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The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center 

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Branson, Missouri for the first time on a wonderful media trip with some amazing bloggers. We saw shows, went to amusement parks and museums, shopped and ate until we couldn’t fit in another bite. While we were there, we were hosted by the wonderful people of The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center, who made their hotel our home for the duration of the trip. The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center truly became my Branson palace, and we were all treated like royalty! Before I tell you about all the amazing things we did that you can do on your own Branson vacation, too, I would be remiss if I didn’t first share with you my top reasons why The Stone Caste Hotel & Conference Center is this Queen’s Branson Palace. Be sure to read through, because I have an exciting giveaway for you so you can have your own Branson family vacation! 

From the moment you arrive and drive under the stone archway and up the long driveway, you know you are going to be in for a treat! The Stone Castle is nestled in the beautiful Ozark foothills, right in the heart of Branson, and the large and impressive 3 building hotel is perfectly located to take in all Branson has to offer.

Upon check-in, you are greeted by your first taste of the people of Branson and from that moment on, everyone you meet in the friendly town of Branson is the exact same way: warm, genuine, welcoming. There is some debate on whether Missouri is a Southern state or not, but let me tell you, my own southern hospitality meter registered an authentic experience of just that. This was southern hospitality at its finest and having lived and traveled all over the south, even if Branson Missouri is not a southern state officially, I, the Peachy Queen, bestow upon it the highest honor of hospitality award, The Royal Peach. 

In addition to checking in, right there in the lobby at Stone Castle you can get great deals on tickets for shows and attractions and you can even get packages that include your stay and a show, like the Dolly Parton’s Stampede or the Clay Cooper Country Express. Just let the concierge know what kind of entertainment you are looking for, and they will set you right up! On the day when I checked in, concierge was spending a good amount of time planning an entire itinerary for one couple, including giving them a well-marked map of Branson so they could find everything easily. Once again, that wonderful hospitality is what you will come to expect in Branson and especially at The Stone Castle, where everyone becomes a Branson cousin.  

Warm, welcoming and gracious

The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center is a 299 room hotel and makes for the perfect place to call home in Branson for the budget savvy traveler. With so many types of rooms available, from standard to themed rooms to family suites, there is a room type to fit all your needs…and wants, too!

On our first night, I shared a room with my blogging pal, Winona, of Southern Family Fun. We had traveled together from Atlanta and had enjoyed the road trip across the south in the awesome Chevy Equinox. After arriving and checking in, we made it to our room where we were greeted with a standard double queen room, well equipped and clean as a whistle! After taking some time to stock our fridge, we made our way to the indoor pool in our building. With two pools and hot tubs, both enclosed and out of the elements, guests who long for a dip during their stay are easily accommodated, no matter the time of year. You never would have guessed that snow flurries were going on outside, the pool and hot tub were warm and welcoming. Hmmm…I am starting to see a theme here! ? 

Rooms, suites and conference areas

On my second night I moved to my own room and was tickled pink when I opened the door – I had been given one of the wonderful themed rooms, and mine couldn’t have been more perfect! If you have followed me for a while, you know that I am into Feng Shui and long to travel to China, Japan, and pretty much all of Asia. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to my own Imperial Palace! With comfortable surroundings, a giant hot tub and beautiful murals, I was suddenly whisked away to my own little temple, and I loved it! 

Stone Castle has so many wonderful themed rooms – 36 to be exact! You can choose from The Presidential Suite to an Allstar’s dugout. Find peace in the calming Native America room, or kick up some fun in Dolly Parton’s Stampede Suite. There’s golf and high seas, cowboys, space odysseys and guitars. Whatever your tastes, you will find a themed room to match.

Among the themed rooms (and some not so heavily themed) you’ll find the best budget friendly rooms there are for your family vacation; the family suites! With separate bedrooms for mom and dad, sleeper sofas and beds for the kids plus kitchenettes with everything you might need, these large rooms are a fantastic choice for you savvy travel mama’s. I know many people don’t like to cook while on vacation, but for my family, we always love staying where we have a kitchen. After a day of theme parks or too much sun, sometimes a ‘home-cooked meal’ in your vacation resort home is the very best thing! Because we also deal with food allergies, sometimes it is nice to have exactly what you know your family likes on hand. My bank account also loves when I save money on vacation, and by eating a lunch or dinner in the room I help that happen. Another budget help is that these rooms list at well under $200.00 a night, but at The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center, there is always a great deal going on meaning you can save even more most nights, and often combine them with a package deal, like tickets to Silver Dollar City! 

Plenty of space for reunions, weddings, parties or business conferences

Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center is also perfect for your large family groups and even things like reunions, wedding receptions, business conferences and other times when you need a large conference area. With seven different reception or banquet halls and meeting rooms, you can host your next family reunion, quilters club meeting or even hold a gathering of old military buddies. My father-in-law is a Vietnam veteran and travels often to places to meet up with men he served with. Just seeing how welcoming Stone Castle is, how amazing the town of Branson treats its veteran guests and how many things there are for groups to do, I am totally recommending his next gathering to be in Branson at the Stone Castle Hotel! 

Free breakfast, fun games and places to relax

An added benefit to staying at Stone Castle is the free morning breakfast. Let me repeat, the FREE BREAKFAST, every single morning. With a rotation that changes daily, you can expect hot items like eggs, sausage or bacon, waffles and even biscuits and gravy! Coffee, juices, fruits, cereals, bagels and muffins – they have it all to fill the needs of your hungry family. If you are like me, you want your family to eat a good breakfast before heading off for the day, there is nothing worse than the “Mom, I’m hungry!” just as you are starting your day’s outings. With the full breakfast that your family can grab at Stone Castle, now you don’t have to worry until lunch – sorry, that one is on you!  

Along with the pools and hot tubs I mentioned above, there are several awesome game rooms so the kids, young and old alike, can have some fun. The great game rooms are actually part of a partnership between The Stone Castle Hotel and The Track, Branson’s premiere family fun parks. With both classic games, like my favorite Ms. Pac-Man, to new ones that even my video game nuts would be blown away by, the game rooms are a great way to waste a little time. 

Travel tip: Game rooms are a great way to have a little family challenge while helping to clear out the room for the day. When you are sharing a room with your family, it can be hard to get everyone ready to go at the same time, especially with only one bathroom. When we traveled when my kids were smaller, I was always the last to get ready because I focused on getting them fed and ready first. To help me along, after I was done with them, dad would take them down to the hotel game room where they would challenge each other over things like arcade basketball, Donkey Kong or air hockey and then I would meet them as soon as I was ready to go, too. This always worked out great because they burnt off some of that early energy so we could focus on traveling to our morning outing. With high spirits and good natured ribbing, it was always a great start to our day, and I had less fidgety kids while I bought tickets, got park maps or whatever mom tasks I needed to do once we arrived at our next adventure.  You can also do this in reverse at night when mom or dad is trying to get the littlest ones to sleep and the bigger kids are still raring to go. Having small periods when everyone gets some one on one time with each other strengthen family bonds altogether. We don’t think the small moments like a challenge at the air hockey table matter to our kids, but as they become adults, you’ll be surprised to hear the moments that they really loved.  

Common areas that invite you to sit down and take a load off

In addition to the pools and game rooms, there are great places to sit down and just relax for a bit. Inside each of the buildings are lobby areas with big comfy couches, deep chairs and ottomans to kick back on and watch television, read a book or just wait for your family. During the holidays, one of these nice sitting areas is turned into a place for Christmas stories and cookies with Santa while sitting by a warm fire. Outside, there are park benches, patio tables and chairs and even a pretty little water garden area with a small waterfall and koi pond. Even as cold as it was during our trip, I loved stopping by and checking out the fish in the pond every day. The sound of the waterfall was so nice and the whole area was so inviting, I can’t wait to visit at a warmer time so I can sit out there for even longer!

Speaking of the lobbies, the main lobby in building one (where you check-in) is set with last-minute necessities that you may have forgotten to pack, snacks, and even souvenirs. Often when you think of a hotel’s little general store, your mind thinks first that you are going to pay double. Trust me, there have been times when I have sent my big kid to the lobby to buy toothpaste or some other necessity and the change they bring me back is really just that…pennies! But at Stone Castle that is not the case; their shop is just as budget friendly as the rest of the hotel! Send your kid down for something here, you can expect to get back folding money, and let’s be honest, the more we have of that on family trips, the better! 

In addition to the ‘general store,’ you’ll also find a business center so you can print out any travel documents or take care of that pressing work matter (I can’t remember any vacation where something didn’t come up with work back home that either myself or my husband or whomever I was traveling with had to take care of – having a business center is always a welcome perk that we don’t think about until we actually need it.) The hotel also provides complimentary WiFi that I had no trouble staying connected to and all the televisions are equipped with satellite cable, giving plenty of channels to check out when you are ready to unwind in your room at night with a little tv. 

The Stone Castle Hotel, my Branson palace home! 

All in all, I find The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center a palace for the budget-minded traveler. Between the accommodations and amenities to the staff that goes out of their way to make sure you have everything you could possibly need, I know where I will be lying my head the next time I am in Branson. Want to experience Branson and The Stone Castle yourself? Follow along with my Branson series and at the end, I will have a round-up where you can enter the rafflecopter for your own 2 night stay plus tickets to the Hughes Music Show. Good luck, cousins! 

Thanks for joining me in my review of The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center. Be sure to keep following along as the #BloggingBranson series is just kicking off; I have so many things to share with you about this small town in the Ozarks that stole my heart! 

Charlotte Dawn

   The Peachy Queen