“It’s a great way to introduce someone who’s maybe a little hesitant,” Robertson said. The glamping opportunity seems perfect for either guests who make an unplanned or quickly planned trip to River Ranch and don’t have all their camping gear or someone new to camping. “We wanted to put our guests closer to nature.” “There’s a fairly strong trend with glamping as a new and exciting travel product,” said Paul Robertson, general manager at Westgate River Ranch in Florida. On the glamping grounds, staff members will start a campfire - a glampfire, if you will - in a central firepit. Glamping guests have access to board games and gas grills and a key to community showers and bathrooms. Glamping, the newest option, means a furnished three-walled cabin with ceiling fans, electricity and air conditioning but no Wi-Fi or television sets. Resort guests - 50 percent of whom come from outside of Florida - now have five options for accommodations: RVs, hotel room, camping, luxurious cabins or glamping. Trail and an animal-spotting airboat ride (think alligators, deer and wild turkeys) along Lake Okeechobee, Lake Kissimmee and the Kissimmee River.īut now children - and adults - can enjoy a new Adventure Park featuring a rock-climbing wall, miniature golf, bungee jumping, child-friendly mechanical bull riding (don’t think that means you’ll stay on) and ziplining. It always offered a gorgeous one-hour horseback ride through the Florida. We got it to where it broke even, but we needed to take it to the next step.”Ī renewed emphasis on families, corporate guests and outdoors lovers has kicked the resort up a notch-or two. “The ranch has sort of been one-dimensional. “We’ve been sitting on this asset for quite a while,” said Mark Waltrip, chief operating officer for Westgate Resorts. All those years since were spent getting the facility functional and profitable again, but the company now spicing things up. Westgate, the hotel chain with sites in Vegas, South Beach and Gatlinburg, Tenn., bought River Ranch Resort in 2001, reopened it and brought it out of bankruptcy. Since then, the site has changed ownership several times and briefly closed on occasion.
Westgate River Ranch in Florida was built in the 1960s and came to feature a saloon, cafe, airstrip, swimming pool, rodeo and shooting range.
WESTGATE RIVER RANCH CRACKER
The ranch resort has been around for decades, celebrating Florida Cracker life of the 1700s, when cowboys would herd Spanish cattle across the marshlands of the state. The just-before-sunset tractor-pulled hayride is a relaxing once-a-week tradition at Westgate River Ranch Resort & Rodeo, a Florida Cracker dude ranch of sorts, that culminates in a family-friendly barbecue dinner of hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, cole slaw and chicken. “It’s been a lot of fun,” said Flicker, who lives about 90 miles away in Tampa and made a weekend getaway with his buddies before tying the knot. If you had asked Matthew Flicker a couple of years ago how he’d be spending his bachelor party, fat chance he would have said on a hayride.īut that’s right where he was on a recent Saturday night, singing Bon Jovi songs with a guest guitarist, his best buddies and 50 other guests at Westgate River Ranch Resort near Lake Wales. You might not expect to find a dude ranch in the middle of Florida, but Westgate River Ranch Resort near Lake Wales has been celebrating the Florida Cracker Cowboy for more than 50 years-and is growing into the ultimate outdoor adventure.
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