Unique yurt resort now open

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer - Penticton Correspondent

Max Picton at the Barefoot Beach Resort

Where there was once lots of dirt, there are now many yurts.

The Barefoot Beach Resort on the south end of Penticton, officially opened on Friday morning. By late afternoon, people were making reservations in the office, sitting in the restaurant or walking to the beach with towels around their necks.

"It has been a little rushed. This was a full work site up until this morning," said developer Max Picton. "But the guests have been rolling in all day, the campsites are filling up and the yurt village is entirely booked out for the long weekend."

The resort across the street from Skaha  Lake Beach, offers 11 rental yurts, three other yurts, used for an office, caretaker suite and beach front coffee shop, and 130 campsites, with 82 now operational.

The Barefoot Beach House Restaurant is now open and the Sandy Feet Cafe will open in the near future. Other amenities are an ice cream shop, a Covert Farms organic market and a retail shop in the Barefoot Marketplace.

They too will open soon, and Picton is seeking another tenant,  a general store, for the marketplace.

On the the stretch of beach in front of the resort, affectionately named Barefoot Beach, they will offer Big Dakez Rental Hut, with eco friendly watercraft rental, and the Banana Cabana Juice Bar.

Down the road, a full build out will include 91 yurts in all.

Picton and fellow developer Ben Lindsay began the project about a year and a half ago, af