Penticton, BC Health and Fitness

Catharine Goheen founded Dr. Specs Optical in Kelowna in 1987 to offer patients exquisitely crafted lenses at prices they could afford. Today at the high-tech optical lab, skilled technicians continue to churn out perfectly formed lenses in as little as one hour, with varieties ranging from simple uncoated prescriptions to polarized Drivewear lenses. The knowledgeable staff helps clients select from more than 2,000 varieties of frames, making recommendations based on face shape, lifestyle, and probability of being mistaken for a professor.

Dr. Specs give back to the surrounding community by donating eyeglasses once a year to churches, Rotary Clubs, and hospitals. During mission trips, the team helps disadvantaged communities live fuller, happier, and easier lives by supplying them with prescription glasses.

Every day of the week, Oranj Fitness bustles with activity as groups boogie through dance routines, stretch through yoga poses, and cruise through spin classes. The studio invites exercisers of all fitness levels to try new workouts with a wide variety of drop-in classes, each presenting a fun, community-based vibe. To keep pace with industry trends, Oranj works with local athletes, who give constant feedback on classes and the most flattering brand of short shorts. The centre also offers numerous amenities, including a smoothie bar, towel service, and child care seven days a week.

Dedicated to saving the golf world from mulligans one slice-prone swing at a time, World Beat Golf’s team of aces imparts score-shaving advice at an outdoor practice facility. With an emphasis on building a balanced swing, developing reliable pre-swing fundamentals, and shoring up the short game, the pros foster straighter shots in private lessons and with programs for juniors and women. For more independent practice, World Beat Golf offers punch cards for driving-range balls, which players hit off of natural grass or synthetic hitting bays that provide a consistently immaculate lie and spare players from responding emotionally to divots shaped like their favourite childhood stuffed animals.

H2O Adventure + Fitness Centre, one of the largest municipally-owned water parks in Canada, blends an indoor waterpark and gym, joining an Olympic-size pool and wave simulators with a 12,000-square-foot weight room, cardio area, and fitness studio. The centre’s aquatic arena spreads out to accommodate 60-, 80-, and 90-metre waterslides, plus a river run where swimmers drift along on flotation devices. The FlowRider ocean-wave surf simulator invites boogie boarders to glide atop rippling water; the wave pool’s 1.5-metre breakers roll over swimmers and the spray park entertains whippersnappers as they frolic about nozzles and jets spouting H2O. Instructors help members and drop-in participants tone muscles during land- or aqua-fitness classes.

Holly Dufour named Inner Peace Wellness Centre, her health haven nestled in the Okanagan Valley, after her conviction that optimal wellness should come from within, aided by all-natural detoxification methods that restore the body's natural balance. The facility offers an array of alternative therapies including healing massage, infrared sauna, and detox body wraps. Reflexology treatments apply pressure to reflexes in the feet in order to relieve tension and improve circulation in the body. Ionic footbaths send ions into the body through pores in the feet in order to neutralize oppositely charged toxins. This helps the body flush out these toxins.

Inside Venus Eye Boutique's space, marked by sleek displays and dark-wood panelling, customers peruse a large selection of 100 per cent Canadian-designed eyewear from the boutique's eponymous line of frames. Men, women, and children can find new, attractive eyewear in the store, and staff educates each patron on frame and lens type to ensure perfectly fitted and functioning sight.