Visiting Olympic Sites

Squaw Valley

An unlikely winner of the bid to host the 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley nonetheless proved worthy of the honor. A small town with just one ski chairlift, and in California to boot, the fact that it received 450 inches of snow annually was an attractive incentive. Fittingly, Walt Disney himself was chairman of the Pageantry Committee.

Visit the Olympic Museum at High Camp (elevation 8,200 feet), where many of the games were held. To get there, you have to take a cable car 2,000 feet up. Your ticket (adults, $20; youth, $16) includes admission to the museum. You’ll also find the Olympic Ice Pavilion where you can ice skate with views of Lake Tahoe as the backdrop.

Adults and kids over the age of 13 can sign up for a ski and snowboarding school. For younger kids, ages 3-12, the Children’s Center, located at the base of the mountain, provides full and half-day programs. Also at the base, you can snowshoe, cross-country ski and try the indoor 30-foot-tall awesome climbing wall.

Canada

Calgary

Calgary was host to the 1988 Winter Olympics. Visitors should head directly to the Canada Olympic Park, just 15 minutes away from downtown, for all sorts of activities. The park continues to function as a multi-purpose competition, training and recreation area for both athletes and the general public.

• The Olympic Ice Pavilion not only provides visitors a spectacular place to skate but also beautiful views of the Lake Tahoe area.
• Courtesy of Squaw Valley USA

The $45 Olympic Odyssey Audio Tour family package includes admission to the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as the bobsled track, ice house and ski jump tower. In the winter, you can try bobsledding, the skeleton and the luge. In the summer, you can hike and mountain bike.

Montréal

Montréal, host to the 1976 Summer Games, has two sites that are major attractions for Olympic-minded tourists. Start with a 30-minute guided tour of the Olympic Stadium in Olympic Park. Visit the Sports Centre, where you can see the Olympic pools. (Tickets: adults, $8; kids, $6.25.)

The Montréal Tower Observatory is located in the highest inclined tower in the world and is reached by riding a funicular that is just as unusual. It’s the only one that can carry 76 people at once! This is not advised for anyone afraid of heights. When I did it, a couple of people closed their eyes. Climbing the stairs though the curved tower, affords stunning views, and it takes less than two minutes. Oddly enough, the tower was not completed until 10 years after the games. (Tickets: adults, $14; kids, $7.)