Roy and HG's whimsical campaign to have Smiggins Holes host the 2010 Winter Olympics may not have come to fruition but for Australians, Vancouver is the next best thing.

The largest city to host a Winter Olympics, the west coast metropolis and the de facto Games venue of Whistler are something of a little Down Under.

Aussies jam into the Granville St Backpackers in downtown Vancouver; it's almost impossible to avoid the sounds of strine amongst the hundreds of antipodeans that work in the alpine resorts and January 26 in Whistler is celebrated with almost as much gusto as Canada Day.

The city itself seems to borrow the best of Australia: offering a harbour and waterways like Sydney and a Melbourne-esque mix where winebars and culture happily co-exist with pro sport and a cold beer - not to mention the need for an extra layer or two in winter.

Throw in something a bit more foreign - snowcapped mountains that flank the city and stretch over 75 per cent of British Columbia - and you already have a natural headstart when it comes to hosting a Winter Games.

Whether it's the Aussie feel, the laid back Canadian attitude or something else entirely, our athletes love it and seem to thrive here, auguring well for a best ever Winter Games medal haul. Australia has claimed two medals at each of the past two Games and will be eyeing three or four come February.

Heading the list of medal contenders is five-time World Cup freestyle aerials champion Jacqui Cooper - winner at the Vancouver Games site of Cypress Mountain in 2008.

Cooper, 36, is more than comfortable in BC, owning her own pad in Whistler, about an hour and a half from Vancouver. She expects one of the best Games ever.

"They've got a beautiful city, there's some fantastic facilities here with all the venues," she says. And as far as Cooper's concerned there really is just one rider.

"I think it will be a beautiful Games as long as we get some good weather."

The storms that regularly smash the Pacific coast from October to April leave the mountains in a blanket of white but sometimes bring fog and rain, while the sea level city of Vancouver is usually just plain wet.

But when a day dawns crisp and bright on the coast there are few more stunning places in North America to be.

If you want to test the frozen waters of winter adventure you can get your ski or snowboard fix at any of the `city' mountains all within about 45 minutes of downtown.

Of those Cypress Mountain is the best, Thredbo-like in size with more reliable snow. Grouse Mountain may not appeal to serious riders but its view back to the city - particularly under a clear sky at night - are worth the trip alone.

Big mountain skiers and boarders will make the trek to Whistler-Blackcomb, a veritable behemoth when it comes to making serious turns and regularly voted the No.1 resort in North America.

If snow doesn't float your boat a simple bike ride around Stanley Park is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours and still get the heart pumping.

For those looking to take it easy shopping in Kitsilano, hitting the markets at Granville Island or dining and taking on a few bars in Robson Street should work well.

Or you can do all that and more on the cobbled streets of historic Gastown, northeast in the downtown district.

Venture much past Gastown however and you'll encounter a seven block stretch on East Hastings that presents something far more problematic than Vancouver's fickle winter weather.

Described by Canada's national newspaper The Globe and Mail as `Our Nation's Slum' it's an area that has had an estimated $C1.4 billion thrown at it since 2000 without result. It's an issue veteran sports reporter Terry Bell of the Vancouver Province says sits uncomfortably with a number of Vancouverites.

"We have a real homeless problem and a lot of crime and drug addiction on the east side of the city," Bell says.

"There are a lot of people who are saying we shouldn't worry about an Olympics until we get that resolved."

Some our hopeful that the attention the Games will bring to the city will precipitate some solutions to the east downtown issue. Others, at least in part, see the poverty as part and parcel of any major city.

Regardless, it doesn't seemed to have stopped a growing interest in the Games from locals. The organising committee VANOC has taken the Field of Dreams philosophy a step further: build it early and they will come even more.

With the athletes village at False Creek and the modifications to the Sea to Sky Highway - the conduit between Whistler and Vancouver - the only major works to be completed a year out from the Games it was hard not to be impressed. And the locals certainly were.

"Fifteen hundred people a day were going to (national trials) skating events. The skaters were saying when we have these in Calgary we just get 50 people," says Bell.

"At the Callaghan Valley for the ski jumping there was 6,000 people turn up for the event and they had to close the road and turn people back.

"There was just a real groundswell of enthusiasm and excitement."

And that, despite a few grumbles, seems to be the overriding feeling in Vancouver.

Add the A-grade facilities, a cosmopolitan city and hopefully a block of good weather - and the 2010 Games look like competing with the benchmark Winter Olympics of 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway and as such well worth checking out.

Smiggins Holes it ain't but surely Roy and HG would approve anyway.

AAP