Ruby's Landing River Resort — Hotel in Waynesville

Over the past 25 years of paddling Missouri's Ozarks waterways, and hundreds of camp-outs, I've seen quite a range in the quality of service and facilities from private outfitters. Ruby's has room for improvement.

This was not a good experience with Ruby's staff and management. The owner, desk-clerk, and our driver all had differing data on exactly where our put-in and take-out were located. Huh? The driver told us our t/o was 5 miles below our campsite, while the owner told us ALL their trips end at our camp. Ok, that's fine, please take us to the 10-mile put-in. Nope. The driver took us NOT to the contracted 10 mile trip put-in, but to a Missouri Conservation Dept Access only 5 miles upstream. I'd paid Ruby's $20 for them to shuttle my canoe up river to a more distant, private put-in, but instead, they drop us off at a close-by MDC Access, where I could've run my own shuttle (I have my own canoe) with our group and saved my shuttle-fee. (Score $20 to Ruby's. Nice trick, Ruby.)

Snafu #2: Despite the owner knowing weeks in advance that a group of men and women were going to camp for several days at their tent-campground, Ruby's had placed no porta-potties in the entire campground. So, we asked (repeatedly) for a porta-potty to be brought down from the campground's collection (stored up near their office). Sadly, no, the management admitted they are "Too busy." to put out porta-potties in the campground. (It's hot in late June, and who wants to walk 1/2 a mile from the riverside campground up the hill to use the restroom?)

Ruby's Landing is in its infancy, so hopefully they will improve in the future, with more experienced staff, and gain a sense of appreciation for their clientele.

Pros: Clean restrooms close by the office (with odd, nearly non-functional sinks..who designed these odd concrete tops?) Pet-friendly (aka, friendly dogs can run free-range). Cons: Old, poorly running shuttle vehicles, ancient aluminum canoes for rent. Unorganized and under-informed staff. (where is our put-in and take-out?) Few picnic tables, no fire-rings, no restroom facilities near the river-side campground. And all the above lack of services in late June, a month and a half after the high water, plenty of time to prepare for the "bread & butter season Seems the ownership is too busy with the heavy construction and earth-moving they are doing. By the way, does it make sense to bulldoze nearly all of the trees...

Worst experience of my life! Ok so where do I begin! B4 getting our floats I informed the employees that we needed life jackets because my little 12 y/o cousin, my aunt, and I can’t swim! They told me we really didn’t need them because it’s extremely shallow. “She told me if I think I’m drowning, just stand up” I laughed like oh ok perfect we have nothing to worry about. We got there at 11:30 and she told us we had to wait until one to get on the river! So we waited till 1pm got our floats and got on the river they tell you it’s a 5 mile stretch takes about 4 hours. And that you need to be out the water by 7pm Well let me tell you about this no flow, Very slow, extremely Shallow, stagnant River it was so shallow we had to walk down most of the river because we were getting stuck on rocks. painful because the rocks hurt and are slippery from algae! So it’s about 6pm we’re still walking/ floating, down the river we’re tired exhausted our phones have no signal ... the water starts to get really deep around 7pm where we can’t touch the bottom we have no choice but to really get on the floats to secure ourselves no life jackets and the sun is starting to go down the employee told of we would see a colored marker or sign signaling we’re almost close to the end, never see one we’re just floating starting to panic that we took a wrong turn because we’ve been on the water for 6 hours and now it’s getting dark, my arms and feet were tired so were there’s and the water is not pushing us we have to petal hard to get further I had an anxiety attack and legs went out on me almost drown in the water I had to get to the side of the river and ditch my float and attempt to climb a up the side to get to some land, my aunt was about 10 mins behind in her float we waited on her then we all climbed a about a 13 ft cliff, it was a struggle we finally got to land and walked found a mans house, we asked him For help and to use his phone he said he didn’t have one I offered to pay him $100 to drive us back to safety he told us to get back in the water we only have a little ways longer to go! MR. There no sun out anymore! So we came to another house and the most nice lady I’ve ever met she helped us im forever grateful for her she drive us back and she was like wow you were quite a ways away! Don’t go to this place I felt like I was in a movie lost at sea trying to survive its was the worst. 10x worse then...

Stayed in a full hook-up RV site for almost 2 weeks right next to the playground. They were very helpful over the phone giving advice about which spot to book and activities they were putting on at the park. We were even able to get a discount for extended stay. Electric, water, sewer hook-ups in perfect condition. Water tastes great! They have bathrooms/showers/washer/dryer and no weird smells wafting from the bathrooms. Walking to the boat ramp area took less than 5 min. There’s a little “beach” area the kids loved playing in. Set up the chairs and had a little picnic. Very quiet family friendly park. Cute downtown area in Waynesville. Several restaurants and a killer coffee shop/cafe with board games. Unfortunately our scheduled river float was cancelled after some heavy rains raised the water level and water was flowing pretty fast. I was a little nervous about taking the kids out compared to what it had been earlier in the week. They definitely have safety first in sending someone out to check the status before bringing anyone out. Kudos to them for that! And gave us a full refund after canceling (which you won’t get everywhere…other places give you a credit or just take you out anyway so they don’t lose the revenue).

FYI grass grows about an inch every few hours in Missouri in the summer :) If you’re booking an extended stay, bring something to cut the grass near your site (saw a few people with weedwackers) or for a few extra bucks they’ll mow around your site for you. It’s well worth it!

Just a heads up, we came in a lot later than originally planned because of traffic delays. We missed the original turn onto the street, and in the dark it was a little hard to find a place big enough to turn around and find our way back. There is a large church parking lot up the way that saved us! There is a bit of a hill when you first turn down, but not to worry! it’s not as bad as it looks in the dark. We were able to make it back up the hill when we left with no problems.

Overall had a great stay! Will...