Brandon’s crew at A+ Gutter & Window Cleaning

With over fifty 5-star reviews, A+ Gutter & Window Cleaning is your best option in Kamloops.  That’s a LOT for a service company and the closest competitor doesn’t even come close.  Local entrepreneur, Brandon Lazar started the company 10 years ago while still taking his BBA at TRU.  He started with one crew and this year will have 9 crews serving Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, Salmon Arm and everywhere in between.

Brandon takes care of his customers by taking care of his team.  He offers competitive wages, incentives for quality work, and scholarships for reliability and safety.

One recent reviewer writes:

We have had A Plus Gutter and Window cleaning in Kamloops clean the gutters in our strata complex for the past two years. They arrived on time with a smile. They did an excellent job and were a pleasure to work with so I would recommend them to anyone who needs gutters cleaned. You will not be disappointed!

From A+ themselves,

A+ Gutter & Window Cleaning specializes in gutter and window cleaning for residential, commercial and strata properties. Since 2008 we have served the interior of British Columbia in Kamloops, Kelowna, Salmon Arm, Chase, Vernon, Sicamous, Sorrento, Enderby, Armstrong, Peachland, Penticton, Summerland, Ashcroft, Savona, Cache Creek, Shuswap, Williams Lake and Scotch Creek. No job is too big or small for A+ Gutter & Window Cleaning. Visit http://aplusclean.ca to request a free quote.

For window and gutter cleaning in Kamloops, you’ve found your best option with A Plus.

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Aberdeen on December 27th, 2016. Taken from Mount Dufferin Park.

Aberdeen is one of Kamloops’ most popular neighbourhoods and is still growing with the new Harrison Heights and West Highlands subdivisions.  Due to it’s higher elevation, it’s a few degrees colder than downtown and that means a bit more snow. Many of the homes have excellent views as well.

Real Estate in Aberdeen

Prices of Houses and Condos

According to Snap Up Real Estate, the median asking price of a single family home in Aberdeen is $703,367 while condos average $300,679.  Houses range from $400,000 to $2,150,000 and condos range from $240,000 to $400,000.

Plans and Projects

The City of Kamloops has published an area plan for Aberdeen, which gives an in depth look at residential and commercial development plans.  The Edinburgh neighbourhood was recently announced as a 1600 unit expansion.

Pacific Ridge Estates, Stirling Heights, and Harrison View are a few of the new developments.  (Feel free to list others in the comments.)

The new casino was the most recent large scale commercial project.  It was a major renovation of the old Rona site.  Down the road at the corner of Hugh Allan Dr. and Pacific Way, the new Marriott Hotel was recently built with space remaining to build another facility there as well.

Hue Hotel was completed in 2019 at 1529 Hugh Allan Dr.  At 6 floors, it’s the tallest building in the neighbourhood.

A new car wash and 50,000 square foot self storage facility is being built on the 1.33 acre lot at the intersection of Hugh Allan Drive and Pacific Way.

Outdoor Recreation

West Highlands Park is a new park built around the West Highlands subdivision that is being built on what was formerly the Aberdeen Golf Course.

There are several cross-country mountain bike trails behind Pineview Valley, which is the neighbourhood west of Aberdeen.

Updated: July 6, 2020

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KamloopsCity.com

Created in 2003, it’s one of the oldest websites dedicated to Kamloops.  Darryl Schmidt is the owner, creator, webmaster, mastermind, and internet pioneer behind KamloopsCity.com.  He was online before “even the nerdiest of nerds” had heard of the internet and has been grinding out web projects ever since.  Darryl lives in Kamloops and has first hand knowledge of the city and it’s residents.

A sample of the KamloopsCity.com homepage from November 25th, 2016.

The modern, clean design makes it easy to find what you’re looking for and the events are kept current.  You’ll find semi-regular columns by locals Arjun Singh and Doug Smith.  It looks like Rich Weare may be a new contributor, he only has one article posted so far.  It would be nice to see more.

Businesses will want to get listed in the directory and stay current on business news, organizations, and events.

Restaurants, golf, and real estate are highlighted.  The golf page entices with a slideshow of the 20 pristine courses within a 90 minute drive of Kamloops.

Real Estate is Big on KamloopsCity.com

In the real estate section you’ll find KamloopsHouseTours.com, which offers professional photography and web presentation of homes for sale for a select group of Realtor clients in Kamloops.

Services offered by KamloopsHouseTours.com

If you’re looking to sell your property, you may want to insist that your Realtor employs Kamloops House Tours to get a professional tour created and to market it on their website.

Support your local Kamloops website and the local businesses and organizations listed there by sharing KamloopsCity.com around.  (Not everything is on social media.)

Other Kamloops Websites

Sites by media companies, will be covered in another post.  These other sites are either dormant or operated by ‘out-of-towners’.  We’ll take a look at Infotel Kamloops, KamloopsBCNow.com, KamloopsBC.com, and Kamloops.com.

Infotel Kamloops

This is the company that throws a thick directory on your doorstep once or twice a year.  (It’s ironic that they used the whole backpage to advertise their mobile app.) They have a large section of the site dedicated to Kamloops and other sections for Vernon, Kelowna, and Penticton.

Kamloops Infotel is a major source of local news and business listings. (Nov. 26, 2016)

Although Infotel is not dedicated to Kamloops, they do have a local rep driving a branded smart car around to remind folks they’re on the ground in Kamloops.

There are several local columnists – Andria Parker, Jonesie, Nancy Bepple, Scott Moran, and others.

KamloopsBCNow.com

It’s hard not to get vacuumed into the endless scrolling newsfeed on this Kamloops site modeled after the addictive interface of social media.  It used to be operated by Pulse Group Media who appear to have been amalgamated with CSEK Creative from Kelowna, which operated KelownaNow.com as well.

KamloopsBCNow.com’s homepage will captivate you with it’s endless local news feed.

Like Infotel, the news seems to be the same on the Kelowna and Kamloops sites.

KamloopsBC.com

Is a basic, ‘guide-type’ website about Kamloops and it’s old-school graphics and layout will remind you of the early days of the WWW.

Kamloops.com

You’d expect this site to be the premier online destination for Kamloops.  It may have been back in the 90’s, but it has not been updated for years and although there is content there, it’s mostly dormant.

Share Your Favourite Kamloops Websites

We’re not looking for social media pages, or sites by large media companies.  Share those hard to find gems that deserve a mention.

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A few personal tips:
1. If the weather doesn’t look great, go anyway.  Bad weather doesn’t last long around Kamloops.  (Check a weather app just in case.)
2. Take pictures, but pay attention to the view.  A photo never does it justice and doesn’t connect with your soul the way that fresh air does.
3. Don’t be a jerk – don’t litter.  Take absolutely all your garbage out with you including cigarette butts, dog crap, and anything else that wasn’t there before you arrived.  In fact, you can be a good citizen and bring back any garbage you find.

Hike Kamloops

Great photos from Hike Kamloops. All seem to be anonymous.

Hike Kamloops is a great place to see fairly recent photos from an anonymous hiker on an increasing number of Kamloops and area trails.

Kamloops Hiking Club

This club might be the coolest thing to happen to hiking in Kamloops since hiking boots.

The website is super slick.  It’s so good, I keep wondering if they make money doing this or if the only other thing they do besides hike is work on their website.  Wait, that sounds like someone I know . . .  (Not this site, a different one.)

The events calendar shows several hikes planned every week.  If you want overnighters, there are backpacking trips planned too.

There’s even a forum to chat about what’s going on and trade gear.

Kamloops Trails

Kamloops Trails has over 1100 posts on hiking in the area.

Kamloops Trails has over 1100 posts making it one of the most comprehensive hiking and outdoor activity resources in Kamloops and likely all of the BC Interior.  I’d like to know if they’ve been on 1100 hikes!  They also have Kamloops Hiking Trails which organizes hikes by location.

Trail Peak

Interactive map of hikes around Kamloops. Hover over them and click.

It’s not a Kamloops based site, but there are 80 or so trails posted for Kamloops and area.  Lots of great features: maps, GPS coordinates, reviews & discussions of trails, it’s a live community.  You can find mountain biking, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, paddling, and snowshoeing as well.

We’ve used this outside of Kamloops too.  It’s available for Canadian and US locations.

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Caffe Motivo is known for the best java in Kamloops.

If you’ve been to Motivo, you already know.  If you haven’t, you need to try it for yourself.  Motivo has the best coffee in Kamloops!

You’ll also find everything else you expect to find at a great cafe: teas, cold drinks, breakfast on the go, and light lunches.  Take coffee beans with you to grind at home as well.

Something you might not expect is brunch on Sunday.  We haven’t tried it yet, but it’s on the list.

If you want to bring Motivo to your meeting or event, they have catering and mobile coffee carafes.

Mike O’Reilly is the new manager and one of the owners.  So you know who to complain to if your coffee is too hot.

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Two unknown people playing squash.

Just found out there’s a Kamloops Squash Association.  Check it out to join a league, register for a tournament, or sponsor one of their events.

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The serenity of Kamloops Lake on a calm fall day.

Kamloops Lake is one of the least used large lakes in the Kamloops area.  On this fall day, it was calm and clear.  There was only one boat and you could hear the folks talking on it all the way across the lake.

One reason it’s not used as much is that there are limited access points.  The addition of the marina at Tobiano has made the lake a lot more practical for pleasure craft boaters.

The water level of Kamloops Lake changes 10 to 15 feet per season.

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Battle Bluff and Kamloops Lake from the West

If you’ve ever hiked Battle Bluff, you know it can get pretty busy.  On this day, the parking lot was full so I headed further west and hiked onto a different bluff.  Great view of the lake and no people.  Parts of it you have to make your own trail.

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