This review may suffer from nostalgia bias. My family used to come out to The River Inn every summer for Labor Day when I was a kid, so I have many years of experience here. Recently, I took the BF for a trip down memory lane, and it was almost exactly as I remembered. The River Inn is a hotel that is made up of condos that are individually owned. Each condo owner allows for the River Inn to rent out their units when they're not there. The units range in size from studios to two bedroom apartments, each equipped with a basic kitchen and amenities. There used to be a restaurant here that operated during the peak season, but that closed down a few years back when one of the restaurant owners passed away, so you'll need to bring your own food for the duration of your stay or plan on making trips into Hunt/Ingram/Kerrville for sustenance. The hotel has its own swimming area that is dammed to give it good depth. There's a floating dock you can swim out to and a water slide (affectionately referred to as "the flume") going down one side of the dam. The River Inn also provides canoes, life jackets, and paddles for those that want to canoe up river to Slippery Rock, a raised part of the limestone riverbed where you can get out and splash around in shallower water. The River Inn also has a family room with a game area that comes equipped with a ping pong table, pool table, air hockey table, and three old school video games (Mrs. Pacman, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, and some other Atari shooting game whose name I can't remember). In other words, there is no shortage of things to do at this place. Some people stay here and use it as a base of operations for sightseeing in the surrounding area, but every time I've come here we've stayed on the property for the entire time, and I've never been bored, whether aged ten or aged [AGE REDACTED]. This year the BF and I visited during the first weekend of the off-season for the reduced room rates and smaller crowd and we had a splendid time. There's really nothing quite so amazing as planning your day around when you're going to go canoeing, then when you're going to go swimming, then when you're going to polish off those two bottles of red wine and 12-pack of Shiner you brought with you. I cannot recommend this place highly enough, whether it be for a family vacation or a romantic weekend getaway for two. There is something about this stretch of the Guadalupe River that seeps into your bones and lets you release all your real world concerns, if only for a long weekend. read more

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Nice place for a quite scenic getaway. Little one loved it. We had zero cell service. Enjoyed being outside didn't even need it. Lots of families read more

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Pretty terrible little motel. I suppose that's relative though and all the units are independently owned, so you could have a different experience depending on the room you stay in. The pictures online are a misrepresentation of what you're going to get, so don't be fooled. I think they took a picture of their best looking unit (I saw one with a cute Western vibe) and use it to trick everyone into booking there. When there's only 1 photo, I guess that should raise a red flag. Honestly, what they're doing seems illegal to me. We were visiting Lost Maples and got a Studio room for 1 night. I'm pretty sure we stayed in room 125 and it was the only room available, despite it being the off-season (we did try to switch rooms after seeing it). The theme of the room we got must have been Wal-Mart 1982. Now, if you don't care about the pillows being pancakes on a rickety bed, the shower only being suitable for an 8-year-old, using Dollar Tree towels, linens, and a miniature toilet, plus people being able to see you undressing and doing whatever else through the busted mini blinds (no curtains here), then this place might meet your expectations. All for the low, low price of $90/night. At that price, I would expect something at least on par with Motel 6. Unfortunately, our expectations were set too high on this one. It's a shame too because the grounds are pretty decent. There's a small clubhouse area overlooking the lake, but there was already a family in there, so we didn't use that space. It was fall, so we tried to enjoy our evening drinking wine out by a fire pit. There are several of them and plenty of wood, so you can light your own and enjoy a night by the water. Bring your own lighter or matches....and corkscrew....wine glasses....hell, just stay home. In the summer, it looks like you can enjoy swimming, canoeing, and kayaking too. With a decent room owned by someone who actually cares about providing suitable accommodations for guests, you could probably be comfortable here. I'm not sure how you'd vet the room though...good luck! We're not playing Russian Roulette with our sleeping rooms anymore though, so we won't be back. Funny thing...there were some comment cards left in the nightstand, presumably from previous guests, boasting about how great the place was and how they loved their stay. What??? My brain is still hurting trying to figure that out. Where did those people stay? It wasn't here. I should have taken some pictures, but I forgot. read more

River Inn is what it's supposed to be, motel feel on the river, very old rooms which is fine because they are clean! The beds are truly awful sleeping, mattresses need to be updated big time! For 200.00 a night the beds & linens should be better... read more

A for warm hospitality. My fiancé and I were traveling to Lost Maples State Park and on the way our friends texted us to tell us they forgot to print their passes. We dropped by this Inn and the hospitable front desk employee let us print our pass. Thank you so much! read more

This is the most wonderful place my husband and I have had the good fortune to find accidentally! We were driving down 29 to look at the beautiful river and all the beautiful homes and we stopped in to check out this place. I'm not sure what a couple of the other negative reviewer's misunderstood about the quaint beauty that is the river inn resort! When you are by the river and 30 miles away from a big city and are blessed enough to be able to hear the rippling river and enjoy the flora and fauna of nature here there's no reason to be upset because you're not at a Holiday Inn express! If you want that you can stay in Kerrville! The river inn resort is a place where you can take your family and friends enjoy their company and enjoy the beauty of the river. The people there are so kind , friendly and go out of their way to make sure that we had a wonderful stay! We go back every year and we tell all our friends who want to have a relaxing time by the river to definitely come to the river Inn resort! There's no place I would rather stay! read more

The outdoor area is absolutely amazing for fun family gatherings and have been to river inn two years in a row..... Just don't stay in room 125. Here are a few things that make paying full price for this room not worth your time: - as soon as we walked in we could smell the mildew - bedroom smelled like urine and mold throughout our stay - all our clothes, bags, and linens reeked of mildew when we left - the fridge is a joke. It was warmer in there than the 77degree room - no cutting board or adequate kitchenware All of this led us being utterly sick when returning home. You can take a chance staying here, as long as you understand the rooms are a hit or miss. Also, each room is individually owned do the rooms are unique, it could have been our luck but never in my life will I stay in that room again. read more

Not really worth going. The manager/owner could tell more details before going all the way out.

I love this place. Such a blast for kids to just run around have a great time. Just don't stay in unit 111. Beds are hard and tiny. read more

River Inn Resort The - Hotels Near Me - Hunt, Texas

Each room is privately owned so you don't k is what you're gonna get. I had 208 and it wasn't horrible. But I say that because I went in Feb during off season and for a deal of Groupon. I would never pay their normal rate. Rooms are super outdated for the price. Now usually I'd say hotel rooms don't matter that much because you're not in it often but this is a resort. It's so far out there that it's designed for you to stay there and enjoy the river and activities..including your room. Biggest problem was the lack of service for our phones. Not a big deal if you have WiFi like they advertise but their WiFi was so horrible it didn't work a majority of the time. Very difficult to get a prescription when one of us was sick. Outdated and overprice. Letter much sums up this place. It's worth the money to pay a little more for the other resorts in the area. read more

Considering it was last minute, this place was perfect for cooling off from the Texas heat, while sipping cocktails. Quite little get away. Recommend bring your own linens. The Hunt store service up some nice grub too. read more

If there was a "zero" rating, I would have used it. I just returned from a 4 night stay with family....5 adults, 4 children......we used 2 rooms. I stayed here on the recommendation of a friend who had been going here for family vacations for the last 5 years. The property and rooms are GROSSLY outdated and the management needs to come into the 21st century and have cell phone towers installed and decent wifi connections available. The rooms are VERY small--- I was able to view 4 different rooms.......yes, they are privately owned and each one is decorated differently.......but mgmt should at least apply some "standard guidelines" to the decoration requirements and upkeep of the furniture. Railing on stairs and balconies are a law suit waiting to happen as they are wobbly and unstable. And this place is NOT cheap by any stretch of the imagination!! I would basically say this is "glorified" camping. DO NOT RECOMMEND this "resort" until they update it from its original build date of 1940!!!!! WILL NOT stay here again and will definitely WARN people to stay away. read more

We were a bit worried that there might not be water there, with the drought that Texas has been having, but we were pleased to find that the River Inn Resort is on an area of the Guadalupe that has a dam and stays at a pretty constant level. As a kid I went to summer camps and this is what the River Inn reminded me of - Summer camp on steroids. It is beautiful, and the kids had a great time. Everyone was so nice, especially the resort staff - they came and spoke to us and asked if we needed anything. The rooms were great. They were well appointed and had everything we needed. All we had to bring were our bags, sunscreen and some groceries. They had canoes that we were able to use free of charge, there's a gameroom for the kids with a pool table, foozeball table and some old school arcade games and ice cream. It was amazing. We had a great time swimming and fishing and just enjoying the place. All in all it was one of the best vacations we have had. We will definitely be back! read more