Why should I book a tour with your company?
Choosing a Kelowna wine tour company isn’t just about finding a vehicle to take you to wineries. The company you choose affects which wineries you visit, how much time you spend at each stop, how much driving you do, and how relaxed the day feels.
Red Dog Wine Tours has been operating Kelowna wine tours since 2016. Our focus is straightforward: provide a well-organized, comfortable wine-tasting experience with reliable transportation, knowledgeable guiding and enough time to actually enjoy each winery.
What makes Red Dog different?
A relaxed pace instead of rushing between wineries
Our standard public afternoon tour visits 4 wineries. We plan approximately an hour at each stop, giving you time for the tasting, the winery’s presentation, questions, conversation and shopping without feeling like you have to hurry out the door.
That’s a deliberate choice. We could try to fit more wineries into the afternoon, but we don’t think seeing more tasting rooms automatically makes a better wine tour.
See How Many Wineries Do We Visit? and How Long Does a Winery Tasting Take on a Kelowna Wine Tour? for more about how we pace our tours.
Door-to-door pickup and drop-off
We pick you up from your accommodation within our designated Kelowna and West Kelowna service area and return you at the end of the tour. You don’t have to find a meeting point, navigate unfamiliar roads or arrange a way back after an afternoon of wine tasting.
Learn more about where we pick up from and our pickup and drop-off times.
Comfortable transportation
We use Mercedes-Benz passenger vans, including our Sprinter and Metris, depending on the size and type of tour. Both provide comfortable transportation between wineries, air conditioning for warm Okanagan days and secure space for wine purchases.
See What Type of Vehicles Are Used? for more information about our vans.
Tasting fees are included
Our standard tours include the tasting fees at the wineries, along with bottled water and a light snack. You don’t have to keep reaching for your wallet at every stop to pay another tasting fee.
For the complete list of what is included, see What Is Included in the Tours?.
Local knowledge matters
A good wine tour isn’t simply transportation between four tasting rooms. Your guide helps put the wineries, vineyards, wines and Okanagan landscape into context, answers questions and keeps the day moving smoothly.
We have been guiding visitors through Kelowna and the surrounding wine country for years, so we understand that different guests want different things from their wine-tasting experience. Some are serious wine enthusiasts, while others simply want a relaxed afternoon discovering the region.
How should you choose a Kelowna wine tour company?
Red Dog isn’t necessarily the right choice for every visitor. The best tour depends on your group size, budget, preferred wineries, desired pace and whether you want a public or private experience.
KelownaGuide’s independent planning article How Do I Choose the Right Wine Tour Company in Kelowna? explains what to look for when comparing tour companies, including reviews, winery selection, transportation, tour style, pricing and local knowledge.
If you’re deciding whether you even need a tour, KelownaGuide also explains Do I Need a Car for a Kelowna Wine Tour? and the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of getting around wine country.
Public or private?
Our public afternoon tour is designed for visitors who want a relaxed, straightforward wine-tasting experience without having to plan the route themselves.
If you want more control over the wineries, timing, route or group experience, a private tour gives you considerably more flexibility. You can use our Private Wine Tour Planner to start building your own itinerary.
The bottom line
We believe the best reason to choose Red Dog is simple: we concentrate on making the afternoon enjoyable rather than trying to pack as much as possible into it.
Four wineries, comfortable transportation, accommodation pickup and drop-off, included tasting fees, a knowledgeable guide and enough time at each stop create a wine tour that feels like a vacation rather than a transportation schedule.