More about Spirit Ridge
Fabulous relaxing holiday
by TripAdvisor Member Tettlley
Our holiday was superb from beginning to end. We stayed in a corner suite with a large wrap around balcony of which our dog immensely enjoyed. I highly recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to travel with their pet as this hotel honestly welcomes dogs! On my husband's birthday we dined at the outdoor restaurant at IKMEP winery part of the hotel/wine resort (we think?) and for only a mere $65 was fed a 5 course meal with matching wine and entertainment. The restaurant is thee best place we have eaten - outside on the lawn - very very nice. We hope to return next year again.
Not overly impressed
by TripAdvisor Member traveljunky81
Well I must say my wife and I were very excited to visit this resort, but within the first minute our impression was turned for the negative. We arrived at around 3pm (which I believed was check in time) we went to the front desk and said we were here to check in, the reply was.....check in time is not until 4pm. No checking to see if our room was ready nothing, just silence. So I said I guess we will come back in an hour, still silence. We came back in an hour and checked in. I must say our room is amazing, we were in a corner king suite with a moon tub on the deck. The room is very spacious as well as the outside patio. This resort is very nice but a few things need to be clarified before you visit this resort. Lakefront, hmmmm well the "240 acre property" is lakefront. It is a 5-10 minute walk down to the lake to a very small beach which you share with the very large campground on the property. Because the beach is so busy nobody ventures down there and thus making the pool area extremely busy. Not one day were we able to get 2 chairs at the pool for my wife and I. The pool are is obviously undersized for the size of the resort. I truly hope that phase 2 has a much more accomidating pool area. The gym is very small as well. There were way more children at the pool than expected as well, they may want to seriously consider an adults only time in the pool area so that you can actually swim a few laps if you want to as the pool is packed with kids from open til close. The second thing needing to be clarified, DO NOT expect hotel housekeeping. It was let know that your bedding will only be changed every 3 days to save on the environment, which is totally acceptable. However all you can expect daily is taking out your garbage and getting new towels, not vacuuming, tydying up, not even make your bed that only happens every third day with the sheet change. Anything you want done is extra $$. Our toilet or bath tub were not cleaned the whole week, you can imagine our tub in the dusty dirty desert. Next is the BBQ that is supposidly on every patio, do not expect a BBQ. It is an electric grill on a stand with a lid on it. With all the negative there is some posotive, the stay for 7 and pay for 5 was a great deal. The restaurant was pricy but well worth it, amazing food and lake views from the patio. The golf course on site was very reasonably priced and not ever too busy. A must play for any golfer. The wine tour onsite was only $5 and was interesting. Back to the negative, the walls were very thin, so you just have to hope you don't get noisy neighbors like ours. It is quite a bit further from the town of Osoyoos than we expected as well, it takes 10 minutes or so to drive in to town to get say groceries or lunch, don't expect a quick walk like other hotels in Osoyoos. Overall I would have to say we were dissapointed in our stay.
Terrible experience at Spirit Ridge
by TripAdvisor Member AbbottsfordBCDoug
On Aug 8th 2007 myself my wife and two kids travelled to Spirit Ridge Resort and Spa in Osoyoos British Columbia. We were very excited to come to Canada's only desert community to enjoy the weather, the lake, and each others company. Upon arriving at Spirit Ridge we were very impressed with the outside appearence of the resort it had a very nice look to it and appeared well maintained.
Our trip soon however turned negative and unfortunately things got progressively worse. First of all the checkin time was 4pm
and we arrived shortly after 4pm with all of our luggage and groceries expecting to get our room key and start our vaction.
The two employees at the odd front desk area immediatley told us our room was not ready? We said no problem we will take another room. They said there were no other rooms and our room would be ready some time later. My wife now was becoming very frustrated and the kids 4 and 7 were in no mood to wait in the lobby for a room to get cleaned some time later!
They front desk personel appeared irritated that we were not willing to wait and appeared to discount our concerns with no regard to our feelings what so ever. They suggested that we leave our belongings and groceries unattended in the lobby and go sit at the pool and wait?
The long and short of this is we eventually got a room key some 45 minutes late with no apalogy. Another couple who were also waiting to check in were offered a wine voucher for their trouble but we were given nothing.
The room was clean when we checked in but that only lasted one night. This resort has the worse survess I have ever come across for a 4 star property. For our entire 5 day stay our room was not cleaned? Every day we had to ask to get clean towels and even had to ask for toilet paper. I was force to walk out to the dumpster to drop off the trash from the room.
The part of the resort we were staying at got dirty very quickly there was garbage in the hallways and in the elevator for our entire stay. Needless to say this made it very hard to stay positive and enjoy our selves.
The pool area was nice at first but like the room got dirty over our stay and the water in the pool appeared very dirty. We asked the pool attendent to come over to the edge of the pool and showed her the floating debris in the water and hoped she would call the maintenance department but she said it was just sunscreen and walked away without a word? Upon closer inspection there was vomit in the water. Imagine how bad we felt when we had to tell our two little ones that they could not go in the pool.
Back to the room cleaning or lack of. 4 days in to our stay my wife found two little girls in our room one afternoon . My wife asked them what they were doing in our room and they responded that they were cleaning staff. She asked them how old were they. To her amazement and shock they told her they were 9 and 10 years old!!!! My wife was in shock that these little girls were left unattended to clean rooms in a hotel? Here we were complaining about the state of our room when in fact these little girls were responsible for cleaning the room. It made us sick to our stomachs for complaing and we felt very bad for these little girls. There are child labour laws in British Columbia and we brought that to the attention of the manager when we checked out
and he advised us that the parents had authorised this?
Anyhow I know this all sounds very negative but there is no way to sugar coat our experience here. I will say my favorite time here was golfing with my 7 year old at the adjoining Sonora Dunes course. The manager at Spirit Ridge did express his dissapointment in our experience here and did discount some of our bill but that was little consolation to us as we could have cared less about saving some money on our bill. We just wanted a good experience for our two kids and unfortunatley they will always remember mom and dad very sad.
I hope anyone else who visits here has a better experience than what we had. My suggestion would be to go to 4 or 5 star property in Kelowna and not risk going here.
Doug
Abbotsford BC
Canada
Okay, but definitely a disappointment for a relaxing holiday
by TripAdvisor Member Lamsteiner
The suite was well decorated but the facitilies limited at this time so this property is very overpriced for what was available. There is only one small pool and a water slide. There was loud screaming from 10am to 10pm so you might as well be at the community center pool during public swim instead of an expensive resort. Don't get me wrong I think it's great that the children were enjoying themselves, but I expected to find at least an hour where I could relax without the squealing. Maybe they will be building another pool in the next phase.
Restaurant Passe Tempo was good, except for the weak coffee.
Service was variable as everyone is basically "in training" so questions took a long time to answer. If you expect good service & a "real" resort facility wait another year or two before booking.
For the money (over $300/night) next summer, I would stay at Sol Vita (condo) down by the lake where they have a gated community with several pools.
hot, hot, hot
by TripAdvisor Member MugRug
Very nice,new property. A little isolated from the rest of Osoyoos, but if that's what you are looking for, great. We had a room facing the pool/vineyard. Very nice as at night the band played in the lounge and we could sit out on the balcony and be entertained. Did not use the restaurant although it looked very nice. Rooms had a full kitchen. Furniture in living room not very comfy, cosy. They also have a roof top area with a great view where you can sit and visit or suntan. We had a problem with being charged more than when I booked, and because we were on our way out I had to phone them when we got back home. Issue was resolved with no questions asked. There is a winery on property. Outdoor restaurant in the winery has misters that are on during the hot, hot daytime which keep you cool. Great wine! Not sure if we would stay again. Although we did enjoy our stay, it was expensive and location was not so great.
Lovely quiet private beach
by TripAdvisor Member doobey
Nice place to stay. We didnt have a room overlooking the lake which was disappointing although they had told us that when we booked so no complaints there...kitchen very well equipped, room immaculate and bbq on balcony a nice touch. We ate in both the restaurant and the vineyard restaurant - both very friendly, the latter a must for anyone visiting. They have a small private beach on the lake which most people didnt seem to visit - when the pool is crowded with children, its a nice place to escape to. Overall, friendly staff, nice place, would go back...but only with a room overlooking the lake.
Good And Bad
by TripAdvisor Member CletePurcel
It's easy to see how this place divides opinions.
Good points:
Nice rooms
Decent pool (reasonably quiet off-season)
Excellent restaurant (but pricey)
Fellow guests I talked to complimented the golf course
We have just returned from a week there on the 7 days for the cost of 5 deal which was good value.
Nice scenic location
Bad:
Housekeeping service has serious problems that have well documented in other reviews
Room wasn't ready on arrival - front desk ambivalent
Thin walls
The overall complex is still a building site
There are no other restaurants within a 25 minute walk that you wouldn't do after nightfall but there are reasonable kitchen facilities if you want to cook.
Hoping to go back next year
by TripAdvisor Member posemuckl
This resort was everything that we had expected. We had our wedding at Spirit Ridge and in addition to us (bride and groom), we also had our immediate family and friends staying at the resort.
In general, our experience with the resort was great. The hotel upgraded our one-bedroom suite to a villa for the first 3 nights, because the regular suites were booked solid for one of those 3 nights. This upgrade occurred without any extra charges.
In the villa, as well as in the corner suite, we had a private moon soaker tub on the deck. A feature, which we enjoyed immensely. The rooms and villas are all nicely appointed and have all the amenities one could ask for (the villas even have in-suite laundry). The rooms have all the nice little touches, that make a stay more memorable.
We thoroughly enjoyed our wedding and stay at the resort. The staff at the hotel was very helpful in providing some simple decor for the wedding ceremony on the rooftop terrace. The hotel was very accommodating and provided the terrace to us free of charge for the ceremony. The guys from the golf course (Sonora Dunes) were very nice and lent us a golf cart for us and our photographer to cruise to different locations at the resort to take pictures.
We held our wedding dinner at the Passa Tempo restaurant, which reserved one of their outside terraces for our small wedding party. The ambience, the service and the food were absolutely amazing. Everybody just loved it.
It is true that the hotel can use some improvement in the service department, as they are not quite up to par of a 4 star resort. There were a few glitches that our wedding guests encountered. One room for example was not ready until 7 p.m. (check in at 4 p.m.) and this room was located right beside the construction site, which was loud and creating a lot of dust. This particular villa should not be rented out during the construction time, or a discount should be provided to those guests.
We have read a number of reviews on tripadvisor from people complaining about the lack of room service. However, on the resort's website it's clearly spelled out that they will clean the rooms on the third day of the stay, if the guest stays for one week. They did make the beds, changed the towels and cleaned out the garbage on a daily basis though. The fact that the rooms were not cleaned daily, was not an issue for any of our guests. We suggest that travelers inform themselves about what exactly to expect prior to arrival at any hotel or resort.
All in all we had a great time at the resort. Our families and guests liked the location amidst the vineyard and enjoyed its tranquility. The smallness of the resort and the cluster of villas allowed everyone to mingle and spend time with each other. The relaxed atmosphere allowed us to take a breather before and after the hectic wedding day. The Sonora Dunes golf course was great to play at, the restaurant is fabulous and we are looking forward to coming back and spending our first wedding anniversary at the resort.
We call dibs on Villa #14!!
Resort undergoing construction - very noisey
by TripAdvisor Member KaiserVictoria
Our 4 night stay at Spirit Ridge was marred by construction noise and vibrations that rattled our condo. Workers paving an adjacent parking lot used excavation equipment and rollers that used high intensity vibration. Our condo was unuseable during the day from about 7:30 a.m. to approx. 5 p.m. We were told that construction would be ongoing for the next 18 mos. After complaining we were given a 15% discount on the condo rate. I also complained about not being warned of the construction at the time we made our reservation. The Manager agreed that we should have been told and advised the those currently making reservations are being told of the construction.
A minor point for barbeque enthusiasts. The advertised barbeque, at least at our unit, was in fact simply an outdoor, electric grill that basically fries food. A pan on the electric stove would achieve the same.
Photos
Osoyoos town below
Go-carts at Rattlesnake Canyon
Osoyoos, vineyards and orchards
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