Westbank – West Kelowna

Westbank is part of the City of West Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley and boasts a popular waterfront at Gellatly Bay on Lake Okanagan with a wharf, jumping platform, zipline, floating platform and a 2 km promenade linking various beaches and parks. World-renowned wineries dot the region with some offering amazing food as well as wines. Outdoor activities are in abundance here with cycling and hiking trails throughout the valley as are an array of watersports and in the winter skiing is popular on the local mountains.

Westbank Petting Zoo

Location

Westbank is located on Hwy 97 near the western shore of Okanagan Lake in the Thompson Okanagan region of British Columbia, 16 km (10 mi) northeast of Peachland and 14 km (9 mi) southwest of Kelowna.

A Step Back in Time

Before the arrival of white settlers, the area was the home to the First Nations people in the Stekatkolxne’ut village, which overlooked Okanagan Lake. Fur traders in the early 1800s used the area as a stopping place, calling it MacDonald’s Plain, after a Hudson’s Bay Company officer. The settlement was renamed Westbank in 1908, due to its location on the west bank of Okanagan Lake and in 2007 was incorporated as the City of West Kelowna along with the small communities of  Shannon Lake, Glenrosa, Casa Loma, West Kelowna Estates, Rose Valley and Lakeview Heights.