Penticton

This charming city is one of the best places to visit in BC with beautiful blue water, sandy beaches, vineyards and wineries, orchards, and proudly local businesses… But did you know that Penticton is also known as the Craft Beer Capital of Canada? Home to eight incredible breweries, Penticton was named as the Craft Beer Capital of Canada by the Lonely Planet in 2020.

Join us on our four-day road trip to beautiful Penticton, BC as we explore its unique and popular craft beer scene while enjoying great views, awesome food, and outdoor adventures on the Penticton Ale Trail.

After about five hours on the road from Vancouver, we arrive in Penticton on a beautiful, sunny day.

The three of us — Jake and I plus our golden retriever Rosie — are excited to be back in this charming part of the Okanagan Valley for a visit. We’ve heard that Penticton’s craft beer scene has exploded in popularity over the years and that all eight breweries provide unique experiences while sharing one thing in common… their passion. The taprooms in Penticton have evolved into community hubs as the casual, family-friendly breweries have grown to become local favourites, each with its own unique style and vibes. 

Arriving in Penticton, we head to our accommodations to check-in for the next four days. We’re staying at the Kettle Valley Beach Resort and our room is only steps away from Okanagan Lake Beach. This fantastic location means that we are within walking distance of most of our stops on this trip. Our dog-friendly room features a queen-sized bed, a pullout futon, a full kitchen, and everything we need for the next four days. Outside our room, we can see a shared fire-pit space with BBQs, picnic tables, and lawn chairs set up for us to hang out.

It’s time to take ourselves and our dog for a nice walk to stretch our legs after a long road trip. We’re heading to the south side of the city to check out one of the two lakes that border Penticton, and we’ve chosen to enjoy a walk around Skaha Lake and Skaha Lake Beach. This long boardwalk takes you right beside the beach with fantastic views of the water, the sandy beach, and surrounding mountains. The park has tons of space for everybody to enjoy with big trees and a large grassy green space. 

After our walk, we agree that we are hungry for some dinner and head over to our first brewery of the Penticton Ale Trail. We’re going straight to Cannery Brewing, a very popular and family-friendly space with one of the best patios we’ve seen. While its popular Cannery Backyard is not yet open for the season, we hear that this large outdoor patio space is the place to be in the spring and summer. The dog-friendly space features rotating food trucks and is a great place to hang out. After checking out the large, inviting taproom, the staff give us a quick tour of the Backyard and ALEcatraz, another taproom space used to host special events. We choose to sit outside on the heated patio and are looking forward to trying some local craft beers and locally inspired dishes.

Since it’s our first brewery of the trip, we ask the servers for their recommendations. The friendly staff offer a few samples so we can find out what we like, and we decide on four different styles to go on our flight. Between a couple of IPAs, a sour beer, and a lager, we decide to order the Sunblink Berry sour and the Lakeboat German Style Lager. Cannery has an impressive taproom selection and a fantastic food menu to go along with it. We’re having a big plate of chicken nachos with our beers, and enjoying the Steak and Stout pot pie and the Crispy Chicken Provolone sandwich for our mains. Our meals are fantastic and we both agree that we need to come back here again to try out more food items and beers again soon! 

We head back to our hotel and decide to go for another lake walk with our dog to watch the sunset. We’re staying directly across from Okanagan Lake and there’s a beautiful boardwalk that takes you along the lake right beside the beach. Besides the fantastic view of the water and mountains, you’ll walk past art displays, the S.S Sicamous historical sternwheeler, the Peach on the Beach concession stand, gardens, and cute ice cream shops. 

We decide to end the night at our hotel, Kettle Valley Beach Resort, by hanging out around the firepit with our new favourite brews that we brought home with us from Cannery Brewing. It’s a great start to our time in Penticton and we’re going to bed excited for the next day to come.

We’re starting the day with breakfast at our resort restaurant called Socialē on Lakeshore. This restaurant has a large patio with a beautiful lake view, and we’ve decided to sit in the heated “space dome” while we enjoy our coffee and breakfast. Caffe al Socialē is very casual for breakfast, with great coffee. We order a latte, cappuccino and two delicious breakfast sandwiches while we enjoy the view of Okanagan Lake.

Today we’re doing some hiking in Penticton so our very first stop is going to be the Penticton Visitor Centre. We try to visit the local visitor centre of every town we stay in to pick up any maps, visitor guides, merch and souvenirs at the beginning of our trip. The Penticton Visitor Centre has tons of fun ideas for things to do and you can check in on the BC Ale Trail app here.

For one of the best views of Penticton we are going to hike the 1 km trail up Munson Mountain. This hike is known for its breathtaking scenery and the famous PENTICTON sign. The trail is easy, with packed gravel all the way to the summit. There are incredible views in every direction and we feel so inspired after seeing how much beauty Penticton has to offer. This trail is great for families and folks of all ages, and starting our day with this spectacular view was well worth the short climb.

Our first brewery stop is located along the gorgeous Kettle Valley Rail (KVR) Trail. We park at Abandoned Rail Brewing and decide to take our pup on a walk along the KVR trail before we check out the brewery. This beautiful trail takes us past barley fields, orchards, and vineyards with great views of the surrounding mountains and Okanagan Lake. We walk until we reach McCullough Trestle and stop to admire the views, and we notice people have “locked in their love” with locks attached to the bridge. Super cute. 

We walk back to Abandoned Rail Brewing where we are so excited to enjoy a late lunch with local beers in its beautiful outdoor space. The location truly is perfect after a long hike or bike ride on the KVR Trail. On a sunny day like today, Abandoned Rail Brewing looks like a backyard paradise surrounded by trees and barley fields. There is an open, grassy area with large red Muskoka chairs to lounge in, and a big, open, pet-friendly patio with plenty of tables. We choose to sit out on the patio and head into the taproom to order. 

We’re going to share a pizza on the patio and are so excited about our options. The Prosciutto Blackberry Brie pie sounds awesome so we order it along with the One Track Mind Pilsner and Tunnel Vision IPA. The beers are great — we chose a couple of award winners so we knew they were gonna be tasty. Experiencing Abandoned Rail Brewing’s patio on your trip to Penticton is a must.

Our next brewery of the day takes us to the historical Cannery Trade Centre, which was an old fruit canning facility. The Cannery Trade Centre is now home to over 30 local businesses and shops, so we take a short walk around the interesting building to check out some coffee shops, bakeries, and art shops before heading to our next brewery.

Tin Whistle Brewing is located inside the Cannery Trade Centre. As you walk into their taproom, you are immediately met with colourful murals on the wall, fun music on the record player, and the Tin Whistle train on display. When the weather is good, the brewery opens its doors to an outdoor patio space that is dog-friendly. We decide to sit indoors and the staff lets us know about their weekly experimental beer that was released today (and every Friday).

As BC’s first carbon-neutral brewery, we learn about Tin Whistle’s sustainable approach and small-batch brewing, as well as the inspiration provided by the Okanagan Valley itself to feature local fruits as ingredients in some of the beers. We can tell that the homemade pride is very real here, and the local microbakery next door brings over fresh pastries with our beer. We order a flight to try Tin Whistle’s famous Peach Cream Ale, the West Coast IPA, an IPA x Lager, and this week’s new Friday beer, a delicious red ale. Our favourite ends up being the Peach Cream so we order a couple of pints to enjoy. 

It’s finally time for dinner and our last brewery of the day. We’re walking into Barley Mill Brew Pub where we hear that this spot is a local favourite. The Tudor-style building has high ceilings and reminds us of an English pub on both the outside and inside. We choose a cozy nook for dinner in the main pub so we can watch what’s going on at the bar. This spot does weekly karaoke, music, and has plenty of games like foosball, darts, and billiards.

There’s a small brewery upstairs where Barley Mill creates their house brews. We order a flight to try four of the different beers on tap and specifically order beer-battered fish & chips for me and the famous Barley Burger for Jake since we heard it’s #1 in the Okanagan. The friendly atmosphere starts to get busy as we’re enjoying our beers and food so we can definitely tell this is a local’s spot. The Barley Mill is the perfect, cozy brew pub to end our second day in Penticton.

We walk into Neighbourhood Brewing where we are greeted with smiles and invited to sit on the comfy couch by the brick fireplace. The large, open space has two floors, with the Rec Room upstairs and the Tasting Room downstairs. Plus, the pet-friendly patio has tons of green space for everyone in the spring and summer.

We order a flight to try out Neighbourhood’s craft beers, and our favourites end up being the Amigos salted-lime crisp lager and the Peach City peach sour. Neighbourhood Brewing offers Mexican-inspired dishes and we’re choosing to have breakfast tacos and the chorizo breakfast burrito. Our server brings over four different salsas and we have the best brunch of the trip. Neighbourhood Brewing has really created a space where good beer, good food, and good vibes come together. 

As we’re leaving, we spot Penticton’s newest brewery: Yellow Dog Brewing’s second location, which will be opening this spring. We take a moment to peek over the fence and it looks like the Dog Park patio will be a great place to hang out. We’re familiar with Yellow Dog Brewing from its Port Moody location; it will definitely be a great fit with Penticton’s craft beer scene. 

One of the best things to do in Penticton is to check out the views on the KVR Trail. Yesterday, we drove to Abandoned Rail Brewing and walked a short section of the KVR Trail, but today we’re renting e-bikes from Hoodoo Adventures to ride from downtown to one of the best views in Penticton. We’re biking 17 km (34 km round trip) to Little Tunnel on the KVR Trail. The scenery along this trail is incredible: we ride past vineyards, orchards, and farms while catching views of Okanagan Lake for most of the ride.

E-bikes make this adventure so much easier and fun. We make it to our destination, a viewpoint called Little Tunnel where we quite literally bike through a small tunnel on the trail. This view above Okanagan Lake is incredibly beautiful — we can see all the way back to Penticton from up here. After stopping to take some photos we head back the way we came and cruise mostly downhill back to Penticton (passing Abandoned Rail Brewing along the way). Biking from downtown Penticton to our viewpoint at Little Tunnel and back took us about 2.5 hours and is truly one of the best things to do in Penticton.

Back in Penticton, we’re picking up our dog Rosie and heading to Highway 97 Brewery for dinner. We love that the taproom is dog-friendly and Rosie is excited to join us again for some brews and burgers for dinner. This casual, fun brewery is decorated with old highway memorabilia like license plates and gas pumps, along with a mural of furry friends that have visited in the past. There’s live music going on tonight, so we grab a table in the back with Rosie and order a couple of beers. 

We’re having Highway 97’s Orange Juice sour and Czech Pilsner, two delicious beers on tap. For food, we’re trying the spinach artichoke dip, and we both order a TransCanada burger. This beer hall is a great place to sit back and relax, and our beers and burgers are exactly what we need after our long bike ride. Highway 97 is a ton of fun — and it is awesome to bring our pup with us.

We’ve seen so much of this beautiful town during our visit, and now we’re starting our final day here with a walk to The Bench Market for some coffee and breakfast. I sit outside with Rosie under the umbrella patio while Jake orders us two lattes and two muffins — I’m having blueberry peach and Jake enjoys lemon raspberry. There are plenty of high-quality local goods in The Bench Market’s grocery section along with all-day breakfast, lunch and takeaway. 

This stop reminds us why we love Penticton so much — every place we’ve been is incredibly proud to be local and use Okanagan ingredients. There is a lot of homemade love here in Penticton and you can tell that everybody who lives here shares that same pride in their hometown. 

After our quick breakfast, we decide to spend some time exploring downtown Penticton while the weather is nice. We park on Penticton’s historical Front Street, and the three of us go for a stroll to check out local cafes, coffee shops, art galleries, murals, and more. This popular street is home to great shopping and also hosts part of the Downtown Penticton Community Market on Saturdays throughout the summer. Jake captures photos of the unique buildings and we walk past the Penticton Art Gallery on our way back to our hotel. 

After checking out of the hotel, we have one more brewery to visit before we hit the road. We’re ending our Penticton Ale Trail at Slackwater Brewing where all three of us (including Rosie) will get to enjoy one more patio before we leave. We walk through Slackwater’s large taproom and the bartender tells us we have to check out the upstairs seating and take a peek at the rooftop patio that will be opening for the spring/summer. The weather is sunny and beautiful so we settle on the spacious patio with picnic tables and large umbrellas. Slackwater Brewing is definitely the place to be when the sun is out!

We’re ordering flights today so we can check out Slackwater’s refreshing beers, and as a fan of sour beers my favourite is Nautical Nonsense,  a pineapple sour with pink sea salt. It’s a Sunday, which means wings are half-priced at Slackwater so we order two pounds of wings with a poutine. Not only is Slackwater great for its beer selection, but enjoying wings and poutine on the sunny patio is a highlight of our Ale Trail visit. 

Did you know that Penticton allows responsible consumption in select parks and beaches? Now we do. Before we leave, we take Rosie for a final walk down Okanagan Lake Beach and find ourselves at Marina Way Beach Park. We end up finding a nice picnic table in the park to enjoy a final Penticton craft beer, Slackwater’s Tight Lines Helles Lager. We say goodbye to Penticton with a final look at the scenic Okanagan Lake before heading back home to Vancouver. 

We had such a great time in Penticton! We got to see some of the best views in the Okanagan Valley, enjoyed some fun outdoor activities, and visited all eight of Penticton’s breweries, which are also known as the Penticton Beer Blocks. We really enjoyed the local charm of Penticton and the pride that everybody in this city has for their home. Penticton is full of high-quality food, beers, and super-friendly people. The Penticton Ale Trail is definitely the best way to explore everything this city has to offer, and we will definitely be back to Penticton again soon.