Troy did an amazing job driving us on our VIP tasting tour of Checkmate, Liquidity and Red Barn…read morewineries. He also set us up for a great lunch on the patio of Midara Restaurant at Tin Horn Creek. It was a five star experience!

We travelled from Winnipeg to Kelowna and had this experience recommended to us…read more On Saturday morning, after checking Google Maps and seeing what we believed was a 40-minute drive to Summerland, we booked tickets at 10:00 a.m. for the noon train ride. Unfortunately, once we were on the road, we realized we had made an honest mistake when entering our starting location into Google Maps. About 30 minutes into the drive, it became clear that we would not make the required 11:30 a.m. check-in. We immediately pulled over and called to see if we could either reschedule for the following day or receive a refund. We explained that we were visiting from out of province and that our travel time had been miscalculated due to an honest error. Unfortunately, both requests were declined. We fully understand that there is a 24-hour cancellation policy. However, we had booked the tickets only two hours before departure because we genuinely believed we had enough time to get there. Given the circumstances, and the fact that there were seats available on the following day's train, we had hoped some flexibility or goodwill could have been extended. As first-time visitors to British Columbia, it was incredibly disappointing not only to miss out on an experience that was highly recommended, but also to lose the full cost of our tickets without any goodwill or accommodation. Customer service leaves a lasting impression, especially in the tourism industry where word of mouth is so important. While we understand businesses need policies, how those policies are applied can make all the difference. Unfortunately, our experience left us frustrated and disappointed. As a result, we would be hesitant to book this experience again if we return to British Columbia and spend our money elsewhere. Sincerely, A Disappointed Out-of-Province Visitor

We had an excellent time. This was our second time taking this train ride, such great views and a…read morefun way to spend a couple hours. The staff is great and knowledgeable and gave us lots of laughs. We really enjoyed ourselves and highly recommend this excursion. Choose the valley side when picking your seats, best views.

There is a reason why this wine tour is so much cheaper than the others online…read more I went with a friend on August 27th, 2017. 2 pm start with the pickup from the holiday inn express kelowna. The driver was great but we feel as though paying $60 each was not worth the tour and heres why: The wineries they choose: 1) The view winery (which also made us wait a substantial amount of time) only let us sample a portion of their wines. Others around us, and there was 5 stations to observe, were given 3 more wines to taste and their in house ciders which we were not offered. 2) Meadow vista, although unique was limited in scope of their wines. 3) Kitsch vineyard only had 3 whites for sampling. Our host had known this fact and told us this. In the case of kitsch winery, we feel as though either we should have been taken to another winery as compensation, or altogether been taken to another winery as offered on your website. The van didn't have any air conditioning and it was 33 degrees out.

Great experience with the Coconut Express Wine tour. We booked a private van for 8 of us... Fits…read more14. The value of the wine tour was incredible. Visited 8 wineries in 4 hours and went to amazing places that had tasting fees waved. The service was awesome. All the staff members were extremely nice and informative. I HIGHLY recommend Coconut Express while touring the okanagan vinyards!

We used Banks for our very first all inclusive and were very happy with the service and experience…read more About a month after booking, our agent found a discount for our trip and saved us several hundred dollars. The service was really friendly and helpful, smooth and seamless. Banks will be our agent from here on.

My girlfriends stagette in penticton was made amazing because of Nicholas Kruger he took all my…read moregirls to the river in his bus that was clean and comfortable with ac and heat for when we got out of the water and gave us amazing recommendations for meals and dancing , his rates are really fare and his music on the bus was awesome

The company we originally planned on booking through was unavailable and recommended conneseiur…read morewine tours. Horrible decision. First off, when we confirmed our booking about a week before our trip nick (owner) let us know that he hadn't entered us in the system by mistake but would make sure we had a bus available on the date we were requesting. Second, we booked the bus for 9:45 to leave by 10. The bus didn't show up until 10:45 because the driver went to the wrong resort based on an email that was sent back in February. The confirmation email that was sent a week prior to the trip with the correct address was ignored. Because of this, our entire day was shifted. We were rushed around and the driver seemed to be in a hurry to get us home by the original time of 6pm rather than extending it to make up for being late. The driver was speeding in extremely treacherous road conditions, and suggested that we skip a winery in order to accommodate for us being late....and wouldn't put music on for the ride. On top of all this, nick was absolutely awful to deal with. He told us the mistake was our fault for telling him we were staying in kelowna when la casa resort was actually not "technically" in kelowna (as non locals we had no idea - the address is in kelowna) and said "we would not be getting a dime back" We will be lodging a complaint with the better business bureau and disputing this charge. Absolutely horrible customer service.

I have done these types of touring in Kelowna and Osoyoos a few times - you should know, I am not a…read morewine snob. This was my first time in the Penticton / Summerland area. I absolutely recommend Grape Escapes and would give Dino a 6th star if I could. They packed a picnic for us (it was my gf and i), got to taste wines with chocolates, etc. Very knowledgeable, you can immediately tell he is well liked and respected by the wineries. Lots of knowledge about wine but also the history behind each winery. So if you are a newbie like me, or a sophisticated wine conoceour, I am confident you will still learning thing or two, and have a great time It was a great weekend. Thank you Dino!

Had a fantastic day wine tasting with Rod as our guide. We had a wonderful and diverse selection of…read morewineries and Rod was a great guide, seamlessly ensuring that we each were well looked after and also safe. With a very nice lunch included, this was an amazing deal. Can't recommend highly enough and with the huge number of wineries in the area, we will definitely book another tour with Grape Escapes.

Neither my fiance nor myself knew anything about wine, the only things we did know were the few…read morefacts from watching crash course videos on Youtube a couple days before our mini honeymoon trip so we didn't really know what to expect, but even with the immense lack of information on what we might like, Grape Friends gave us the best wine tour we could've asked for. We got driven around four different wineries in the Naramata region because a coworker had suggested we try chef Bongo's cooking (chef Bongo was a partner at the Naramata Heritage Inn, but started his own restaurant just down the road: Village Grounds - Cafe & Bistro). Karen started us with Lang Vineyards, got us to try wines from the most established vines in the region, the experience was delicious, the view was amazing, and the service was awesome. We got the maple dessert wine but truly regretted later for not getting the sparkling rose. Next was Mocojo Wines, again, amazing view and great wines, but what stuck out was the story about this winery, the design of their label and the name, definitely a must go winery! Throughout the tour, Karen made sure to check up on us, give us some tips on how we can enjoy the tastings and find out what we like, without the pressure of "you must buy something". In the end, I went from knowing nothing about wine to discovering that I'm a Riesling person and just because I think I'll like the fruit wines, doesn't mean I'll be able to find that perfect wine at an orchard winery. We'll definitely be back for more Grape Friends tours and you won't regret joining them!

My husband and I had a great day with Karen on our wine tour in Naramata this spring…read more I'm been on a few wine tours in several regions/countries and Grape Friends was probably the most informative and fun tour thus far. I've only ever learned more from a sommelier lead tasting class focused more on pairings and the idea behind those are very different anyway. Karen's primary rule is to have fun and that's what she does so it would appeal to all experiences and interest levels. She wants to keep wine accessible and snobby free but still had me learning new things even though I've been around the snobbery and don't mind that either. We had a picnic lunch which was well worth it and highly recommended. Lots of fresh food, cheeses, meats, veggies and fruit and we were told to play with flavors and combinations. I would choose this over a winery lunch and do a winery lunch on my own a different day when I have some time to spend hanging out as the wineries don't seem to be in a hurry in this region at all. We ended up liking the wine a lot more than planned and bought a lot more than we ever expected to which is probably good and bad. Ha. We did the dinner drop off and pickup after which was also great. Karen handled the reservation for us and everything and we just called when we were done. It was nice to not have to worry about getting dinner after being out drinking and then getting home after. Also, we didn't have to get dropped off at our room with our haul of wine and then do a cab both ways either. We learned that summerland and naramata have different soil and it would be interesting to contrast the two areas in two separate days one after another (like a couple ladies on our tour were doing). Karen also says she can arrange behind the scenes tours which I did in Italy and really enjoyed and would love to do again at some point. So, basically we have a lot of wine to drink but when that goes away we'll have to visit again. Over all highly recommended and worth the price as it's more than just a driving service.

Phenomenal tour guide service! Our group of 7 booked for a 4 hour wine tour and our Chauffeur,…read moreStuart, went above and beyond to make the experience so much fun and very educational. Thank you Stuart! We will be back!!!