Reviewed by Sherry- Outside Sales Agent, 2008
I just thought I would send a quick email to give you some thoughts, tips and recommendations for Kelowna.
· The wineries in and around Kelowna are amazing! Our favourites in Kelowna are: Mission Hill Family Estate Winery & Quail’s Gate Estate Winery & Summerhill Pyramid Winery. All three have fantastic terrace restaurants with beautiful scenic views of Lake Okanagan. Summerhill probably has the most spectacular view of them all. But all are equally enjoyable. The food was very good so they are definitely worth doing for lunch or at least for a bottle of wine & appetizer. Most wineries offer complimentary wine tastings for up to 3 wines on a specific menu of choices. Others are available for a tasting of about $2 or $3 per tasting (usually the ice wines and more expensive higher end wines). If you purchase wine on-site, they usually don’t charge you the fee or they deduct the fee from your wine bill.
· A winery worth the drive is called Burrowing Owl Estate Winery. It is located in the Oliver area on the way to Osoyoos. I think it was about an hour or hour and a half drive from Kelowna. This winery is my all-time favourite of all that we toured. It has a small villa style hotel located on the property. The stay is a minimum of two nights. The views from this winery are spectacular as it is located off the highway up in the hillside. The “feel” was like “Tuscany”. I would definitely stay there for a few nights but would want to book in July or August when it is hot! There is a nice pool outside and the terrace restaurant is amazing! By far a “great find”!!!
· We stayed at two hotels in Kelowna. The Cove Lakeside Resort (in Westbank, west side of Kelowna, across the bridge from downtown) and The Grand Okanagan Resort in downtown Kelowna. The Cove is part of the Boutique Hotels chain. It is by far our favourite place to stay. It is located in a quiet residential area near the Mission Hill and Quail’s Gate wineries. All rooms are suites (1, 2, 3 bedroom) with full kitchen, granite counter tops, wine fridge, washer, dryer, patio or balcony (accessed thru living room or bedroom), plasma tv screen in the living room, DVD player, dining room table, etc. We stayed in the 1 bedroom suite which was awesome. Very spacious and much like a small apartment. Great for travelling with kids as it gave us lots of room for her to play and run around and for us to have privacy. The property has nice swimming pools with waterslide and hot tubs. It also has a small beach. My recommendation would be to book a 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom suite as those are the only ones that are lakeside & poolside. The one bedrooms are mountain views only. There is a small fitness room (I actually used the treadmill!), spa, yoga studio, and tennis courts. It has a small lounge which looked really cute. And a restaurant (but we never ate in the hotel). There is a strip mall complex nearby that has restaurants (a great Italian one called Bella Cucina), blockbuster video (we rented movies), tim hortons, starbucks, wendy’s, etc. So although the hotel wasn’t located downtown, it still had many conveniences nearby. I particularly liked the quietness. Rob spent every morning running the trails along the lake which was kinda cool. The Grand Okanagan Resort is soooo over-rated! It basically is good for the convenience of being downtown. It has a nice pool and hot tubs and lagoon and great walkways along the marina and lake. But other than that, that is basically all it really offers. The restaurants suck. The staff are not particularly friendly. And the price is enormous for what you get. The rooms are old and small and basic. Very few offer balconies so it sucks for those that have kids and are stuck inside at night-time with nowhere to go! So ... my pick ... The Cove Lakeside Resort in Westbank.
· The Jackson-Triggs winery is nothing much of anything. It doesn’t have a restaurant or patio for sipping wine. It basically looks like a warehouse distribution facility with a small tasting room. So not worth it.
· Some great restaurant recommendations: Earl’s downtown Kelowna (has an awesome rooftop patio overlooking the lake), Ric’s Grill downtown Kelowna (a pretty good patio overlooking the park and lake), Joey Tomato’s on Hwy 97 by the Costco (great outdoor patio with awesome couch like booths – the nicest Joey’s I’ve seen!), Bella Cucina in Westbank (for a family friendly casual Italian restaurant). I also have a list of others that we didn’t go to but that our friend recommended (her parent’s live in Kelowna). So if you need more recommendations, please let me know.
