This is the fifth winter we have stayed here so that in itself is a recommendation. It may not be five star but it is comfortable, has all the amenties you need and the location is the absolute best - out the front door of the lodge, click on the skis and straight to the chairlift. Its close enough to drop back in for a hot chocolate at morning tea and for lunch. Plus the restaurants, grocery store, liquor store, etc, are all very close by. We will be returning next year.

We visited Sun Peaks this year during the summer/fall trip that we took. We decided to stay at the Hearthstone Lodge during our visit up here in Sun Peaks.

The room was very organized and clean. There was a kitchenette, along with a roll away bed, and also a king sized bed. This is great for both couples, and even a couple of couples or people that are wanting to stay together during their stay at this accommodation.

The only dislike that we had about this accommodation was the heat. There was no air conditioner with the fact that these places are designed for the winter, with double insulated windows, and with the fire places. We did take the advantage of the fan that was in this room, and we did try to get some of the ice from the ice maker to put in front of the fan to try and cool it down, but it was still quite warm.

One of the local people who work in the area, suggested that we try getting it cooler, by sticking the back of the fan against the open window, and that would draw in some of the cooler air. We did that, and that did help.

Overall, I would recommend this place, as it is a great accommodation. It is a bit slow and not much activity the time that we went up, but it would be lively either during the summer when a lot of the recreational activities are available, and especially during the winter, when there is a lot of activities too.

There are a lot of restaurants in the lodge to take advantage of as well, including the use of a hot tub too.

Came here because it was similar price to Downtown Kamloops. We felt we would get better value. We did. It was a nice place. We were here in the summer. There is no Air Conditioning in the room. The window does open and a fan was provided. I think in the winter, there is no issue and this place is great.

Sun Peaks resort is a nice resort and the Hearthstone Lodge is a nice hotel. It is all new and painted pink and peach, a bit like a Disney theme park. And you can't find fault with a Disney theme park, can you? What about a Disney theme park with no visitors, where all the shops were closed? And no attractions?

You have to differentiate between Sun Peaks in the winter and in the summer. In the winter (I would suppose) it is heaving with activity, you can fall out of bed and hit your head on a ski lift, ski down the mountain straight into your seat for dinner. Sun Peaks was built for the winter.

Which leaves them with a lot of empty bedrooms in the summer. No only bedrooms, but time-share apartments (there are 400 residents and 900 non-residents). That means a lot of Receptionists sitting around playing Patience on their computers and langorous caretakers pushing mops slowly around the polished concrete floors amidst the deafening silence of the empty underground parkades.

Hearthstone Lodge has good facilities to wash clothes if you are an independent traveller and the Web is accessible via Ethernet at 5Mbps. WiFi has no passwords which is a refreshing improvement (who wants to type arcane passwords into their iPhone every few hours)? Other than that, I had more fun when I was on the Witness Protection Program.

You can stay in your room which (if the sun is shining) is so well insulated it varies from 79F to 85F and play Patience like the Receptionist. We asked one of the hotel workers if there was anything to do locally in the summer, apart from walking. We had to walk away from him after five minutes because the question was overloading his brain. The hotel information pack is full of information about what to do. Somewhere else. In the winter.

Don't go to Sun Peaks just because they have got bedrooms to fill. Wait until they put on some proper touristic activities (other than the golf course). Wait until they take summer tourism seriously. It is over an hour away by car to the nearest town (Kamloops) which has two attractions (the historic railway and a children's zoo), but after two hours of looking at windows full of ski boots, unless you are trying to finish writing a book, you may feel the urge to move on.