A guide for all seasons

One thing I always love about the new year is taking some time to make household improvements. It can be as small as rearranging your pantry or a cupboard. It can even involve thinking about how to improve the experiences of your guests in your home and making your guest room as well organized as possible to optimize their comfort. You might want to stock the room with some useful items like a city map, attractions brochures, and the new 2014 Official Kelowna and Area Visitors’ Guide – a brochure that will remain relevant for guests coming during any season of the year.

(Photo: Courtesy of Tourism Kelowna)

Cover of the 2014 Official Kelowna and Area Visitors’ Guide

The guide is free (courtesy of Tourism Kelowna) and it includes a city map, attractions listings, and even an annual events calendar. It’s a fantastic secret weapon for anyone who might have friends and relatives coming to visit.

It's a handy piece to keep in your guest room so that guests who come visit you will be able to leaf through it and plan their stay. There are different sections in the guide to appeal to various tastes including Arts & Entertainment, Wine, Heritage, Golf, Dining, Activities and Attractions, and others. The sections start out with a brief introduction that identifies the top attractions and activities to be had in each section. Each section ends with a listing of the various attractions, golf courses, wineries, restaurants, and accommodations available in Kelowna and the Central Okanagan.

Tourism Kelowna has been producing the Visitors' Guide for 25 years. It remains Tourism Kelowna's primary tool when we receive visitor queries on Kelowna - in other words this guide is handed over with a smile at the Visitor Centres of 544 Harvey Ave and the airport Info Kiosk, when visitors stop by and ask for information. It is mailed out to visitors who call or email Tourism Kelowna, asking for information on the destination to plan out their vacations. There's even an electronic version of it online, posted on Tourism Kelowna's website, to help visitors in their trip planning.

What kinds of information can you find in its pages? The Guide will tell you about the intriguing experiences of many of our wineries and five wine trails; it provides you with a snap-shot of the golf courses in the Kelowna area, ranging from forgiving to ego-shattering. It gives a host of great winter activities that are available in the area for visitors who come our way during the colder months. It lists area beaches, farms, orchards, and even apiaries. At the front, community descriptions are given for each of our Central Okanagan communities: Kelowna, Lake Country, West Kelowna, and Westbank First Nation.

If you want to stock your home with this guide, you can stop by at the Visitor Centre at 544 Harvey Ave and pick one up – they are hot off the press and available immediately.

We at Tourism Kelowna hope that your guests will enjoy their time in Kelowna while visiting the innumerable attractions this city has to offer. When your guests return to your home in the evenings, full of tales of their day's adventure, the interesting people they met along the way, the unique products they picked up to remind them of their adventures, and an album's worth of pictures, you will know that your home has played an important role in feeding your friends' soul and nurturing their minds. That is the most precious gift any host can give, and the best part is, it gives back to you in the form of energy, satisfaction, pride in your city, and curiosity for the gems around you. Who would have ever though that a little free guide could be the source of all that.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.