HotelTonight – Penticton Hotels
When you drive through British Columbia in an eastward direction, you start along a coast that's home to a classic Pacific Northwest climate. The landscape is green, the moisture is plentiful and the temperatures are relatively moderate. As you keep driving, you find yourself in a completely different climate, where it snows quite a bit in the winter. It's very warm in the summer, and you're basically in a desert. I would never have expected that before I traveled there for the first time, but it's just one of the reasons that I've always gotten excited when I traveled to BC for work. On my last trip, I was headed from Vancouver to Calgary, Alberta, for meetings when I got an email that told me that those meetings were canceled. I had 24 hours to myself, and I immediately knew how I was going to make use of them. I wanted to explore that middle part of British Columbia, known as "The Interior" to locals. I wanted to spend time in Penticton. I wasn't concerned about finding a place to stay, as I travel with HotelTonight. It would find me a Penticton hotel room in seconds.
The Ongoing Change
I got out of my car in downtown Penticton and stopped in at a coffee shop to give myself a boost. I started talking to a lady who lives there, and she mentioned that things were changing there in a relatively quick manner. For years, Penticton was a summer resort town that was much smaller in the winter. In recent years and with the rising real estate costs in places like Vancouver, Penticton was growing and becoming more of a permanent home for families. It's still small – only about 33,000 people live there – but it's evolving.
Downtown
As I walked around downtown, I could see that this was clearly a city that was once a haven for summer travelers. There are a lot of little shops that are still in place, and many of them were selling local arts and crafts. I didn't see any real chain-type businesses in the downtown area, but there were a lot of smaller, quaint buildings and quit a few enormous trees. This is a town that has been planned and managed carefully, and that doesn't appear to be changing with the changing demographics. It's nice to see a place hang onto its identity.
The Dining
Penticton is built along Okanagan Lake, and I wanted to get a closer look. I was also hungry, so I decided to up my efficiency by eating while taking in the water. I went to a farm-to-table restaurant I heard about earlier that day, and it was a great piece of guidance. The salad I had consisted of produce that was all grown locally and recently, and you can really taste the difference. The trout I had from the lake was fresh and flaky. As I ate, I kept stopping to take photos of the blue lake and majestic hills that sat behind it.
HotelTonight – Penticton Hotels Are Available
I was full and very happy to have gotten to see this lovely little community. I was ready to get some sleep, so I opened my HotelTonight app and booked a Penticton hotel room in seconds. I couldn't wait to fall asleep, and I was already planning on when I could return to this beautiful part of the world.
