Vernon is cool. Not as plastic and jammed full of tourists in comparison to Kelowna. Kelowna is know for prairie folks puking off the back of houseboats. Mind you, Kelowna can be cool too. I am just bias to Kalamalka Lake since my homies and I have a cabin there.
Kamloops is a good place to gas up and fill up a coffee mug, then keep going.
Some other cool place to check out:
Nelson, Rossland, Kootenay Lake, Kimberley, Christina Lake, Salmon Arm and the Shuswap area, Yoho Park, Well's Gray, Revelstoke and the Arrow Lakes, Ainsworth, Kokanee Glacier Park, White Swan area, anywhere up the Coast, of course, Tofino and the Island.
I think the Coast Mountains kick ars on the Rockies in the summer, but that is just me.
try to avoid Cranbrook! You will probably get stabbed with a broken whiskey bottle if you stay in that burned out town too long.
Avoid Trail, there is a smelter in the middle of the town that used to poison the valley with lead.
Merrit is a country music town, I try to drive fast through there.