Okanagan Valley - Elephant Island Winery Tree House - Any one k now of it?
 

We are heading for a 3 day escape to the Okanagan mid Sept. 2007. Trying to find good accomodations but not bed and breakfast. We've decided on the Penticton Area because of location, wineries, golf etc. Saw this very unique 'guesthouse'. Has anyone seen it, been to it? Can you help?

I have not heard of it but if you stay there, I hope you write a report.

I can only say that I would love the location. We stayed at the Sandy Beach resort just down the road and enjoyed the Naramata area very much. In fact, it's my favourite place in the Okanagan.

We heard the lunches at Lake Breeze winery next door were nice, but didn't try it. We did have a lovely lunch at Hillside Estate, closer to Penticton though.

April - when were you at Sandy Beach? We stayed there just this past May, and loved it, especially the sunsets overlooking Okanagan Lake.

Unfortunately Elephant Wineries was one of the places we didn't visit during our winery tour forays - just ran out of time. But all of the wineries in the Naramata benchland area looked new and very attractive, and we noticed that the new trend seems to be to add accommodation as well as several restaurants to wineries (Nk'Mip in Osoyoos comes to mind but there were others too, for example, Burrowing Owl).

I had to look it up. We were there in 2003 before the busy season and we stayed in the B&B part.

This was also before the disastrous canyon fires. Do you have any idea how the trails are in the Myra Canyon area?

Thanks April and Borealis- I appreciate it. We are just looking for something private and cozy and it seemed interesting - but there is not much info. on their website. How far was Penticton from where you stayed? Would you say this is a good location for golf, hiking and the wineries? As well, can you reccomend a good hike around that area (we are looking for something semi-challenging going vertical hoping for some good views at a summit).

How long did it take to drive to Penticton, Borealis? About 20 minutes or so?

I think it's a great location for hiking and wineries. I don't know about golf courses.

Click on the character map near the top of the page to bring up the PDF version and you will see that the Kettle Valley Railway trail is right up behind Naramata. There is also information about wineries on this site.
http://www.discovernaramata.com/maps.php

Maybe someone else will know where the semi-challenging hikes are - it's a hilly area. You could try Giant's Head across the lake in Summerland. We also stayed in Summerland, and actually my Dad lived there, but my husband I preferred Naramata.

Penticton and Naramata are joined together although it doesn't look like that on any map. You'll be driving past homes, vineyards, wineries etc. all along the way.

If I remember correctly the distance from downtown Penticton and the "center" of Naramata is about 16 km (10 miles), and yes, it took about 15 to 20 minutes to drive. It's a very pretty leisurely drive with views to Lake Okanagan over rows of grape vines.

Naramata isn't as much a town or village as a loosely connected settlement - we never did see much of a village "center" except near 3rd Street and Robinson Avenue, but even that - not much there.

One place we drove by on our various jaunts in and out of Naramata was Apple d'or (www.appledor.ca) - it looked lovely from the outside but I can't comment on the interior. Might be worth checking out as alternate accommodation??

For hiking, as April mentioned, your best bet is the Kettle Valley Railway Trail, but there's also Okanagan Maountain Park Lookout Trail, and a gorgeous lookout trail at Munson's Mountain.

In general there are a lot of golf courses in the Okanagan; even though we don't golf, we couldn't help but notice them!!

As for wineries - that was the purpose of our stay in May ;;) and we ran out of time to see even those few we had wanted to visit. The Naramata benchlands have many small wineries, other areas with wineries are Summerland and along the way to Oliver ("Wine Capital of Canada") and as far south as Osoyoos - all within fairly easy driving distance.

I would highly recommend the Visitor's Centre & Wine Info Centre (one very brightly painted building - you can't miss it!) in Penticton as a starting point for information - maps and descriptions of wineries, golf courses, restaurants, shopping etc etc.

Have fun!!