Kelowna Recreation: Wine, Water, Wetlands, and Fun
Wine
The Wine Cycle
A Kelowna BC, Canada winery is within biking distance from many hotels, motels and restaurants: some wine lovers prefer biking the Kettle Valley Rail Trail to the Myra Canyon Trestles for hours before having lunch and sipping wine. Wine enthusiasts may also bike several kilometres from a golf course or orchard to a local winery for a meal and wine tasting. Nature lovers can take a two-hour bike ride and short canoe trip on Lake Okanagan to a winery for lunch to please their palate. The history of Okanagan winemaking can be discovered at the BC Wine Museum & VQA Wine Shop in Kelowna’s Cultural District.
Wine Education Series Tasting (WEST)
Wine lovers can head WEST – to the Wine Education Series of Tastings – when strolling through Kelowna’s Cultural District in the Spring or Fall. WEST’s wine education program is conducted by the BC Wine Museum & VQA Wine Shop on Ellis Street. Participants can sample and savour BC red, white, dessert, and sweet ice wines as well as munch on appetizers. The learning from seminars offered at WEST can be useful when later deciding what wine to order with a restaurant meal. Attending WEST can also serve as a nice introduction to wines before attending a wine tasting event at one of the four annual Okanagan Wine Festivals. Go WEST when visiting Kelowna and discover Okanagan wines at a Kelowna, BC, Canada winery each year.
Wine and Fly
real estate filled with rolling vineyards, shimmering lakes and mountainous parks looks different from the sky than it does on a scooter. Wine lovers can fly higher than a golf ball on a full or half-day helicopter winery tour. On landing, tour participants may then be treated to a vineyard tour, restaurant meal and breath-taking views of Lake Okanagan. There is even a nearby lakeside resort for those who wish to extend their stay and live by the beach in style for a night or two. More wine tasting may be experienced on the ground in Kelowna’s Cultural District at the BC Wine Museum & VQA Wine Shop’s Wine Education Series Tasting (WEST).
Vine Land
Over 15 Kelowna, BC, Canada wineries transform ‘fruit of the vine’ grown on Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), Westbank First Nations (WFN) Westbank First Nation (WFN) and other land into internationally-award winning wines. Each winery offers wine lovers a unique choice of tastes and experiences: sipping red wine at an outdoor concert on a hill overlooking Lake Okanagan, making a wine toast on a sandy beach across from Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park or eating a picnic lunch over a glass of white or sweet dessert wine. Wine lovers may also visit the BC Wine Museum & VQA Wine Shop in Kelowna’s Cultural District to learn about the history of winemaking in the Okanagan. In Kelowna, it’s possible to shop for wine, or visit the ‘grape wing’ of Orchard Park Shopping Centre to buy shoes and other items. Vine Land is also ripe with opportunities to taste, tour and shop for wine at Kelowna’s many restaurants, golf courses, wine stores, hotels, and four annual Okanagan Wine Festivals.
Water
Water World
Just being located on beautiful Lake Okanagan makes Kelowna a real water world of adventure: boat cruises, 22 beach access-points, lakeside park trails, and a Yacht Club provide plenty of ways to enjoy the water. Boats and water-skiers whiz across the lake while Okanagan Lake Bridge pedestrians and car drivers watch from above. Surfing is about the only activity that can’t be done on Lake Okanagan, but that’s what Kelowna’s H2O Adventure and Fitness Centre is for. Canada’s largest publicly-owned indoor water park has the first-ever indoor surfing wave, so it might just be necessary to go shopping for a surf board while in Kelowna. Many hotels in the city have a pool or waterslide: the H2O Adventure and Fitness Centre has a 50-metre swimming pool with an adjustable floor, a wave pool and 3 waterslides that might be fun to visit too. Lake Okanagan and the H2O Adventure and Fitness Centre are two water hazards that even golfers might enjoy after losing a few too many golf balls in the pond. It’s best to wait a while after eating at a Kelowna restaurant before playing in Kelowna’s water world of indoor and outdoor adventures.
Lake Okanagan Cruises
There was no live entertainment or meals on board the paddlewheeler boats that carried everything from cattle to machinery to mail across Lake Okanagan in the late 1800s. Today, there are dinner and brunch cruises, sunset cruises as well as sight-seeing tours of the Kelowna and Westbank shoreline. Partiers may dance the night away under the moon to Latin or other music, whereas the first boats to cross beautiful Lake Okanagan were more likely filled with nervously stirring cattle and horses. Several tour companies offer Summer cruises departing daily from Kelowna’s Commercial Passenger Ship Wharf, located by The Sails at the foot of Bernard Avenue near City Park.
Wetlands
Kelowna’s Wetland Wonders
Kelowna’s wetlands are to nature-lovers what Kelowna’s Cultural District is to followers of the arts and the city’s four museums are to history buffs. The area’s 14 wetlands are places to admire and appreciate birds, insects and amphibians that help keep Kelowna’s water clean. Wetlands like the Rotary Marshes near Knox Mountain Park protect ecosystems in which ospreys may nest, salmon spawn and ducks dive for food. These ecological wonders offer nature-lovers live theatre as inhabitants go about their daily routine of cleansing and feeding Mother Nature. It is partly thanks to their work that golfers, wine tasters and outdoor recreation-lovers may be healthy and happily enjoy the Okanagan Valley. The Environmental Education Centre for the Okanagan (EECO) on the Mission Creek Greenway trail has information about wetlands and ecosystems.
Fun
Equipment Rentals
There’s more important stuff to worry about than remembering to bring all the gear needed to explore Kelowna. It’s not easy carting ski and snow gear through airport security, and it’s no fun packing and un-packing the bike for a trip: rent or buy used gear at the ski-hill or from one of Kelowna’s many bike shops. It might also be fun to buy a used soccer ball or baseball glove and play around in a park. Rent hiking or camping gear and explore Okanagan Mountain Park, or borrow a bike to explore the Myra Canyon Trestles for a day. There’s no need to rent anything to Knox Mountain, just wear comfortable shoes. Kelowna’s many golf courses will have no difficulty renting out a set of golf clubs to use for the day, nor will it be difficult for overly-enthusiastic wine tasters to pick up a good pair of sunglasses.
Scoot Around Town
Taking a Heritage Driving Tour may not appeal to someone who spent hours in a car driving to Kelowna. Likewise, a Self-guided Walking Tour may be a little too much for soar feet to handle after a long hike in one of Kelowna’s many parks. Renting a Scooter is an affordable way to zoom around Kelowna’s Cultural District, to the city’s many sites and attractions and over the Okanagan Lake Bridge. A valid Driver’s License is required to ride a Scooter on Kelowna’s streets and route maps will provide direction to wineries, restaurants and shopping. If driving a Scooter doesn’t sound like a good option, rent a bike for the day and ride around town in the dedicated bike lanes on many Kelowna streets.
Play Tag
Chasing a friend in a game of paintball or laser tag may be more fun than chasing a little white golf ball. Artists in Kelowna’s Cultural District may argue that there is a better way to use paint, but maybe they’ve never had the joy of splattering a friend. Playing paintball or laser tag in Kelowna is a great way to work up an appetite for a hearty restaurant meal later on. There’s no room for error in either game, so, it’s best to play before going on a wine tasting tour. Laser tag does have one advantage over paintball: there’s no need to scrub paint off at the Waterfront Park beach after. With laser tag, one can lose and still head right back to the hotel room and prepare for more fun in Kelowna.
EnergyPlex
After playing a round of golf or skiing the slopes, younger visitors to Kelowna may still have some energy to burn. The EnergyPlex is located near the McCurdy Corner shopping plaza that contains a movie theatre, pub-style restaurant and a bowling alley. Parents may bond with their kids doing activities such as gymnastics, rock climbing and Taekwondo at this wonderful family recreation centre. The EnergyPlex’s state-of-the-art indoor swim centre further adds to Kelowna’s reputation as a Water World of fun and recreation for visitors of all ages. It also has a bakery and café at which to refuel before diving back inside the Energy Cube for more fun. Tired children may later be left safely back at the hotel while adults slip out for a drink and dinner at a restaurant or winery in Vine Land.
Live Music, Great Java and Free Wi-Fi
Everyone needs some down-time, and Kelowna’s Streaming Café has just the relaxation required after a long week or day in Kelowna. Everyday, a fresh brew of specialty coffees, treats and free Wi-Fi Internet is served in a funky, modern setting. On week-ends, this unique café stirs-in a pinch of music played on-site and broadcast live via the Internet. Whether it’s from a laptop at home or in the audience, viewers may sip a decaf Americano and submit their questions to be answered by playing musicians in-between sets. The Streaming Café’s hip atmosphere is a great place to chill, chat with friends or just plain surf the Internet: for a hotel room, restaurant, golf course, or other cool attraction to hit in Kelowna.
Kelowna’s First Golf Course
Kelowna’s first golf course was a 9-hole one located near present day City Hall and Memorial Arena. The golf course remained here from 1899 until 1914 when it was moved to the Bankhead area near High Road and Wilson Avenue. After Word War I, the golf course was again relocated to its current site at the intersection of Glenmore Drive and Bernard Avenue in the Glenmore real estate neighbourhood. When it first opened, the course had sand greens, no irrigation system and no clubhouse. Today, it is an 18-hole, semi-private golf course that hosts provincial, national and international amateur golfing events. There are over 30 golf courses to play in the Kelowna area.
