Short on Hotels, Olympic City Vancouver Gets Creative: Tents, RVs and hostels to house fans

November 15, 2009 By Remy Leave a Comment

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If you’ve never experienced the build-up to an Olympics first-hand, imagine all the hype surrounding the Super Bowl, but  stretched out for years and years instead of just a few weeks.  In Vancouver, which is hosting the 2010 Winter Games in February, the Olympics have been front-page news since about 2003.  Officials have spent $1.6 billion on, among other things, the snazziest curling rink the world has ever seen.  One thing they may have neglected, however, is a place to put all the people expected to show up.  I wrote about the city’s Olympic accommodation crunch in an article for Sunday’s Washington Post travel section.

Vancouver’s hotel shortage sets off an Olympic scramble

By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post

It doesn’t take a gold medal in arithmetic to see that the numbers didn’t add up.

About 250,000 spectators are expected to pour into Vancouver, B.C., for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in February. Yet according to the city’s Olympic committee, only a paltry 10,000 hotel rooms were available to them. With three months to go before the Opening Ceremonies, the pool of rooms at hotels in and around Vancouver — from highway HoJos to the Four Seasons — has essentially dried up.

Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.

Filed Under 2010 Olympics, Published Articles, Vancouver Tagged With 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Olympic accommodation, Olympic accommodation shortage, Olympic housing, Olympic rentals, Remy Scalza, Vancouver, Vancouver hostels, Vancouver Olympic hostels

Aboriginal Tourism 2.0: Canada’s First Nations Court Olympic Tourists

October 31, 2009 By Remy Leave a Comment

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Around Vancouver, several Indian bands are rewriting the book on Aboriginal tourism in the lead-up to the Olympic Games, moving away from tepee villages and kitschy gift shops and embracing more authentic and sophisticated experiences.  I checked out a few of the new Aboriginal offerings in an article for The Washington Post:

As hosts of the Vancouver Olympics, First Nations are ready to welcome the world

By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post

It’s an Olympic first that has drawn few headlines. When the 2010 Winter Games open in Vancouver, B.C., in February, four Canadian Indian nations will be on hand — not as window dressing but as full-fledged hosts. “This isn’t just get out the drums and feathers for the Opening Ceremonies,” says Alex Rose, communications director for the Four Host First Nations, the society representing the four groups of Canada’s indigenous people who will host the Games. “Those days are gone.”

Largely gone, too, are the tepees, totem poles and tchotchkes that once defined aboriginal tourism in Canada. In their place has sprung up a new generation of indigenous travel experiences — from urban powwows to luxe native-owned wineries — aimed at courting the more than 250,000 visitors expected at the Games.

Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.

Filed Under 2010 Olympics, Food & Wine, Published Articles, Vancouver Tagged With 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Aboriginal Tourism, Canada, NK'Mip, Pow-wow, Remy Scalza, Squamish, Vancouver

Rolling Through Vancouver’s Olympic-Size Sushi Scene

July 27, 2009 By Remy Leave a Comment

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Anyone who likes sushi – or Canadians – might be interested in this article I wrote, which appeared in Sunday’s Washington Post.

Rolling Through Vancouver’s Olympic-Size Sushi Scene

By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post

It’s hard to say what was going through the minds of Vancouver’s Olympic planners when they came up with the mascots for next year’s Winter Games. To serve as one of Canada’s ambassadors to the world, they picked an earmuffs-wearing Big Foot that looks like Chewbacca. The city’s Olympic brain trust could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by recognizing a real symbol of Vancouver: a big piece of sashimi.

Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.


Filed Under 2010 Olympics, Food & Wine, Published Articles, Vancouver Tagged With 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Organic Ocean, Remy Scalza, Spot Prawns, sushi, The Washington Post, Tojo's, Toshi Sushi, Vancouver

A Dry Olympics? Canadian Booze Prices Could Sober Festivities

June 18, 2009 By Remy 2 Comments
Host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver has some of North America's highest alcohol prices.

Host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver has some of North America's highest alcohol prices.

Vancouver is ranked world’s most livable city for good reason.   The international throngs set to descend in February for the Winter Olympics will no doubt be awed by the city’s setting, between snow-capped mountains and the green-gray waters of the Pacific.  They’ll marvel at its sleek, modern architecture and efficient public transport.  And they’ll probably warm right up to that earnest Canadian charm.  But sooner or later, Olympic fans are going to get thirsty and discover Vancouver’s dirty little secret:  exorbitant alcohol prices. [Read more...]

Filed Under Vancouver Tagged With 2010 Olympics, alcohol, British Columbia, Vancouver, Vancouver beer

Whistler’s Wild Side: The backcountry behind Canada’s alpine mecca

June 2, 2009 By Remy 2 Comments



Outside of Whistler's Olympic Village, chalets and ski slopes give way to farmland and rugged hiking trails.

Outside of Whistler, chalets and ski slopes give way to farmland and rugged hiking trails.


Whistler, host of the 2010 Winter Olympics, is Canada’s uncontested capital of alpine chic.  The ski village, year-round population 10,000, has six five-star hotels, a thriving SUV limo service and bars full of ski bums sipping $16 martinis.  But venture a bit outside of town and the wilderness closes back in.  On the drive north from Whistler, million-dollar chalets quickly give way to much humbler accommodations scattered on Indian reserves.  Then – suddenly – there’s nothing at all, just a thin shoelace of asphalt rising steadily into the mountains.

[Read more...]

Filed Under Vancouver, blog entry Tagged With 2010 Olympics, Hiking, Joffre Lakes, Vancouver, Whistler
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