Ron was amazing the entire day! He was so thoughtful ... escorting us in to each winery, staying…read morewith us to ensure we were being taken care of, carrying our wine out for us, keeping our wine organized, he had stickers for each bottle to ensure that at the end of the day we took home our own wine. He had excellent suggestions for the wineries we attended and for our lunch choices. I cannot say enough about Ron and the lovely experience we had working with him.

Ron! What can we say... What a pleasure to meet you and share stories of traveling (NZ). Your…read morehospitality and knowledge made our day. And lunch at Hillside was a highlight. Top notch tour!!

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.

Absolutely amazing!! Darren went above and beyond! We felt like family by the end of it! The extra…read morepersonal touches were so very appreciated and the service was as good as it could have ever possibly been- AND then some! Thank you so much! Highly recommended and would definitely do it again. The side car upgrade was totally worth it!

We had a great time with Darren. He took such good care of us, all we had to do was get in and out…read moreof the vehicle. -and he even helped with that! His service includes picking is up from our hotel, taking us through four wine tours, dropping us at our restaurant for supper, picking us up from the Restaurant and then carrying our purchases to our room. You can't beat the service! We were also fortunate to meet his partner/wife who had a very thoughtful gift for us. Highly recommend!

My husband and I did a Naramata wine tour with Top Cat Tours, and booked them through a package…read morewith our resort in Summerland. The tour bus picked us up at the hotel lobby, and dropped us off at the end of our tour. The only other wine tour I have done was in Napa Valley, so my comparison options are limited, as the geographic area and how the wine tours are done in the two locations are vastly different. I enjoyed our tour, as well as our tour guide, M.J. M.J. was open to feedback and took the wine we were buying at each winery and stored it in the back of the bus, making it easy to purchase as we went. Our tour was supposed to be five stops, but we were able to squeeze in six wineries, plus a stop at Poplar Grove/The Vanilla Pod for lunch. Lunch was included in the tour, as were all our tasting fees, and we visited a great variety of small boutique wineries to introduce us to the Naramata area. We returned on our own to a couple of the stops the next day to purchase more wine and enjoy the views. There were a few things I would have liked on the tour that were absent. On the website it does not specify which wineries will be visited, so I wasn't able to do any research about them prior to our tour. It also meant we didn't want to do any tasting on our own prior to the tour, because we didn't want to repeat any stops. When we got our little confirmation card from the hotel for our tour at check-in, it listed the wineries we could choose from for a visit, as well as our options for lunch. I spent time the night before looking at the wineries on the list and was a little disappointed that our actual tour only stopped at one of the wineries, and that our lunch was at a third option not listed. I don't know if this is the hotel's problem (outdated info?) or how the company operates, but I would have appreciated knowing a little bit more about our tour before just showing up at each winery and looking around to see where we were. Overall I had a lot of fun and tasted a lot of great wine. I would have liked more structure to the day, but this wouldn't stop me from booking Top Cat again or recommending them if you are in the area.

We found the company very accommodating as we had to change our reservations last minute. We had a…read morevery enjoyable 2 days of wine, beer and spirits tours in the Penticton area. Our Guide was very knowledge on wine and the area and had lots of jokes.

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!

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.

Our second winery of the day was Wesbert Winery, founded by a South African family. They have three…read moreguest suites on site that are available for stays. Tasting fee is $10.00/person (for 6 pours) but is waived with a bottle purchase. It was packed when we went but our servers were kind and friendly. Appreciate how they bring out glasses of water when you sit down (they were the only winery to offer water). Bottles are in the $19.95 to $44.95 price range. They also have a small pizza and charcuterie menu. We bought a bottle of sparkling piquette ($19.95) for home. - Rosé sparkling 2020 - prosecco style bubbles (merlot grapes). - Bettie's meritage white 2021 - their take on a white "Bordeaux". - Adelaide white 2019 - blend of gewurtz and viognier. - Rosé 2020 - off dry. This is the base rosé used to make the rosé sparkling. - Gamay 2020 - tasted very young. Felt like it needs some time to mellow out. - Old timer's red blend 2018 - their version of a big, bold Bordeaux. Blend of 5 reds. Decent wines at WW but nothing particularly stood out for us.

My boyfriend and I visited this winery as a second stop on our tour. Louisa is truly a gem, I'd…read morecome back just for her! It's refreshing to meet someone who is genuinely passionate about their work and truly cares about their customers. I also loved that they served all the tasting glasses at once, which allowed us to enjoy them at our own pace and not feel rushed in the process.

We booked a 12 person bus for a wine tour and it was fabulous! Our driver Rod, was knowledgable,…read morefriendly, and so helpful organizing our day... we had a great time and highly recommend this company! We will do this again next visit!!

We had a group of 11 women doing wine tour. Our driver Roderick was over the top great!!! He looked…read moreafter all our purchases and made sure each bottle was marked with our initials and loaded our purchases on the bus. He also went into each winery ahead of us to ensure they were ready for our group. All we needed to do was enjoy the wine and beautiful views. I highly recommend this company and especially our driver. Will be using them next time.