Welcome back to our ongoing look at the very best Penticton and area has to offer, as chosen by you, our readers, and presented by our friends at Visit Penticton.
Today, it's all about the kids. Penticton and the area is loaded with grown-up attractions like wineries, breweries, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, upscale restaurants, and so much more. But you’d think a town wedged between two lakes and blessed with glorious weather would have plenty to entice the kiddies too.
And you’d be right.
One of the contenders this year was Wibit Waterpark, the humungous floating playground just offshore of Okanagan Lake Beach. Another was Busy Beans Play Café indoor play space.
Also making its mark, in its first year of existence, was the "Hahaha Kidzfest" festival, held in June in Gyro Park. It'll be back in 2023 too.
But there were three attractions that ultimately rose about the rest to grab our coveted bronze, silver and gold positions. They follow, below.
Bronze: Skaha Beach
Skaha Beach, on the southern shore of Penticton, is held in pretty high regard by locals because it offers all the sand, all the sun and all the warm water of Okanagan Lake Beach on the north end of town, only with better parking and a slightly less crowded ambience.
The beach itself, at the northern edge of Skaha Lake, is a little more than a kilometer in length and made up almost entirely of sand. The water remains shallow several meters past the shoreline and is exceedingly calm, ensuring a great swimming and wading experience even for the little ones.
It’s also home to the Peach Festival Sandcastle Competition in August and the celebrated "Penticton Dragon Boat Races" in September.
Adjacent is Skaha Lake Park, with amenities like picnic areas, volleyball and basketball courts, a beach-front promenade, a playground and concession stands.It's a beach with everything.
Silver: Meeples and Milkshakes Board Game Café
In 2020, the Penticton restaurant scene was really starting to ramp up. In fact, an exciting new food and drink district had formed, quite organically, just a couple blocks west of City Hall.
And into the midst of this new district came an entirely original concept for the South Okanagan-- a café where you could sit and chat and sip on a drink and nibble on food while playing the hottest new board games.
Today, "Meeples and Milkshakes Board Game Café" is a comfy, active hub for board game aficionados from all over, who can enjoy a menu that ranges from healthy fare to baked goods to awesome milkshakes while they play or simply drop by with mom or dad to purchase or order the latest title for home play.
Gold: LocoLanding Adventure Park
We figured coming into our 2022 roundup that LocoLanding Adventure Park, the spectacular and spectacularly huge kids play centre ideally situated between Penticton Channel and Okanagan Lake Beach, would rate highly.
It is, after all, one of the busiest spots in the region during its May to September window of operation. And a lot of those customers are leaving with smiles plastered on their faces.
But to capture gold medals in both our "Best Tourist Attraction Inside City Limits" and our & "Best Kids Attraction" is pretty darned impressive. What can kids do at LocoLanding? More appropriately, what can’t they do?
They can drive a go-kart, with or without a parent on board. They can navigate the &"high level ropes course" where they'll walk tightropes and so much more high above the ground below.
They can bounce like crazy in the enormous inflatable park called "Badlands" they can climb walls, they can pilot bumper boats, they can jump 18 feet into the sky at "Monkey Motion" and they can even play a game of mini golf.
Got a few hours or even a whole day? Got a kid who needs entertaining? According to our readers, you can’t do much better than LocoLanding.
Click here to see the runners up.
