.
Rooms here at The Listel on average cost $200-300 CAD per night, so to grab the best deal, I recommend checking availability ahead of time! You can do so here on Booking.com.
Hi Whistler – $
For those travelers on a budget, the Hi Whistler is one of the few budget options. Although a hostel, the place is very clean and comfortable, and they also have private rooms. They also have Cheaky’s Café which serves coffee, snacks, meals, beer, cider, and wine. It’s a great place to meet travelers and enjoy your time in Whistler.
A single bunk in a mixed dorm room averages $52 CAD, while private rooms start at around $152 CAD per night. You can check availability on Booking.com or Hostelworld.
Those are just a few of the many amazing places to stay in Whistler – check out our blog for more info.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance!
If you’re looking to save money on travel insurance, we currently use and recommend SafetyWing. We’ve been using their coverage since 2018 and they’ve had our backs when we needed emergency flights and got sick overseas.
SafetyWing is one of the cheapest providers out there and covers everything from medical costs to lost luggage, travel delays, and emergency flights. A huge difference we’ve found between them and other companies is that they let you take out a policy AFTER leaving your home country. We’ve also found it handy that it’s a monthly payment rather than a lump sum, and you can get a refund for unused time.
SafetyWing has helped us out in some scary situations before and their affordable coverage has given us peace of mind. You can read our honest review of SafetyWing for all the pros and cons.
Thanks for reading!
Even though Whistler is widely known for its daytime outdoor activities, there is actually so much to do at night! That way you can make the most out of your time here, no matter what hour it is. We have so much fun exploring Whistler and I know you will too, and hopefully, this list will show you a unique side of town.
Thanks so much for reading our blog! If you need help planning more of your travels, check out our other Whistler blogs or check out our BC page! Here are a few more articles to check out:
13 BEST Tours in Whistler, BC (that you don’t want to miss!)