Kelowna, meaning “Grizzly Bear” in the native Salish tongue, is one of Canada’s most popular summer vacation spots. With a population of over 100,000 people, Kelowna is the largest city in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley (in the south central region of BC). Easily accessible by car, bus and air, Kelowna is only 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the United States border and 395 kilometers (247 miles) east of Vancouver. Kelowna’s airport is now the 11th busiest in Canada with approximately 35 scheduled flights a day; it’s also one of the fastest growing in North America.

Kelowna is well known for it’s hot summers and temperate winters. The average daytime high during summer is 30 degrees Celsius (85 F) and the average daytime high during winter is -0.3 degrees Celsius (32 F). Okanagan Lake is 110 kilometers (70 miles) long and 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide. Okanagan Lake Bridge, built in 1958, is the only floating bridge in Canada and is the longest floating bridge in North America with a floating section of over 600 meters (2000 feet).

Each year on Okanagan Lake, sightings are reported of a creature some 20 to 50 feet long, with a horse shaped head and an undulating serpent like body! Ogopogo, Okanagan Lake’s famous “Monster of the Lake”, is now almost as well-known as Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster and both have drawn comparisons to the prehistoric Plesiosaurs. The legendary Ogopogo has been spotted several hundred times over the past century but considerable controversy rages concerning the reliability of these sightings, although believers and non-believers are equally divided. Many of the reports and photographs have been from reputable and serious individuals thus lending credence to the lake monster, which has intrigued people from around the world for decades. Contrary to popular belief, it’s name is not one given by the natives. The area’s first white settlers called it the Ogopogo after a song that went “His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale, a little bit of head and hardly any tail...and Ogopogo was his name.”

Prospera Place, a 6,000-seat multi-purpose facility that’s home to the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League, attracts major entertainers and events to the heart of Kelowna’s cultural district. The new Rotary Centre for the Arts is a significant feature of the district, which was named a Cultural Capital of Canada in 2003. Waterfront Park is a showcase of the downtown area with lagoons, an outdoor amphitheatre and a wooden boardwalk that links Tugboat Beach and the residential area to the north with the Grand Okanagan Resort & Casino and downtown Kelowna.

Come and discover Kelowna, where spectacular vacations await all visitors to the sunny Okanagan!