Monday, March 16, 2009

If you do ONE touristy thing...


I would recommend the Takhini Hotsprings. A mildly tourist-trap set-up, it is fairly nice without being ridiculously expensive. Family-run enterprise also, if anyone has qualms (I have five) about patronising huge corporations for family fun.

The hotsprings themselves are cemented, kind of like a swimming pool. A cool side and a hot side. Very nice and tons of hoar frost coating the surroundings, so still kind of natural except for the fence surrounding them. Ha. Watch out for insanely busy times like mid-late afternoons on the weekend, Japanese and/or French tourists who act like you must work there and therefore can answer all your questions. The answer is NO, I don't work here and this is my FIRST time here. Go away.

It costs $9.75 except Monday nights, which I believe are reduced to $5.00. You must bring flip-flops/crocs or pay $1.00 to rent them...something about foot fungus??

The hotsprings is a pretty big place in the summer, with a 1,000 ft zipline, and a climbing wall and the odd trail ride here and there (word has it that the woman who runs/ran the trail rides in the summer also runs some incredibly shady horse business out by Emerald Lake, where the horses are more than half-wild and people come back with broken bones...) but I digress.

There is also a huge ice-wall to clip those crampons on and start climbing! Word also has it that last year the ice-wall was downtown, but they had to use city water to create it...and then the city, when the wall was melting down at the end of the season, gave the operators of the ice-wall a huuuge water bill. oops! not going there again! (all hear-say, you understand...)

Get out and enjoy. Very pretty at night, open until about 10pm!

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