Winery's and Farms

The Okanagan is a great area to visit BC wineries and farms that produce a variety of different products from fresh fruit, lavender, honey, goats milk gelato and cheese. In the summer the variety of fresh fruit is fantastic.

Mission Hills Winery

Mission Hills is one of the larger, well established winery's in the area.  There are also a lot of smaller family wineries that do not export out of British Columbia.

Quails Gate Winery View from Patio

Quails Gate Winery is open year round for dinner. We had an exceptional meal. The menu is limited but the quality is outstanding. The wine is also exceptional but don't expect to pay top dollar for the meal.

Okanagan Lake from Penticton

Driving south from West Kelowna along Okanagan Lake there are numerous wine growing areas to explore. Check out Peachland, Summerland, Penticton. A little farther is Naramata Bench, Okanagan Falls,Oliver, and Osoyoos. Venturing north of Kelowna you can visit wineries in Lake County. If you are visiting in April check to make sure that the winery you want to visit is open.  Many of the smaller wineries have limited hours in the winter and spring.

Most wineries charger a small fee to taste a flight of wine (four or five samples). Before tasting check to see that the wines they are offering for tasting is what you are interested in trying.  All the wineries we visited did not charge for the tasting if you purchased a wine. Some wines are only sold at the winery so be sure to check if you want to purchase the wine once you arrive home. I noticed that very few of the wineries we visited offered crackers to clear you mouth between wines.

There are also lots of tour companies willing to take you to a variety of wineries.  This is a great choice if you do not want to drive after sampling. I fined that to truly enjoy a tasting I can really only visit one or two wineries in a day.

During our visit we also went to Carnelis Goat Cheese farm to taste the gelato made from fresh goats milk.  They also had a variety of cheeses make from goats milk. There were lots of samples available. If you choose to take a container of gelato away remember to consider the temperature before you get your product home, you may need to have a cooler.


We also went to Vernon to visit Plant Bee Honey Farm and Meadery. This was a great experience as they have a glass beehive so that you could see the bees working and even spot the queen bee.  There are a variety of samples and if you are old enough you can also taste the mead which is a wine made from honey.

What ever you are looking to do there is a great variety in the Okanagan Valley.

Kelowna British Columbia Road Trip

The Trans Canada Highway

So we decided to drive to Kelowna BC from Edmonton.  We needed a break and we have not been to the Okanagan Valley for a long time. April is not always the best time to be driving as the weather can be unpredictable and we certainly experienced a variety of conditions during our drive.  We left Edmonton in a snow storm but it was clear once we reached Ponka and the rest of the drive to Banff was great.

Lac Des Arc Lake

We stayed in Banff overnight and had an opportunity to walk around town and drive to Vermillion Lakes. We decided that a stop in Banff would break up the drive. It would have been better to drive a little farther so that the second days drive would not been as long.

Vermillion Lakes Banff with Tunnel Mountain

Kicking Horse rest stop was a great place to take a comfort break. Specially after driving through the pass with snow, sleet and rain.

Rogers Pass was also lots of snow with very few places to have a rest stop so plan ahead if you are driving in the winter. Once in B.C, the road is two lanes. There are frequent passing lanes along the way but the trucks and trailers do hold the traffic up. The time zone changes at the Rogers Pass so don't forget to set you watches back one hour from Alberta time.

Before reaching Field British Columbia be sure to stop and look at the Spiral Tunnels. The trains make their way through the tunnels  are a gradual climb or descent to get over the Continental Divide. The stop was full of snow in April so we did not stop this time.

Round House 

Once you get to Sicamous you know that the weather is changing as the fruit stands start to appear. April is not the time to be shopping for fresh fruit here.

Mara Lake Rest Stop

On Mara Lake there are lots of house boats for rent. This rest stop allows for a quick break before we continue our drive.

After our seven hour drive we were ready to check into our resort. We had a condo booked at the Manteo Resort on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna.



Check out the detailed descriptions of our hiking, touring and wine tasting while in Kelowna.

Sunset from our patio on Lake Okanagan

To complete the circuit we decided to go home a different route by traveling through B.C. to Jasper, Alberta on the Yellowhead Trail. The total trip with driving around Kelowna and down to Ossoyos was about 2500 km.