Branson, Missouri: Motel Shaped Like a Riverboat (Gone)

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Riverboat Inn

Directions:: Riverboat Inn. On the east end of The Strip in Branson, on the north side, just west of the Hollywood Wax Museum.
Hours:: Savaged by 2012 tornado. Later demolished.
Status:: Gone

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A trip to Branson isn't complete for some unless they can sleep in a quasi-lifelike loggy replica of a Mississippi riverboat.

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Visitor Tips and News About Motel Shaped Like a Riverboat

Reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters. Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip.

Riverboat Motel

I stayed at this motel as a kid. It had a moat-like swimming pool that went all the way around the exterior of the boat. I swam laps in it. The water was only waist deep. The lower rooms where we were staying had the round ship windows that looked out on the moat pool. I remember waving to my folks from the outside in!

The wax museum and the Ripley's Believe or Not! museum were within walking distance at the time.

[Krystal Gabel, 04/08/2024]

Riverboat Inn Motel - Tornado Wrecked

I just want to say how sad we are to learn that our favorite lodging, Riverboat Inn Motel, will not reopen. We have stayed there 2-3 times a year since first seeing it in the early 1990s. It became our home away from home while visiting Branson. It was the perfect location for any variety of things to do, eat, or see. Is there anyone I can contact about the motel and implore them to let it remain open? Thank you.

[Ann Weber, OK Sr. citizen, 08/23/2012]

You might want to call either the Branson Chamber of Commerce, or Convention and Visitors Bureau, to convey your thoughts.

Damaged Riverboat motel

Motel Shaped Like a Riverboat

Sadly, this Branson landmark was destroyed in the tornado which skipped around wreaking havoc along 76 Hwy. It is still up in the air as to whether it will be repaired or razed.

[Nann Flowers, 07/24/2012]

We were in Branson last week, surprised at the number of buildings smashed up in the Feb. 2012 EF-2 tornado, with large signs toppled and whole sides of multi-story hotels stripped away. The front of the Riverboat Inn was gone, but you could still see the paddlewheel. It will be interesting to see if a unique hotel like that will be restored, or replaced with something more generic.