Ozarks Trip

[DebbieW]

Although I will not be heading to the Ozarks until Sept 2017, I am starting to look into the trip. Here are my questions. I hope some of you may be able to help.

1. Any recommended places to stay like Eureka Springs? We are looking to stay in either Arkansas or Missouri that have dining/bar options preferably walking distance from hotels. We like to park the bikes at night and enjoy our beverages without having to ride.

2. It's about 1,200 miles so we will be breaking up the ride into three days. It's always hard to know if a town picked it safe so here is the area we are thinking of stopping for the night and welcome input to let us know if it's safe. We don't want to come out and find that our bikes are gone or that we have to worry about being safe walking from the hotel to any restaurant.
a. Zanesville, OH - about 478 miles from the start point. If this is not good, then a location not too much further (or a little less) is good. We will be taking I-70 through Ohio.
b. St. Louis, MO - about 472 miles from Zanesville. We will be taking I-70 to I-55 to I-44.

All insight is appreciated.

 

[Mandrew]

Sounds like a great trip.
There are lots of cool places to stay in Eureka Springs. They also have a shuttle that runs loops through town, which can be handy once you park the bike for the night.
The Crescent Hotel is cool- offers haunted tours, decent pizza place on property, great views, and in-house spa. It is on the top of the hill, so if you want to hit the strip at night, you'll probably want to use a shuttle. I've heard outstanding reviews of the Best Western Inn of the Ozarks; try getting the building down the hill on the parking lot side. They also offer locked bike parking. 1905 Basin looked like a great location, but I can't offer any other info on it.

 

[Aviator5456]

We...I...am also heading to that area for the BBB. I haven't been there for years but the guys I'm riding with know of some biker bars and some good hotels in Eureka Springs. We were going to stay in Fayetteville Thursday (9/22) and maybe Friday night and wanted a place near Dickson street but all the places we tried to reserve, AirBNB, want a minimum of three nights and possibly four. I think we are waiting a little longer to see if these folks rented those nights out and check back with them. Eureka Springs does have some outstanding places to stay but most are not close to a bar that I can remember.

 

[CrBear]

Aviator, last time in Fayetteville I stayed at The Chancellor Hotel. Decent hotel with bar and had covered and access parking for the bikes which was nice.
Nice bars/restaurants there too.
Eureka Springs is cool, didn't sleep over but cool town and nice ride to Fayetteville.
Debbie, if you make your way down south in ARK, there are some great rides also.

 

[DebbieW]

Thanks everyone. We are definitely going for the rides in the area and will be staying 3 - 4 nights before heading back to NJ. I guess you can tell I am a planner and the group I normally ride with asked me to start planning it. Last year we rode to Michigan and Ontario, this year was to TN and did the Dragon among other roads (terrible weather though) and two years ago was Kentucky (also not the best weather). I always plan one multi-day trip for my group.

Me on the Dragon:

 

[Aviator5456]

Thanks Crbear...I checked at all the hotels and they're booked. We finally found a place a couple blocks off Dickson for thursday...we'll stay in Eureka Springs for a night or two. I have family in the area, Rogers, Bentonville so I will spend another day in Eureka Springs. I also have a brother-in-law in Shell Knob with a small B-n-B...but dang if I can think of the name. I'll be staying with him on the way down, before I meet up with my buds in Branson.

Debbie, if you're in Fayetteville Thursday nite, hit me up and we'll all go have a beer. At any rate, you'll really enjoy the riding in the Ozarks...some of the best out there....

 

[DebbieW]

We decided that we will spend 3 nights in Eureka Springs and 2 nights in Branson. Can anyone recommend an area to stay in in Branson, MO? I understand there are two areas. One is downtown and another is more like a strip that has more hotel options. A friend in my riding group is handling the Branson accommodations but asked this question so I thought I would ask here.

Thanks for all the input so far.