Kelowna costs

Hello my dear and financially fabulous friends! My Eye Candy and I have returned from a wonderful long Easter weekend away in beautiful Kelowna, British Columbia. This was my first trip to the west coast of Canada and I cannot wait to go back. We spent 5 days with my EC’s father and step-mom soaking up the 20°C sunshine, sipping wine & visiting vineyards, simply staring at the mountainous surroundings, and enjoying rounds of family togetherness that included several evenings of kareoke.

For this trip, my Eye Candy redeemed Aeroplan points and we only had to pay the $186 taxes for our flights from Montreal to Vancouver to Kelowna. (This is a definite perk to having a boyfriend who travels too much for work and makes up for the lonely evenings.) As I mentioned, we stayed with his parents and they were nice enough not to charge us for room & board. For the rest of my costs, I dipped into my Vacation Fund. This is an account that I set-up last year with ING and I automatically put $200 from each paycheque into it. While I am still careful of where my money goes while on vacation, this money is mine to spend for new experiences and to have some fun.

It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere

• $19.09 at MISSION HILL for wine tasting & tour, and a bottle of Pinot Blanc.  
• $20.20 at QUAIL’S GATE for a wine tasting & tour, and a bottle of Chemin Blanc. This was served to President Obama when he visited Ottawa for his first state dinner outside of the USA . And if it’s good enough for the Obamas, then it’s perfect for me too!
• $40.19 at the DIRTY LAUNDRY for wine tasting, story-telling, and 2 bottles of their HushHush Rosé. Our sommelier shared all the “secrets” of the Okanagan Valley and each piece of local historic gossip is paired with a delicious wine.
• $20.08 at SUMMERHILL for wine tasting, pyramid touring, and a bottle of organic sparkling white wine.  

Eats & Treats

• $70 at the LOST MOOSE. My Eye Candy and I treated his parents for dinner at their favourite culinary hide-away. This restaurant is tucked up on the top a mountain overlooking the Okanagan Region and we devoured BBQ ribs while watching the sunset from our window-side table.
• $25 Saturday morning breakfast for me + EC at the golf club
• $9.70 at Zellers for Easter chocolates – yes, we had an egg hunt.
• $27 on the flight home for lunch & a round of drinks (side note: another perk to my EC’s job is the access to the Air Canada lounge where I enjoyed more than my fair share of cookies during the journey.)

Miscellaneous:

• $35 for my share of the airport parking fee
• $6.72 bubble wrap
• $16.70 boxes

Fortunately, I brought a regular sized suitcase and had room to bring home all of our wine purchases… but I needed to make an emergency stop at a dollar store to get packing material. Wine is too precious to take risks with and I am pleased to report that each of my bottles (and those purchased by my Eye Candy) made it home safely.

Total Kelowna cost:

$475.68

And on that note, I off to browse through my vacation photos and enjoy a glass of wine (or two!)…

*Rosie*

 Lake Okanagan

View from Quail's Gate Winery  

View from Lost Moose in Penticton