Why You Should Ski Canada This Winter: Everything is 25% OFF…

Thanks to historically-low exchange rates, this is the year to Save Big  when you ski Canada. Bargain-hunters will save 25-percent off everything. As of today, the Canadian dollar was trading at $0.75 to the U.S. dollar; translation –  it’s a great time to have a fistful of American dollars when shopping for ski deals in the Great White North. From lift tickets to beers, hotels to souvenirs, this year the exchange rate is in your favor.

Show me the money. The exchange works like this, every $1 USD is currently equal to $1.32 CAD. If you extrapolate this scenario to a larger dollar amount, the savings are more impressive: $1,000 USD = $1,320 CAD, that’s like getting $320 for free. Vail Resorts took advantage of this exchange rate this past August, when it acquired North America’s largest ski resort, Whistler Blackcomb, for roughly $1.4 billion CAD ($1 billion USD). That’s a lot of free money.

BTW, Vail plans to integrate Whistler Blackcomb into it’s EPIC pass products next ski season, adding a huge value to it’s already impressive smorgasbord of  ski resort offerings.

By heading to Canada this winter you can share in the positive exchange and stretch your hard-earned dollars by 25-percent. To illustrate, let’s compare Vail head-to-head with Whistler. For the sake of argument, I’ve assumed a week long holiday. These are rough guidelines and have not been optimized for best available pricing via package deals, etc.

• Vail              hotel (Marriott)  + lift       = $3707 USD
• Whistler      hotel (Marriott) + lift      =  $2423 USD ($3202 CAD)

Just looking at lift tickets:

• Vail 2-day lift ticket at the window = $298 USD
• Whistler 2-day lift ticket at the window =  $210 USD ($278 CAD)

Arguably a bigger rush than finding an untracked powder stash –  finding money. Or in this case, saving lots of it. If you have been waiting to ski Whistler Blackcomb, or perhaps traveling down Canada’s famed powder highway, or even skiing an eastern option, like Tremblant, the exchange rate is in your favor. It’s a good year to ski Canada.