Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
Do you mean free tastings? Most big wineries have a tasting fee that is waived if you buy wine.
Also, depending on the server, they will waive the fee if you stay and chat for a while.
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Summerhill used to (not sure if they still do) free tastings of everything but the ice wines. Their sparkling wines are really good. The wines are also of course excellent, I'd recommend the foch, but I like dry red wines more than anything else. The tours there were free last time we went, but I am not really into that hokey pyramid power stuff, but a lot of people eat that stuff up.
House of Rose also does free tastings, but really its a small winery and not much to tour. The prices can't be beat though for a case of wine.
Not too far from there there are the lavender gardens. Smells nice, but wouldn't go out of my way to visit unless you were doing something else around east kelowna.
When I was younger we also used to take an air mattress down Mission Creek.. you end up at the Eldorado Hotel at the end, and their restaurant is quite good.
Other things - Memphis Blues, which is like Big T's here, in fact the menus are very similar.
Lots of hikes that are fun.. Paul's Tomb (if you bring goggles or a mask you can see the old Ogopogo statue from city park that was sunk there). You can bike or hike up to the top of Knox Mtn for some good views, Bertram Park is a nice picnic area with some hiking around Okanagan Mtn (also close to the Summerhill winery) and on the way there are some u-pick cherry orchards which everybody in my family loves to do when we go back to visit.. except the ladders are hella scary that they provide.. If you bring a bike, the ride from downtown Kelowna to Bertram Park is good (and you pass a very small nude beach).
And yeah, the Willow is gone.. there are some new places but I think they've closed as well (Cheetahs?)
There is also a really good restaurant downtown on Bernard that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches. Forget the name though.