Lake of the Ozarks advice

[kpanderson07]

Planning a week long trip with my family and brother in-laws family for Summer 2016 at the Lake of the Ozarks. Any suggestions on placing to stay or where to go? We are pretty low key so a nice cove to swim in and easy access to good water to teach my nephews to ski or wakeboard. 4 adults and 5 kids ages 13 - 5 so ideally a house with a boat slip is what we want. Also interested in bringing the mountain bikes. Feedback on the trails at the state parks that are close by? Other non-water suggestions?

Thanks!

Karl

[evoimport6]

I've been to Osage beach, and sunrise beach. I liked sunrise beach, it was a little less traveled. However I've heard they are trying to make logo a no wake lake! In my opinion it is the funnest lake with Brostock. Highly recommend renting a house with a lift, makes life easy.

[Jason05216]

There's a place close to us called Bass Point, http://www.basspoint.com/ , that has small houses to rent. They also have slips. The cove is nice and most weekends it isn't too busy. Most of the time you would be able to ski or wakeboard right in front of the resort. During the week it's great. It's on the west side of the lake. Address says Gravois Mills but you actually get to it in Laurie. It's at the 8 mile marker on the main channel of the lake. We stayed there before we bought our house. They aren't fancy but are very functional. There is a small marina right across the cove so you can get gas right there. There are quite a few other places like this on the lake. My sister in law has used some service to find homes that are available to rent. I'll find out what that was and post it here. It seems the places that she found didn't allow the use of the docks other than for swimming, but she wasn't needing a slip for a boat either.

Take the kids to Franky and Louies. They have a great sand beach for the kids to play in the water, it's at the end of a big no wake cove so you don't have to worry about the little kids. It's a restaurant and bar so you can get a drink or eat while the kids play. You can also rent stand up paddle boards and kayaks. Bring toys for the kids to play and dig in the sand. We go to this place almost every weekend. Our kids are 11 and 13 and still love to go here. It's about 4 miles by water from Bass Point.

Coconuts is another big bar and restaurant. It's in the Gravois arm of the lake. It's about 9-10 miles by water from Bass Point. Coconuts is a nice place but not very kid friendly in our estimation. The beach area there is exposed to the open water so it can be very rough and it's really rocky as well. We rarely go there with the kids. I'd also stay away from Shady Gators and Lazy Gators with the kids.

Many of the off water attractions are on the other side of the lake but you can get there pretty easily by going across the toll bridge. Probably takes 30 minutes or so to get there. Our kids like to go over there and ride the go-karts and play laser tag.

A really cool day trip if you don't mind traveling quite a few miles on the water is going to Haha Tonka state park. It's a long way from this area of the lake in the Niangua arm. If you went during the week you would be able to find lots of places to stop and swim or board along the way to break up the trip. There is also a cave that you can stop at and tour as well. It's developed so you have to pay but our boys liked it.

You didn't say when you were coming, but I would stay away from the holiday weekends. Those are not good on this lake unless you like rough water and PWC's everywhere.

If you want to get your kids or the adults some professional wakeboard instruction I would recommend Kirby's School of Wake, http://www.kirbysschoolofwake.com/ . He's a great guy and is super with kids. Our son has really improved since working with Kirby.

[kpanderson07]

Thanks for the details! We are not settled on a date yet. It might depend on availability of housing. Really anytime after the kids get out of school until they have to go back. Early June to mid August. I agree with staying away from the Holiday weekends.

I will for sure check out BassPoint. I have found quite a few properties on VRBO but almost too many!