Vallea Lumina — Local services in Whistler Resort Municipality

Was it good visually? Yes.

Was it good enough for $60? No ☹️ I'm usually not a hater but a lot of little things in our experience made me give this place a 3 star.

Media - the lights, the music, the shows were amazing! The part on the bridge gave us chills. It was a strong start!! We enjoyed the light projection but it felt like there were only 3 highlights in the entire walk. It was very short and there are no photo opportunities within the trail as it was very dark (I guess because the focus was the projections...but Capilano had a lot of photo opportunities within its walk for only a $10 difference in price tag) . Theres only like 2 fire pits where people can hang out afterwards.

Overpriced - we were a family of 12 plus a toddler so that was a break in the bank to begin with. It would have helped if they had group pricing to be friendlier. We only went because we wanted to show our family who are visiting Canada a good snow experience... I have never been inclined to see this for the longest time because of the price tag and I was right ....I'm sorry..again if you're someone who's rich then this shouldn't be a problem for you.

Weather and service - we went on a snow day. My family already did not want to proceed because of the weather and we had a long drive home but because of the no refund policy we still went. A mom and a toddler in our group initially couldn't go anymore as the little one is starting to feel ill due to the cold. We were told that they could only reschedule their ticket but they are only visiting so that wouldn't work for us. Because the tickets are expensive and we couldn't afford it to go to waste, we brought them in. I was using an umbrella because the snowfall was a lot and it was confiscated because it will affect "the experience". I complied. I just wish that they had provided raincoats when the weather was bad (i only suggest this because in Capilano, they provided us with raincoats when it started raining). Given the weather conditions, the event probably should have been canceled altogether. One of the crew members even slipped and fell while directing people in the parking lot. During the trail, many of us had to penguin-walk to avoid slipping on the snowy ground. This made the experience stressful rather than enjoyable, particularly with a toddler in tow.

Ultimately, I'm still giving 3 stars because I know the crew are just following policy. I was able to pick up my umbrella and they gave my group complimentary...

What an amazing experience. We had heard a lot about it, but really didn't know what to expect and I don't know that I can do it justice with pictures or words. We arrived early because we heard there is limited parking (the lot is indeed quite small). The actual trail is about 15 minutes away from Whistler Village, towards Pemberton on an unmarked exit. Upon arrival, there are a number of camp fires to sit around and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate prior to the walk. You walk a trail through a mountainous area, and are part of different auditory and light experiences. There are lots of steep inclines with plenty of stairs which was tough on my tired legs, having hiked a fair bit earlier in the day, but it was worth every step. You work through the trail at your own pace, taking in each portion. I highly recommend a slow pace as certain events loop with a short break in between so you might miss things if you walk too quickly. There are speakers playing calming music, storm sounds, and various forest animal sounds. The visual effects include a combination of lighting effects using projection, lasers and under tree lighting. My Pixel 2 camera with 'Night Site' took some amazing photos in the low light, but even these don't tell the whole story. One particular portion of the walk has hundreds of thousands of lasers making the trees around glow like pixie dust or luminous fire flies. It was simply break taking. I thought admission was a touch pricey when I bought the tickets, but after experiencing it first hand, it was truly a bargain. I can honestly say we have never seen anything like it. Take your time and enjoy each moment. We did the summer visit which didn't start until 10pm, so it was a late night for us, but even then, I would recommend for families, couples or anyone looking for a very unique semi-psychedelic experience. I would love to try it again in the winter with snow...

The experience is framed as a mystery/mission: some hikers go missing and you basically walk in the steps of park rangers as they search for the hikers on a mystical night. Things build as the story (walk) progresses, so the best light installations are towards the end. There were only two or three that really stood out.

Depending on the pace you choose to go, this could take 45 minutes to well over an hour. Note that the trail you walk is moderately difficult, about a low-intermediate level. Notably, there are many steep steps early on. I wanted to mention that as a few older visitors were not aware of this going in and wished they had been.

I want to end with the biggest detractor of the experience, which was the timing of the shuttles. Let me just say first that I am grateful a free shuttle service is offered. Note that you should reserve these in advance. However, the pickup times back to the village are at the top of the hour. Our experience started around 9:15, and we were stressed throughout about making it back in time for the return shuttle which we thought left at 10. We didn’t want to have to wait for another hour, even though there was a nice waiting area with a cafe and campfires. Because we were rushing, we had no idea what happened in the story. (To be honest, it would probably be confusing even if we had time. I seriously have no idea what we were supposed to gather from the "clues".) Also, even though our shuttle arrived early, we had to wait for a big group to be released at a time. It would have been nice if we could enter freely. I also wish the return shuttles ran more frequently, or perhaps at 10:30 instead of 10 for a...