Kamloops, BC
A dry-belt city with Canada's second-largest ski area an hour up the road
Kamloops is a working city of 100,000 in grassland and sagebrush, and Sun Peaks — the second-biggest ski area in Canada by terrain — sits 45 minutes north of it. The two are not much alike, which is useful.
Kamloops sits where the North and South Thompson rivers meet, in a rain shadow that makes it one of the driest inhabited parts of Canada. The name comes from the Secwépemc word Tk'emlúps, meaning the meeting of the waters, and the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc community remains on the north bank. It grew as a fur-trade post, then a railway and ranching town, and today it is a regional service and university city rather than a resort — which is why accommodation is plentiful and priced normally.
Sun Peaks Resort, 45 minutes north, is the reason most visitors come in winter. It spreads across three mountains — Tod, Sundance and Mount Morrisey — with a genuine ski-through village at the base, and its scale surprises people who have not been: by skiable terrain it is second in Canada only to Whistler Blackcomb. The snow is interior-dry and the grooming is excellent, which makes it unusually good for mixed-ability groups and for people learning.
The arrangement is the point. You can stay in the village and never move a car, or stay in Kamloops at a fraction of the price and drive up — and in a thin snow year the city has enough else going on that a trip is not wasted. Harper Mountain, much smaller and 20 minutes from town, is where locals take children.
Where People Live
Downtown Kamloops
Victoria Street and the riverfront: restaurants, the Kamloops Art Gallery, the Western Canada Theatre and most of the city's hotels.
Sun Peaks village
A pedestrian ski-in, ski-out village 45 minutes north — its own municipality, with hotels, rentals and lifts from the door.
Aberdeen & Sahali
The hillside suburbs south of the centre, closest to Thompson Rivers University and the main shopping.
North Shore & Tk'emlúps
Across the river: the older North Shore commercial strip and the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc lands, with the Secwépemc Museum and Heritage Park.
Must-see attractions
South Thompson River
Pritchard Boat Ramp, BC V0E 2P0
Chinook Cove Golf & RV
5045 Boulder Mountain Rd, Barrière, BC V0E 1E0
Restaurants & places to go
Airports
Kamloops Airport (YKA) 6.4 km to the centre
3035 Airport Rd, Kamloops, BC V2B 7X1 — Indoor waiting areas, but some gates board by bus or on foot across the apron — plan for the weather on the day. ✈ 2 airlines (Air Canada, WestJet) · direct flights to 3 destinations incl. Calgary, Vancouver, Prince George (OpenFlights route data).
✈ Airlines & flight paths — 2 airlines, 3 direct destinations
- Air Canada AC (Dash 8-300) · 2 routes: Calgary*, Vancouver*
- WestJet WS (Dash 8-400) · 1 route: Calgary
Routes and aircraft from OpenFlights (open data; a point-in-time snapshot). * = codeshare. Linked destinations open their own guidebook. Flight numbers are not in the open data — they come from the airline or a paid schedule feed.
Knutsford Airfield 10 km to the centre
Kamloops, BC, CA
Kamloops Model Airplane Society Airstrip 19 km to the centre
Kamloops, BC, CA
Local transit
BC Transit (Kamloops Transit System)
Public transit · Schedules & GTFS data
Trains & rail
VIA Rail Canada
National rail
Coaches & shuttles
Ebus
Intercity coach
Rider Express
Intercity coach
Living Here
The season
- Ski season runs roughly late November to early April, with the highest terrain holding into late April or May in a good year. Opening and closing dates move with the snowpack every season — check the resort before booking flights around them.
- Sun Peaks generally opens around late November and runs to early April. The interior-dry snowpack means cold, light snow and fewer rain events than the coast.
- Kamloops itself gets little snow and can be bare while the resort is deep — do not judge the mountain by the city.
Getting there and around
- Kamloops Airport has scheduled flights from Vancouver and Calgary; Kelowna is about 90 minutes south with far more service.
- Sun Peaks is 45 minutes from the city on a maintained road, with a scheduled shuttle from the airport and town in season.
- A car is useful in the city and optional if you are staying in the Sun Peaks village.
When the snow goes
- Sun Peaks runs lift-served downhill mountain biking and a large alpine hiking network through summer.
- Whitewater rafting on the Thompson, out of Spences Bridge and Lytton southwest of the city, is some of the biggest commercially run water in the province.
- The lakes around Kamloops are among the best-known fly-fishing stillwaters in North America, and the grassland trails are rideable months earlier than the coast.
Practicalities
- Royal Inland Hospital is one of the two tertiary referral hospitals for the BC interior.
- Thompson Rivers University gives the city a student population and the cheap eating that comes with it.