Deep in the heart of the Okanagan Valley lies a quaint little city surrounded by shores of fresh water. Kelowna is a great place for family vacations, road trips, wine tours, fruit tasting, water sports and excellent dining.

The city has picked itself up and rebuilt completely since the 2003 wild fires that destroyed thousands of homes and cost the city billions in reconstruction efforts.

For years, only one major highway passed through the city of Kelowna: Highway 97. The road itself is good, but its connections to all points east and west in the province were only managed by using the slow, curving Trans Canada Highway and the Crowsnest Highway.

As the Okanagan Valley is a popular getaway for residents in Vancouver, a new freeway was built into the BC interior in 1986, eliminates over two hours of travel time between the two major destinations. This freeway, starting in Hope, is known as the Coquihalla Highway (Hwy 5), and terminates in Kamloops. A spur route (The Okanagan Connector, or Hwy 97C) was later added in 1989; it connects in Merritt, and heads eastward to Peachland, about twenty minutes south of Kelowna.

This new freeway system makes the drive from Vancouver to Kelowna just under four hours, at 425 km in distance.

Kelowna has an International Airport north of the downtown core, with regular flights to and from Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Seattle, as well as seasonal service to Mexico.

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