Stay and play near Hyde Mountain: where to sleep around Sicamous

Staying in Sicamous

Sicamous has the accommodation profile of a highway town that also happens to be a lake resort: a cluster of independent motels along the Trans-Canada, a handful of lakeside resorts and cabin operations, RV parks and campgrounds, and — uniquely — several hundred berths of floating accommodation in the form of the houseboat fleets. What it does not have is a chain hotel of any size, which surprises people booking from a distance.

For a golf trip the practical consequence is that you should book early for July and August and can be relaxed about the rest of the season. The town fills around the houseboat charter changeover days, and those are the nights when a room is genuinely hard to find rather than merely expensive.

The course is a short drive south of town on Old Spallumcheen Road. Nothing in Sicamous is more than about ten minutes from the first tee, so choosing where to stay here is a question of what you want to look at rather than how far you want to drive.

On the water

Renting a houseboat and playing golf from it is a genuinely available option and the one thing this area offers that almost nowhere else does. The boats moor in Sicamous, the course is ten minutes away by road, and charters are typically three, four or seven nights. It works best for a group where only some people play — the golfers take the car for a morning, everyone else stays on the water.

Lakeside cabin and resort operations sit along both Mara Lake and the Shuswap arms, mostly small and family-run, and many are booked a season ahead by returning guests. Provincial and private campgrounds cover the same shore. Anyone arriving with an RV has more choice here than anyone arriving without a booking and looking for a room.

Basing yourself in Salmon Arm instead

Salmon Arm is thirty minutes west and is the pragmatic alternative. It is several times the size, has the chain hotels Sicamous lacks, a wider choice of restaurants, and puts you within fifteen minutes of three eighteen-hole courses instead of one. The cost is that you are half an hour from Mara Lake, and the lake is the reason most people come to this valley in the first place.

The trade is straightforward. If the trip is mostly golf across several courses, base in Salmon Arm. If the trip is a lake holiday with a round or two attached, base in Sicamous. The Shuswap golf page lists what is reachable from each.

Stay and play packages

Stay-and-play packaging has been a regional fixture for years, usually assembled by tour operators combining several Shuswap courses with Salmon Arm accommodation rather than sold by any individual course. Those packages come and go with the operators behind them, so a current search will serve you better than any list published here.

Booking direct is often just as good and sometimes better. Accommodation in Sicamous is dominated by independents who will negotiate on multi-night stays outside peak weeks, and tee times under the current operator are booked through its own channel in any case — the tee times page explains that route. If you want the lake as well, the Mara Lake page covers the boating season.

Camping, RV parks and when to book

Camping is the strongest part of the accommodation mix here and the part visitors most often overlook. Provincial and private campgrounds sit along both Mara Lake and the Shuswap arms, several within fifteen minutes of the first tee, and a number of the private sites are set up for larger rigs with full hookups. Club Shuswap on the Salmon Arm side combines an RV park with its own golf, which makes it the obvious base for anyone travelling with a trailer and a set of clubs.

The booking calendar in this valley is unusually sharp. Provincial campground reservations for the July and August peak open months in advance and the Shuswap sites go quickly, particularly for weekends. Private parks hold availability longer but raise rates through the same window. Everything eases from the second week of September, which is also when the golf improves — cooler mornings, firmer greens, and a tee sheet you can walk onto.

If you are pricing a trip, compare total cost rather than nightly rate. A campsite plus a green fee is frequently less than a motel room alone in peak week, and the campgrounds are no further from the course than the motels are.

Questions about staying here

How close is accommodation to the course?

Everything in Sicamous is within about ten minutes’ drive of the first tee. The course sits south of town on Old Spallumcheen Road; there is no accommodation at the course itself.

Are there hotels in Sicamous?

Independent motels, lakeside resorts, cabins, campgrounds and RV parks, but no large chain hotel. Visitors wanting a conventional hotel generally stay in Salmon Arm, thirty minutes west.

When do I need to book ahead?

July and August, and particularly around houseboat charter changeover days when the town fills. June and September are usually available at short notice, and are better months to play the course anyway.

Can you stay on a houseboat and still golf?

Yes — it is the local speciality. Boats moor in Sicamous and the course is roughly ten minutes away by road, so a morning round from a moored boat is straightforward provided the group has a vehicle.

Is Salmon Arm a better base?

For a multi-course golf trip, yes: more accommodation, more restaurants and three eighteen-hole courses within fifteen minutes. For a lake trip with golf attached, Sicamous wins, because the water is on the doorstep.