Kelowna and Penticton

Me at St Hubertus Vineyard, Kelowna
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The Journey

We certainly covered a lot of distance on the roads of BC – we did just over 1000km in 3 days! We decided middle of last week, that we should take advantage of the fact that we have a car for the weekend, and so we pre-booked a night in Kelowna for the Friday night. Our original plan had been to drive to Kamloops on Saturday morning, spend the day and night there, then drive to Kelowna Sunday morning and spend the day there, stopping off at a couple of places on the way.

I would definitely reccommend visiting the region especially if you are wine, golf and hiking lovers!!

Neil relaxing up Knox mountain overlooking view of Kelowna
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Kelowna Kelowna is very nice. An extremely picturesque lake-side town in a valley setting, surrounded by mountains. We took a short drive up to Knox Mountain and had superb views for miles around, over the Okanagan lake. It was thankfully a warm and sunny day as well, so we enjoyed a really good day there. Lots of vineyards and some unbelievably nice houses overlooking the lake too. There was also a street called Crowley St!! (see pic)

Okanagan lake and mountains!!
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We stopped off at one of the wineries and I did some wine tasting. Unfortunately Neil couldn't because he was driving!! In the afternoon we drove about 60km to another lakeside town called Penticton. We had a lovely mexican lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront. The plan then was to drive to Kamloops, but we had heard from 3 different people that the town itself was quite dull, had very little in the way of attractions & wouldn’t recommend we visit there! We had also gone into a real-estate agents’ showroom on the Penticton water front (out of curiousity of apartment prices for a new development… cheap by the way!), and asked him about Kamloops. He also said he wouldn’t recommend it and would suggest we stay in Kelowna as there’s far more to do.

Neil at Apex point on Knox mountain
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Change of plan We decided that as we’d heard such negative comments about Kamloops, plus the fact it was another 2 ½ hr drive, we’d stay in Kelowna. We managed to find a room, after much searching, at a very nice hotel, They only charged us their winter rate as well, which was a bonus. So Sunday was spent doing a bit more exploring around Kelowna, before we drove to Okanagan Falls (nothing much there) and then the 4-hr drive home. We got back at 8.30 sunday evening.

View of Kelowna
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The drive home was definitely one of the most picturesque journey’s we’ve ever done. We drove through the Fraser Valley, through abbotsford, Langley and we bypassed a big town called Merrit on the way to Kelowna.

Neil had his Taco Bell radar on so about an hr after we left Vancouver we made an abrubt change of direction off the highway as Neil saw a Taco Bell sign. The food wasnt as good as the American one though!!

We are glad we took the time out to visit the region but really we needed more time to explore the area and relax!! I would definitely reccommend visiting the region especially if you are wine, golf and hiking lovers!!