Before starting the long drive up to Alaska back in May, my wife and I spent nearly a week at Spirit Ridge Resort in Osoyoos, Canada. This property had been on my radar for several years, so I was excited about finally getting to check it out and hoped that I hadn’t overhyped it in my mind.
I hadn’t.
Our stay at Spirit Ridge ended up being one of my favorite hotel stays from our entire road trip.
Spirit Ridge Resort Bottom Line Review
Spirit Ridge is in Osoyoos, just a few minutes over the US/Canadian border and about 3.5-4 hours from Spokane. It’s at the north end of the Sonoran Desert and is Canada’s only desert (well, sort of desert as, strictly speaking, it receives marginally too much precipitation to be formally classed as a desert).
Due to its climate, it’s a popular vacation spot for Canadians, with the town’s population swelling from Victoria Day in mid-to-late May through the end of summer/early fall. We got lucky with our timing as we visited the second week of May. That meant we had beautiful weather while we were there, while also avoiding the start of tourist season.
The resort is beautiful, with all kinds of great amenities and features. Every room there is at least a one bedroom suite with a kitchen. There are separate adults-only and family pools and whirlpools, a water slide, hiking trails, a cultural center and even North America’s first indigenous-owned winery.
Breakfast options were very good, elite recognition – particularly when it come to room upgrades at check-in – was excellent and, depending on which suite you get, the views of the vineyard and Osoyoos Lake are tremendous.
What makes this hotel even better is that it’s a category 4 property in the World of Hyatt program (it’s part of The Unbound Collection) and so you can redeem category 1-4 free night certificates there or as few as 12,000 points per night.
Overall, we had a superb stay and it gets two thumbs up.
- Points Price: As mentioned above, this is a category 4 Hyatt property. That means it costs 12,000, 15,000 or 18,000 points per night depending on if it’s at off-peak, standard or peak pricing. It was at standard pricing for our first two nights, then off-peak for the remaining four nights.
- Cash Price: When we booked our stay for early May, cash rates for the base level suite were $234.24 per night including tax (n.b. that’s the US dollar amount; be aware that the price on the website might display in Canadian dollars depending on how you have the currency set to be displayed). During the summer you could be looking at $300-$400 per night, while in the winter prices can drop to as low as $150 per night.
- Points Value: This can vary widely too. During the winter, you’re likely to get poor value for your points, while in the summer you should get at least 2cpp (cents per point) of value. For our specific dates, we got 1.8cpp of value.
- Resort or Destination Fee: None.
- Parking: Parking is complimentary for all guests and they also have chargers for electric vehicles.
- One bedroom villa with lake view: We’d booked a standard 1 bedroom pet-friendly condo with two queen beds. We were given three upgrade options when checking in and we picked the one bedroom villa with lake view which I’d highly recommend if you can get it. It’s a ~600 sq ft condo with a living room, dining area, bedroom, two bathrooms, patio with a grill and a full kitchen. And when I say a full kitchen, I mean a full kitchen. It was equipped with pretty much everything you could possibly need include a blender, place settings for six people, Pyrex dishes, numerous pots and pans and something my British self particularly appreciated – a teapot!
The condo had a washer/dryer (I believe every suite there has one), the patio had a massive bathtub outside and the views of the vineyard and Osoyoos Lake from our patio and living room were stunning. - Housekeeping: I think this is available every day if you’d like it, but we declined it throughout our stay.
- Turndown service: None.
- Internet: Very good. It’s complimentary for all guests and I didn’t have any trouble uploading photos and videos, having Zoom calls, etc.
- Dining: The hotel only has one restaurant, but there’s also a winery on site.
- The Bear, The Root, The Fish & The Berry – This is where breakfast, lunch and dinner is served.
- Nk’Mip Cellars – This was North America’s first indigenous-owned winery. Tastings cost $5 CAD (~$3.65 USD) and include four 1oz pours. We enjoyed all the wines we tried with their Syrah being our favorite. Bottles are priced reasonably (again, remember that the prices are in CAD rather than USD) and there’s a lovely outdoor patio where you can have a glass/bottle while gazing out over Osoyoos Lake.
n.b. Nk’Mip is pronounced ‘inkameep’.
- Club Lounge: None
- Spa: Yes. We didn’t get any treatments though, so I’m not sure about pricing.
- Fitness Room: Yes. There are two fitness rooms, one by the adults-only pool and one by the family pool. Neither were amazingly well-equipped, but is hopefully sufficient for your workout needs.
- Pool: Yes, two of them. The adults-only pool is a good size and has a whirlpool, while the family pool and whirlpool also has a water slide. Just outside the family pool area are additional games like table tennis and cornhole.
- Welcome Amenity: Waiting for us in our room was a bottle of still water and some delicious apple-cinnamon chips.
- Service: Service was very good. Although we declined housekeeping, the front desk staff were all very friendly and professional, as were the servers in the restaurant and at Nk’Mip Cellars.
- Pet Policy: Spirit Ridge Resort is pet-friendly, although you have to book a specific pet-friendly room (pet-friendly rooms are bookable on points). There’s a pet fee of $33.90 CAD with tax (~$24.65 USD) per night and only dogs are allowed – not cats.
The resort has a small dog run where you can let your pup off leash, plus they’re allowed to walk all around the grounds – including the vineyard. They’re not allowed in the restaurant or winery though, nor the patios at both those locations. - Location: Osoyoos is a beautiful area with rocky hills, a large lake and lots of wineries. It’s a good-sized town, so there are several grocery stores, restaurants, bars and other shops if you’d like to leave the resort.
- Elite Benefits: I have Globalist status with Hyatt. Here’s what we received elite benefit-wise:
- Free breakfast – Breakfast is served from 8am-11am which was awesome for a late riser like me. You can eat inside the restaurant or out on the patio overlooking the lake depending on the weather. There are separate breakfast menus for weekdays and weekends. We also happened to visit over Mother’s Day and they had a special (and expensive) brunch that day which was complimentary for Globalists.
- Suite upgrade – All rooms at Spirit Ridge are at least one bedroom suites, but they appear to be very good about proactive upgrades. We were given the choice of three higher level suites; I can’t remember the first option we were offered, but the second was a two bedroom penthouse suite with no view and the third – which we picked – was the one bedroom villa with a lake view. Be aware that Spirit Ridge is one of the properties in the World of Hyatt program that doesn’t let you redeem Suite Upgrade Awards, so you can’t book into a base level suite and redeem one of those awards for an even better suite.
- Lounge access – not applicable as there wasn’t one
- Late checkout – we could’ve stayed until 4pm, but we had a couple of stops we wanted to make on our way to Kamloops and so we didn’t stay that late.
- Other amenities: The Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre is free to visit and is worth checking out to learn more about the Okanagan people. Sonora Dunes Golf Course is on site if you’d like to get a round in and there are electric scooters and bikes you can rent.
- Would I stay again? Absolutely! Before we’d even left, I was trying to work out how we’d be able to find our way back up there seeing as it’s a little inconvenient to get to. I’d highly recommend a visit.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Elite recognition – We were given a fantastic suite upgrade despite already being booked into a suite
- Grounds – The property is spacious, with several walking and hiking trails, as well as a golf course if you’re interested
- Winery – It’s not often you can book a hotel using points that has its own winery on site
- Breakfast – If you have complimentary breakfast included, there are lots of options and so you shouldn’t get bored by your choices even if you stay for a week.
Cons
- Proximity – The location itself is great, but its proximity to major cities and airports makes it a bit of a hassle to get to. The closest airport is Kelowna which is served by Alaska Airlines, Air Canada, WestJet and more.
Image Gallery
One Bedroom Lake View Condo
Breakfast
Nk’Mip Cellars
Amenities
Grounds
Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre
Northern Lights
We got super lucky that the geomagnetic storm back in May happened the night we arrived at Spirit Ridge. Shae and I headed out into the vineyard for several hours to enjoy the display.
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I know this area well, my grandparents lived in Penticton BC, about 30 miles north of Osoyoos. Between Osoyoos and Penticton there are several excellent wineries, which all have tasting rooms and food. Penticton itself is charming and pretty with it’s own cluster of vineyards in nearby Naramata. There is an interesting local museum in Penticton, and the SS. Sicamous a historic sternwheeler. Also, there are some really great restaurants, an Italian deli, and a fantastic bookstore. So yes, with a car there is lots to do in the area.
How many days would you recommend considering all the activities and nearby attractions? We’re slow travellers 🙂
For us, 6 nights was perfect, although we’d have happily stayed longer. I’m sure some people would probably get bored after a few days. A couple of those days were work days for us, so we didn’t get out quite as much as we would’ve liked on those days.
Perfect! Thanks Steven. We booked 5 nights for mid October. Excited to spend sometime during the fall.
Fantastic, hope you enjoy it as much as we did 🙂
Thanks for the review. I thought about squeezing this resort into a Canadian Rockies trip last summer, but didn’t have enough time. The location is TRULY remote from population centers and airports, and probably wouldn’t be worthwhile enough as your only destination.. That said, if you’re thinking of a Canadian Rockies trip leaving out of SEA, perhaps with a drive through North Cascades Nat’l Park, this hotel could be a good stopover.
We wanted to check out North Cascades, but couldn’t fit in time for that too unfortunately
Honestly, you didn’t miss much. We found the North Cascades a little disappointing. It is really just a National Recreation Area. They created a national park around that. Worth stopping in on the way elsewhere, but not a “must see” destination. The nearby area around Mt. Baker is nicer and, with it NOT being a national park, sees fewer visitors.The Canadian rockies are a better destination but, for Americans, I think the US rockies are better and more affordable. Like Lake Louise is nice, but over-touristed, with eye-popping hotel prices.
Please when putting a Canadian location in a headline, use the province. Don’t just say canada. If I told you I was going to Springfield America would that be a useful descriptor?
I suspect Osoyoos is slightly less common than Springfield
If it was an ambiguous place name like Springfield where it could be any number of states, I’d definitely add that to the title. However, for somewhere with a distinct name like Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Toronto or, in this case, Osoyoos, it didn’t seem as important. Ultimately, even if I added BC to the title, I suspect people would still want to check Google Maps to see where it was. British Columbia is so massive that simply knowing it’s in BC wouldn’t be beneficial as Osoyoos is more than a 12 hour drive from Smithers which is also in BC.
I’m still trying to get Stephen to stop referring to the US and Canada collectively as the “The Colonies.”