LowestTravelDeals.com provides
any kind of Kamloops lodging from luxury 5-star
hotels to affordable B&B's and discount motels. Our search
system provides a wide variety of options to provide you with
the best Kamloops hotel deals and rates in a
secure and instant transaction. We guarantee you will find the
right Kamloops accommodation that fits your travel vacation.
Almost any trip in southern British Columbia brings
you sooner or later to KAMLOOPS , a town which
has been a transport centre from time immemorial - its name derives
from the Shuswap word for "meeting of the rivers" -
and which today marks the meeting point of the Trans-Canada and
Yellowhead (South) highways, the region's principal transcontinental
roads, as well as the junction of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian
National railways. The largest interior town in southern British
Columbia (pop. 82,000), it's fairly unobjectionable, except when
the wind blows from the uptown sawmills, bringing in a putrid
smell that hangs heavy in the air. If you're on public transport,
there's no particular need to spend any time here; if you're camping
or driving, however, it makes a convenient provisions stop, especially
for those heading north on Hwy 5 or south on the Coquihalla Hwy,
neither of which has much in the way of facilities.
Kamloops is determinedly functional and not a place
to spend a happy day wandering, but its downtown does have a spanking
new Art Gallery , the largest in BC's interior
- not that it has much competition. Located in the heart of downtown
at 465 Victoria St at 5th (May-Sept Mon, Fri & Sat 10am-5pm,
Tues-Thurs 10am-9pm, Sun noon-4pm; Oct-April Mon-Wed, Fri &
Sat 10am-5pm, Thurs 10am-9pm, Sun 10am-4pm; $5), the gallery showcases
Canadian artists, in particular those from the West and British
Columbia.
The Kamloops Museum on Seymour
Street (Tues-Sat 9.30am-4.30pm; free) is one of the more interesting
provincial offerings, with illuminating archive photographs (especially
the one of the railway running down the centre of the main street),
artefacts, period set-pieces and a particularly well-done section
on the Shuswap. The stuffed-animal display, without which no BC
museum is complete, has a fascinating little piece on the life
cycle of the tick presented without any noticeable irony. For
a more complete picture of local aboriginal history and traditions,
call at the Secwepemec Museum & Heritage Park
, just over the bridge on Hwy 5 (summer daily 9am-5pm; winter
Mon-Fri 8.30am-4.30pm; $5) or attend the Kamloops Pow
Wow , held every third weekend in August ($7 a day).
If you're travelling with kids and driving, the nonprofit Wildlife
Park , 15km east of town on the Trans-Canada Hwy (daily
8am-4.30pm; $6, children $3.75), may be worth a stop for its range
of local and more exotic animals.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Kamloops
is its surroundings, dominated by strange, bare-earthed brown
hills that locals like to say represent the northernmost point
of the Mojave Desert. There's no doubting the almost surreal touches
of near-desert, which are particularly marked in the bare rock
and clay outcrops above the bilious waters of the Thompson River
and in the bleached scrub and failing stands of pines that spot
the barren hills. Most scenic diversions lie a short drive out
of town, and the infocentre has full details of every last local
bolt hole, with a special bias towards the two hundred or so trout-stuffed
lakes that dot the hinterland. The nearest and most popular on
a hot summer's day is Paul Lake Provincial Park
, 17km northeast of town on a good paved road, with swimming and
a provincial campsite ($12).
