Kelowna which is set in the heart of the Okanagan Valley has some of the finest wineries hidden in the mountains, the beautifully crystal-clear Okanagan Lake, a great sandy beach to great green golf courses.
Our top 10 favorite things to do:
1) Floating down the Penticton Canal
2) Cliff Jumping
3) Boating & Tubing in Okanagan Lake
4) Watersliding
5) Touring the biking/hiking trails
6) Fishing
7) Golfing
8) Scenic-breathtaking views
9) Sunning & Swimming on Kelowna Beach
10) Searching for Ogopogo
Grab a floaty or as we do an air mattress with a cooler full of beverages and head on down to Penticton for the day and spending the afternoon floating down the Penticton Canal. Lay back and relax, take a dip to cool off and for the more adventurous types bring your snorkel gear. The river channel is about 7km long with a halfway point rest stop. Depending on the day/time of year that you go the water levels and river speed is always changing. It usually takes about an hour and a half to the halfway point and to do the entire 7km it is about a 3-4 hour relaxing ride.
The Okanagan Lake is over 130km long stretching from Vernon on the north, Penticton on the south, Kelowna in the centre, as well as a few smaller towns. The Okanagan Lake is also home to the cryptid lake monster - a giant serpent-like creature known as Ogopogo.
Taking a boat out on the crystal clear lake (you can rent speed boats, fishing boats and even houseboats) we like doing a day of searching for Ogopogo all the while tubing, swimming, cliff jumping and just touring some of the peaceful inlets of the lake to have a nice picnic. Note: when cliff jumping please remove all expensive accessories, yes boys this does mean your sunglasses (which of course make you look so much more attractable to all the young beach babes while you are strutting your stuff up the cliffs, but forgetting to take those babe magnet shades off before jumping off that sharp rigid cliff does and will result in them sinking to the bottom of the lake, but wait let's spend an hour 'searching the area' for them just in case they just floated off! Boys will be boys!
Just outside of Vernon is a great family water park - Atlantis Waterslides. This outdoor water park is the perfect place to spend a hot day in the Okanagan sun, with kiddie slides for the kidlets to the River Riot tube slide for the adults, there are 10 slides, a giant hot tub pool, lots of sunny areas with picnic tables, mini golf! Let the fun begin!
Unfortunately in my fun and wild adventures to the Okanagan so far I have not yet had the opportunity to tour any of the fabulous wineries I have heard so much about. Although, I have sampled many of the Okanagan wines and my next trip I will definitely be touring some of the wineries. Cheers!
