Revelstoke is a small mountain town in British Columbia's Columbia Mountains, hemmed in between the Selkirk and Monashee ranges on the banks of the Columbia River. For over a century it was a railroad town — the Canadian Pacific Railway pushed through here in the 1880s — but today it draws visitors for skiing, hiking, and its unpretentious mountain-town atmosphere.
Revelstoke Mountain Resort has the longest vertical drop in North America and receives enormous snowfall, but without the crowds of Whistler or Banff. Lift ticket numbers are capped, and the après-ski culture in town is low-key and genuine. In summer, Mount Revelstoke National Park takes over: wildflower meadows, old-growth cedar forests, and hiking trails with views across the Columbia Valley. The Meadows in the Sky Parkway climbs to the summit ridge and is spectacular in August when the alpine flowers peak.
The Revelstoke Dam, 5 km north of town, offers a free visitor centre and panoramic elevator. The Railway Museum near the old station documents the CPR's mountain division, which operated the most technically challenging railway in North America. The town itself has a compact main street with good restaurants, a few breweries, and a genuine community feel — this is a place where people live and work, not a resort village built for tourists.