Travel idea: 7 reasons to visit Kelowna, B.C.

2. Wine-country pampering for mom
Spa-loving moms (dads, too) will bliss out during Beyond Wrapture Mind & Body Care Day Spa & Retreat’s vinotherapy treatment. This 75-minute body blitz includes a penetrating massage using shea butter and grapeseed oil, blended with your choice of red or white wine. Smells lovely, feels exquisite, and it boasts skin-pampering antioxidant properties, too.

Beyond Wrapture is a six-location Okanagan spa chain owned by local Debra Pender. Set on or near some of the valley’s top resorts, Pender’s spas were among the first to herald the region’s rebirth as a luxury wine-golf-and-spa destination.

3. Resorts “old” and “new”
If you’re travelling with kids, check out two very different, but equally appealing family resorts on opposite sides of 82-mile-long Okanagan Lake. The Manteo Resort Hotel & Villas (one-bedroom suite from $185 per night, www.manteo.com) offers swish suites and villas close to Kelowna’s downtown cultural district. It’s also a short drive away from a bunch of championship-quality golf courses and estate wineries, making it the choice for discerning travellers looking for a “new Kelowna” experience.

The resort’s dockside restaurant (the mild weather makes for an extended alfresco dining season) offers top-notch regional cuisine and attentive service, as well as unexpected visitors like foraging geese.

Lake Okanagan Resort (one-bedroom suites from $199 per night, www.lakeokanagan.com), farther afield on 300 acres of the mountain side of the lake (known as Westbank), offers a more old-school Kelowna experience, with outdoorsy pursuits like horseback riding, and miles and miles of hiking trails.

The restaurant’s food is unambitious but kid-pleasing, and the hot tub and pool offer panoramic views of the city. Concessions to the region’s luxury pursuits include an on-site Beyond Wrapture spa and 9-hole golf course.

Parked the kids with grandma and grandpa? Book yourself into one of the beach house-chic rooms in the new Eldorado Arms wing of the otherwise circa-1926 Hotel Eldorado (from $149 per night, www.eldoradokelowna.com). An onsite marina, wine store and spa cater to your every recreational need. The romantic Lakeside Dining Room has a casual-luxe coastal vibe and the best menu this side of paradise.

4. Kelowna Land & Orchard
Forget the cookie-cutter apple orchards you’re used to hitting back home. KLO elevates the orchard to foodie haven. Kelowna Land & Orchard (www.k-l-o.com) is the 150-acre home to award-winning Raven Ridge Cidery and ab-fab gourmet restaurant, The Ridge.

Founded in 1904 and owned by the Bullock family since 1942, the orchard produces a whopping four million pounds of fruit annually, yet its beauty and charm make one compelled to label it almost a “boutique orchard” –  if such a thing could exist. (If it could, it would exist in Kelowna, though.)

Go there for the awesome hilltop view, to feed the free-roaming goats and to observe beautifully hued bantam chickens and roosters cavorting among the rows of apple trees. Sample the ice-wine-style cider made from the nectar of frozen apples, and we guarantee you’ll be buying a case to tote home with you.

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