Penticton

Penticton => (The 'Peach City') is a beautiful spot in the south Okanagan nestled between two lakes: The 155km long Okanagan Lake to the north, and the smaller Skaha Lake to the south. Tourism in Penticton is largely seasonal. In the summer tourists double Penticton's population to 60,000, while in the winter you may be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people on the streets after dark. Penticton's two largest industries are tourism and the growing wine/fruit industry.

Get in

Most travellers will arrive in Penticton by automobile. Highway 97 is the major north-south route through the city. Travel times are about 4 hours from Vancouver, 8 hours from Calgary and 4 hours from Spokane. Penticton is a 50 minute drive south from Kelowna.

Penticton has a small airport => with domestic flights from Vancouver and Calgary. US/National flights will land in Kelowna, 60 kilometers to the north. International flights will land in Vancouver where either a change of flight or an alternate mode of transportation will be needed to make it to Penticton.

Greyhound operates coach service with connections from all other British Columbia cities.

Get around

Car

This is your best bet if you wish to visit the areas many wineries, which are generally out of town a ways. Car rentals:

Bus

BC Transit => operates a local bus service in Penticton with 4 regular routes and a night route. Service ends at 6:00pm for regular routes and 9:00pm for the night route. There is no service on Sundays except for the Lake-to-lake shuttle. The local transit is generally only used by the elderly locals and school children. Fares are $1.75 which includes a 90 minute transfer. Ask the operator, as they generally will not offer one.

Taxi

Penticton taxi service is reasonable, a lake-to-lake trip will be around $12. The city is served by 4 different cab companies, all of which operate 24 hours per day. You will generally need to phone for a taxi, although they do tend to arrive outside the bars at last call.

Foot and Bike

Penticton's compact size lends itself to biking or even just walking around. It will take about 15 minutes to bike from lake to lake, and just over an hour for the same journey on foot. There are walking/biking trails on both sides of the River Channel, and a painted bike lane on a major north-south corridor of the city.

Bike rentals:

See

Do

Outdoors

Perhaps the best thing to do in Penticton is to join the locals at the beach, and enjoy the blisteringly hot summer sun. Okanagan Beach follows pretty much the entirety of Lakeshore Drive on Okanagan Lake, and is generally the more family oriented beach. Skaha Beach to the south on Skaha Lake is where Penticton's younger crowd go to see and be seen. Sudbury Beach is also on Skaha Lake, located west of Skaha Beach on the south side of Highway 97 and the airport.

Golfers will find themselves at home, with four golf courses in the city limits, and several more just beyond:

There is also a family-friendly outdoor Mini Golf course (75 Riverside =>) just steps from the S.S. Sicamous.

Rock-climbers will want to check out the world-renowned Skaha Climbing Bluffs => just south of the city. Access is controlled, see => for maps and details.

Cyclists and hikers will want to visit the stunning Kettle Valley Trail which follows the old railway grade from Penticton through Naramata's bench wineries, and farther along, a system of tunnels and trestles leading all the way to Castlegar and beyond, some several hundreds of kilometers. Part of the Trans-Canada Trail => which bills itself as the longest recreational trail in the world.

Another traditional pastime in Penticton is floating down the River Channel, which is a small shallow river that flows south from Okanagan Lake to Skaha Lake. This leisurely trip takes from 3 to 5 hours depending on water levels in the channel. Be sure to bring sunscreen or you will burn up! Coyote Cruises (215 Riverside, +1 250 492-2115) operates a shuttle bus service to transport you back to the parking area on the north side of town. They also provide tube rentals if you don't have your own. Free, $10 for raft and transportation.

Festivals

Penticton is also a city of events and festivals. Indeed, in the summer there is rarely a time when there isn't some sort of festival going on. Dates and venues can change from year to year, check the websites for current information. A brief survey of the major festivals includes:

Boating, sailing and watersports

With two lakes ten minutes apart Penticton is a great place to bring you boat if you have one. While you cannot boat from lake to lake, they both have launches and marinas for fuel and supplies.

Winter

In winter, your best bet is to spend some time up at the local ski hill Apex_Alpine. Apex is about a 45 minute drive from town west on Green Mountain Road. You can also come cheer on the Penticton Vees BCHL hockey team, go for a skate or play some pick-up at the indoor McLaron Park Arena, or if the weather is cooperative, play a round of golf right through the year.

Buy

There is no shortage of stands along the beaches to sell tourists swimwear, sunglasses and other assorted knick-knacks. Main Street features a wide variety of shops and galleries, and Cherry Lane Mall has pretty much everything tourists and locals need for their day to day. Penticton also has a few big-block stores such as Walmart, Zellers, London Drugs, Staples, etc. These can all be found by driving along Main Street. If you reach the other lake, you've gone too far!

For the literary crowd, Penticton features the 5000 square foot Book Shop (242 Main Street, 492-6661 =>). This massive store stocks new, used and out of print/rare books on any conceivable topic, including a large section on local interest.

For traditional local gifts/souvenirs you can visit:

Eat

There are many places to eat in Penticton, servicing pretty much any taste or budget. In the summer you will do well to ensure reservations, or else you may have to wait until well after 10:00pm to get your dinner when restaurants start to slow down.

Highly recommended

Other sit-down options

For the less adventurous

Penticton also has all day breakfast chains: The Pantry, Dennys, and Rickys; large chain restaurants Boston Pizza, Earls, and Joeys Only; and every fast-food place you could ever want McDonalds x2, Burger King, Wendys, A&W, Subway x2, Taco Time, Quiznos Subs, Canada's favorite: Tim Hortons x4!

Local secret

For a delicious, quick, and inexpensive lunch try Il Vecchio delicatessan, 317 Robinson, +1 250 492-7610, where delightful old ladies will lovingly prepare you a fresh sandwich with your choice of bread and toppings. About $3-4 depending on how many toppings you want. Take-out only.

Drink

Legal drinking age in British Columbia is 19. The government store (Penticton Plaza, 1301 Main Street) sells beer, wine and spirits until 9:00pm. Cold beer and wine stores (6 in town) are open until 11:00pm, with modest selection of spirits. Nightclubs serve until 2:00am, but won't kick you out until 3:00am.

Pubs

One of the best places for a drink is the Barking Parrot bar and lounge in the Penticton Lakeside Resort (21 Lakeshore). Featuring one of the largest lakeside patios in the Okanagan and stunning views up Okanagan Lake, this is the only bar right on the lake in Penticton. Good selection of wine/beer/spirits, and also has a decent pub menu. Try a Bellini, a frozen drink to chase away the oppressive heat. Quite busy in the summer from 2:00 in the afternoon till Midnight, when people start heading for the nightclubs. Plays top 40 music with the occasional live show.

Other good bets are:

Nightclubs

There are only three in town and they are all pretty much the same. Loud top-40 music and the occasional live show. Covers are reasonable: $2-$7, more if there is a special event. Smoking is prohibited in all bars, but the three nightclubs have separate smoking rooms. The clubs start to get busy between 11:00PM-midnight in the summer. You may want to show up early to avoid the queue. If one is empty, try another, as all three are within walking distance of each other, and business generally depends on the nightly drink special. This doesn't apply as much in the summer when all three are generally packed. At 2:30am hundreds of drunken revelers pour out into the streets, causing a large police presence to keep the peace. Do not taunt the police unless you want to spend a night in the drunk tank! (Hint: you don't).

Local Secret

Sleep

As with restaurants, the amount of accommodations available in Penticton is huge compared to the size of the city. Still, Penticton is hugely popular in the summer, and the area hotels can and will be fully booked, especially on long weekends. Prices listed here are high season, as this is when most visitors come. Low and shoulder season rates may be drastically lower depending on the facility. The listings here are but a mere smattering of what's available.

Campgrounds

There are a few campgrounds right in town for RVs and tenters.

Bed and Breakfast

Motels/Hotels

Get out

This text of this article is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0. It has been slightly modified to fit the general design of this website. The authors of this document are Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel, Darren Kirby, Evan Prodromou, Johny Canal and the following WikiTravel users: Cjensen, Maj, Ravikiran_r, Xltel, Jpatokal. The original version of this article can be seen at http://wikitravel.org/en/Penticton.