A Long Weekend in Kelowna, British Columbia - Kelowna to Osoyoos: Wine Country, Lakeside Strolls & the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre
This week on the Winging It Travel Podcast, I’m sharing a relaxing but adventure-packed Easter weekend getaway in Kelowna and Osoyoos, located in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. If you’re dreaming about a scenic road trip filled with vineyard views, coffee shop gems, and meaningful cultural experiences, this episode is for you.
We based ourselves in downtown Kelowna, staying at the centrally located Royal Anne Hotel, and explored everything from lakeside trails to vibrant cafes and local eateries. Then we hit the road to visit Vernon, the desert-like town of Osoyoos, and the powerful and educational Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, where I share my honest reflections about Canada’s colonial history and the importance of Indigenous learning spaces.
From sipping wine at Frind Winery next to the beach, to an epic brunch at Eatology, to sipping third-wave espresso at Slow Side Coffee, this weekend was the perfect mix of downtime and discovery. I also dive into travel costs, local transport tips, and why Kelowna might just be your next affordable getaway from Vancouver.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
If you’re considering a short break within BC, this episode shows why Kelowna and Osoyoos offer the perfect mix of relaxation, culture, and natural beauty. I’ll also touch on how this trip made me reconsider future moves—Kelowna might just be a contender!
Here is my episode on our time in Penticton and Nelson when on our road trip in 2023 - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/winging-it-podcast/id1559489384?i=1000622426622
https://open.spotify.com/episode/25S9EOPiUSljD2KJuYMbvs?si=KuXDBWWBTp-fdDnprr7Ldw
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to the Winging It Travel Podcast
00:30 Exploring Kelowna: A Weekend Getaway
01:55 Adventures in Kelowna: Food and Coffee Stops
05:44 Day Trips: Vernon and Asoyus Highlights
09:33 Cultural Insights: Inka Meep Desert Cultural Center
10:58 Reflections on Kelowna and Future Travels
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Cheers, James.
Do you love spontaneous adventures, travel tips and stories that will inspire you to pack up and go? Well, welcome to the Wigging It Travel Podcast. I'm James, your host, and each week I bring you travel tales, practical advice and interviews with travelers from around the globe. Whether you're planning a big trip or just dreaming about one, you'll find everything from hidden gems to epic fails because travel is not perfect and that is what makes it beautiful. So grab your backpack and let's wing it.
New episodes every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts, and on YouTube too. You can find Winging It and more fantastic travel podcasts from around the world at voyerscape.com. The link is in the show notes. Let's go and explore the world. Hello and welcome to this week's episode. And today I'm sharing our weekend in Kelowna, as we went there for the Easter long weekend. And normally I do a...
guest episode after a solo episode, but I need to shift a few people around. So today I'm going to get this one out because it's actually six weeks old already that trip. So when I get it out there before I forget, Kelowna is a place we've never been to. We've been to the Okanagan region in BC for the road trip. We went to Penticton, but never really checked out a Soyuz, Vernon, of course the main city of Kelowna. So that was the aim of the trip. And I think for some context for you,
It's about four hours east of Vancouver if you drive and it's a 40 minute flight from Vancouver, which we did and got a car out. And it sits on the eastern shore of the Okanagan Lake and is surrounded by rolling hills, vineyards and orchards. It's a pretty idyllic place. Also known to be one of the warmest places in Canada as well. We went there for an Easter weekend because the flights were super cheap. From Vancouver, we got a really late flight out. I think it's about 10 PM and it was delayed by an hour, hour and a half, I think, at that point.
but it was only $30 and we'd done the personal item only, which actually is annoying, but it's still a backpack. So you can pack a nice little backpack up and put it by your feet. Cost of the return was $100 and we had four nights there at the Royal Anne Hotel. We normally go cheap, but for this one, it's a little bit of a treat and wantin' something nice. The Royal Anne Hotel cost $700 Canadian dollars all in for four nights. And with that, you get breakfast and you get parking, sort of, around the hotel. That is first come first serve though.
and it's right bang in the center of Kelowna in the heart of the city by the waterfront as well. And to aid with our trip, we got a rental car for two days from the airport and we're gonna explore the local area. First full day is gonna be Kelowna in the city and the second two days are out on the road. Price of the rental car from the airport, there's loads of options, was $45 and I think I had that in points, so effectively free. And I think you can probably get it for that price most of the year. Plenty of options.
Quiet airport, easy to get there and back. The Uber, if you're in downtown, is probably around $35 to $40 to get there though, to bear that in mind. And to save money, we timed it, so when we dropped the car off, that was when our flight back was. We finally arrived late on the Thursday night before Easter Friday, and obviously it's just checking in and getting straight to sleep. After breakfast, we walked down to the lake, very peaceful, lots of early risers going about their walks, really mild, lots of fresh air about, felt super fresh.
incredible scenery down there and we followed the Okanagan Rail Trail all the way around to Tugboat Beach. Wonderful wildlife as well down there, great birds and great to see the views of the lake as far as the eye could see. But all I remember from this morning was it's super blue, just blue water, fresh, no winds, very mild and it's almost like summer had arrived. So we aim to walk that trail and that basically takes us around the city. But obviously
there's a slight plan. So walk around the city, visit some great cafes, have some great coffee and eat good food. First stop was Slow Side Coffee, which serves coffee from 10 Wendelbo. He's a premium roaster based in Norway, so they ship it in from there. His coffee is unbelievable. Loved it. Very busy, very popular. This coffee shop that we're in is a very third wave type establishment, but I loved it.
So as I said, this was Easter weekend and we struggled to find anywhere for a late lunch after looking for some yarn stores for Emma's content. However, we did find a little bit of a gem. We found Yellow Star Snack House and it's Vietnamese family run and they serve Vietnamese food. So we had a banh mi and got to speak to the owner about Vietnam, which is really cool. Reminisce about some trips there. We talked about some mutual places. So please check her out. That's worth it for a great lunch. At this point, we followed the trail all the way around actually the city and we're walking a very significant amount of steps.
So I needed a coffee stop at Pulp Fiction Coffee House. That's right in downtown by the hotel. And yes, if you're a fan of the film, it's definitely worth checking out. Just full of Pulp Fiction memorabilia. Pulp Fiction cups, Pulp Fiction coffee, photos, all the sayings. I've seen that film once. People rave about it. It's one of the most overrated films there is. Doesn't mean it's bad. I actually think it's quite a good film, but people bang on about it so much.
But yeah, the coffee was great as well. We had a lovely evening walk along the lake, which was a tad chilly as the wind came in, but a great sunset. And it's jam packed with a lot of people. And for the evening restaurant, we booked Casa de Frida for dinner. This is an authentic Mexican restaurant run by a Mexican family. And the lady there made me a mole sauce with my enchiladas and that tasted so good, unreal. And it has a lovely homely feel because the restaurant is actually located in a house.
In the summer it's got lot of seating outside so think it'd be pretty cool when it's warmer weather to have some Mexican food and some cocktails or drinks. That'd be pretty cool as well there. Next morning we headed to the airport to pick up the hire car and drove to Vernon and the first impressions of Vernon weren't great. Very run down, not much going on. But we do have three highlights from there. Emma managed to find a cool yarn store in the middle of this random road in this estate, pretty random. Second of all we had a great coffee at Triumph Coffee. That was pretty decent. And...
This was one of the best brunches of the year. We went to Eatology, sensational. You do probably have to go there and put your name down. There's gonna be bit of a queue, but it is worth it, my word, especially if you're vegetarian or vegan. We did want a bit of nature, so we hopped in the car and drove to Rattlesnake Point for a great lookout point over Calamalca Lake. It's an easy trail, not too hilly and not too tricky for terrain. You can get right to the top, great views there. And the weather was starting to get sunny, so we headed to Freend.
or Frined, I don't know how pronounce that, F-R-I-N-D, to do a wine tasting. It was $10 for five wines, I believe. And this place is relatively new, like last three or four years. And they claim to be the only beachfront winery. And it boasts an unreal setting with the beach, grassy area, and the little pier that goes out to the water. It is pretty dreamy, to be fair. I think they call themselves the Amazon as well, of the vineyards, because they do free shipping for their wine. Emma...
actually signed up because the wine tasted pretty good. I don't drink wine. I wouldn't appreciate it. But I was there to watch Emma drink wine. You do have the option to have dinner there, but it's gonna get pretty busy. And they do say that members get priority. So sign up if you're in the local area. So you can book that evening meal because I think in the summer, no chance. For our evening meal, it's Dawet Fine Indian Cuisine. Pop that in Google. Great curry, great vibes. So we do love a road trip. So next day we're out again.
a bit early on a drive to Asoyus, which is right by the border of the US. And we haven't really seen this place yet. We drove through it on the road trip up the Crows Nest Highway on the way across Canada. Pretty amazing when we think about it. And we saw the lookout point where we stopped. It winds up to look out point over Asoyus. But this time we're going to stop in town. So we stopped at Junction 3 Coffee House. This would have been on Easter Sunday, actually. So not much going on.
But that's a great spot for sipping coffee outside, great weather with parking nearby. Again, I saw you specifically, I think is one of the hottest places in Canada and one of the driest all year round. And it has a great walk along the lake. And we went along the lake, across the road, across the bridge, back onto the second part of the lake. I guess the feel I get here is it's a much older crowd, probably a retirement place, some golf courses, vineyards and all that. We did see some conservative election volunteers out and about. So I guess that's a spot for there.
I can't imagine there's too much diversity going on there. But saying that, we did manage to go and do a super cool activity. We drove up the road to Inka Meep Desert Cultural Center. This is a First Nations learning center and it has trails outside up the hills and a great learning center to learn about the Inka Meep. Now, you've got to learn the history about this because, especially as a Brit, it's a pretty uncomfortable conversation based on what some of the ancestors got up to over here.
but you have to do it and it's important for school children as well. So the learning center shows you some films. You can learn some of the language, hear some the stories, and then you go out onto the trails as you walk up to learn about how they live. And obviously you're gonna hear some history about the First Nations in the area, and it's quite a big area. It does sprawl out into the US and up the Okanagan region. And for adults, it costs $18, and for family, it's $42.
which covers two parents and any number of children. It was very popular with families on this day, which I love to see because you do need to teach your kids this stuff. I love learning about the history and how shit the colonizers were in that area, but hey, what's new, but it's always important to keep learning. Some people don't want to, and we all know who those guys are. So the rain came back a little bit. We got up to the trails, walked around, got back in the car and drove back up to Penticton.
Weirdly, I always want to go back to Penticton because on our road trip, it was super sunny, idyllic, great vibe, lots of cafes and people milling about. On this day, it was rainy, dreary, and no one was there. It was like Easter Sunday. So a bit of a different vibe this time, and we didn't really feel it. So we did go to Penticton, went to a cafe, had lunch, then popped straight back in the car, back up to Kelowna. And when we got back to Kelowna, we had dinner at a local brewery, and it's called BNA Brewing. They have great beer.
as you would imagine. But next door they have a tasting kitchen, but you can sit in the brewing spot and order from the menu. Just ask your server. Great burger, must admit. That was it for our trip before coffee at Bright Jenny's the next morning, before taking our car back to the airport and catching a flight back to Vancouver. It was just a very relaxing weekend. We had four days there and we just wanted to check out the place, not do anything too wild, but just get a feel for it. And I must say Colona, I do really like it. It's...
Also a slight option if I was to ever move from Vancouver in BC I never thought I'd say that but the location on the lake just makes it pretty idyllic So you've got the water you've got the good weather the wineries near you and you're not too far from a big city If you go six hours the other way you get to Calgary So it's kind of halfway between Vancouver and Calgary So you're kind of near the Rockies a little bit if you want to know more about what we did in Penticton I do have an episode about that on a road trip. It's called
the Canada Road trip days 10 to 15. So Penticton, Nelson and Two Jacks Lake. To finalise, Canada is not cheap to travel locally, but the Okanagan area is a dream location with not too bad prices. The hotel price can be cheaper if you don't stay in downtown. If you get a car out which is super cheap, you've got plenty more options. I can imagine there's some pretty decent locations around the lake. So it's great weather, very blue lake views, loads of vineyards to choose from to do some tasting.
And if you're looking for an area near Vancouver for weekend Kelowna, it's definitely worth the shout and we will definitely be going back. So thanks for tuning in. That's the Okanagan region done for us, think. Osoyous, Penticton, Kelowna. There's other places around there, but they're the three main hubs. We've driven it. We've been there. So next time on our Canadian weekend away, I think we're probably going to dip into some parts of Alberta. I think Edmonton is on our list. But before that, definitely on our list is Tofino. So watch out.
for that solo episode. I'll catch you then. Thanks for tuning in. Cheers. Bye. ⁓
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