Canada · British Columbia
Where to Stay in Kamloops, British Columbia
The North and South Thompson merge at Kamloops, the commercial centre of Thompson Country and a city billed as the Tournament Capital of Canada.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Kamloops
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Rivers divide the options. The North Thompson and the South Thompson come together inside the city, and a room on either arm gives a different set of walks and a different drive to everything else. Downtown is the obvious start.
Beds near Sacred Heart Cathedral and the City of Kamloops Museum and Archives put the civic core within walking distance, and the Kamloops railway station belongs to the same short list. Tournament weekends change the maths. The Tournament Capital Center and the Kamloops Memorial Arena fill rooms when a championship is in town, and a booking made late in those weeks can push a stay out toward Kamloops Lake.
Thompson Country starts at the edge. A base out toward Kamloops Lake trades the walk to the cathedral for water and open country, which is the right trade for anyone here to fish. Fort Kamloops names the older ground.
The Kamloops Heritage Railway belongs to the same backward-looking side of the city, and a stay near either one suits visitors more interested in the record than in the fixtures. The city covers 299 square kilometres. Distances inside it are real, so pick the side of the Thompson River that matches the reason for the trip and accept the drive to the other one.
About Kamloops
Sport is the sales pitch.
What is Kamloops known for?
Kamloops is billed as the Tournament Capital of Canada, and the record behind the claim includes the Strauss Canada Cup of Curling, Skate Canada, the World Fly Fishing Championships, and the World Junior Hockey Championships. The venues back it up. The Tournament Capital Center and the Kamloops Memorial Arena take the fixtures, and the Tim Horton's Olympic Qualifying Bike Race has run here too.
Fishing runs alongside all of it.
What are the main landmarks in Kamloops?
Fort Kamloops is the first name on the list. Sacred Heart Cathedral carries the church side, and the City of Kamloops Museum and Archives holds the documents and everything else the city has kept. Rail runs through the list twice.
The Kamloops railway station stands for the working line, and the Kamloops Heritage Railway for the preserved one, while the Tournament Capital Center and the Kamloops Memorial Arena cover sport. Seven names, and that is the list.
What is the history of Kamloops?
The date is 1811. A fort at the junction of the North Thompson and the South Thompson dates the written record here, and Fort Kamloops still carries the name. Two rivers became one.
They join inside the city to form the Thompson River, which runs on toward Kamloops Lake, and that junction is the reason anything was built here at all. Thompson Country grew around it. Kamloops became the commercial centre of that region and its largest city, a position it holds within the British Columbia Interior rather than on the coast.
The railway wrote the next chapter. The Kamloops railway station marks the working line, and the Kamloops Heritage Railway preserves what came before the current traffic. Sacred Heart Cathedral belongs to the same civic build-out.
The City of Kamloops Museum and Archives holds the paperwork behind all of it, from the fort through to the tournaments that the city now advertises itself on. Sport came last. The Tournament Capital Center and the Kamloops Memorial Arena gave the billing something to stand on, and the World Junior Hockey Championships and the World Fly Fishing Championships are part of that record.
Where is Kamloops?
Two rivers and a lake explain it. The North Thompson and the South Thompson join inside Kamloops to form the Thompson River, and the city stands east of Kamloops Lake. Thompson Country surrounds it.
The municipal ground covers 299 square kilometres of the British Columbia Interior, so the city takes in far more than its built-up part. The coast is a long way off.
What is the climate of Kamloops?
Inland distance sets the pattern. Kamloops sits in the temperate band of the northern hemisphere well inside the British Columbia Interior, so the year swings wider than it does for the coastal cities of the province. The rivers moderate the valley floor.
The North Thompson and the South Thompson carry water through the middle of the city year-round, and the Thompson River takes it on toward Kamloops Lake. Fishing seasons follow the water.
How do you get to Kamloops?
The station is the old front door. Kamloops railway station puts the city on the working line, and the Kamloops Heritage Railway runs for the people who came for the trains themselves. Everything else arrives by highway.
The city is the commercial centre of Thompson Country, so routes across the British Columbia Interior converge here rather than passing it by, and most arrivals come by car. Kamloops Lake marks the way out.
Good for
More cities in British Columbia
Updated August 2026