Neal's Lodges

A minimum three night stay is required. We contemplated leaving after our first night, and ended up leaving a night early.

I've lived in the south central Texas hill country my entire life. I killed one of the biggest, angriest scorpions I've ever seen in the shower of cabin 8, just hours after killing the largest spider I've ever seen not-on-the-Discovery-channel but before I killed the cockroach and after I squashed the entourage of strange worm caterpillar things (... all in the same bathroom). This also happened the same day we encountered two water moccasins on the bank of the Frio. Frankly that's just a lot of wildlife for one day, but I'm not blaming Neal's for the local snake population.

The cabin doors barely lock, the street lights around the cabins at Neal's are kept off at night, the full size mattresses are terrible (the box springs on one bed of cabin 8 are currently destroyed), claiming to sleep 6 people with 2 full size mattresses (again, one being busted) and 2 outdoor twins seems a bit optimistic, interior lighting is too miserably dark to handle a board game or reading at night, the shower is full of mold, diesel trucks can be heard powering up the hill outside cabin 8 all day, the window unit A/C is quite loud versus normal conversation, Jimmy Whatever's Canteen (the onsite bar / music venue) advertises to be open "every night", except when the owner doesn't feel like opening it, which the staff admits includes most Sundays, and the "arcade" is mostly a large empty space nowadays.

On the upside, every cabin has a refrigerator, freezer and grill so you can cook for yourself instead of eating every meal across the street. Take advantage of that.

$508 for three nights? How about no.

Just came back from Neals and had an amazing time. We only stayed one night and after weeks of flack from my husband for booking CABIN 12 wothout reading the reviews first I'm happy to say the shower is fully tiled now and looks great. It is a very modest cabin but clean and close to river. I fully recommend renting a golf cart for $50. We didn't find out about them until late in the afternoon but kids still had a great time riding around. My biggest complaint wad no coffee in the cabin so be sure to pack some. Water is too low to tube, but you can find other places with more water to tube. Kids had fun at the arcade and dance.

This may be the go-to resort if you are living in Houston (as they advertise), but this Texas visitor expected way better for the price. Sure, that is the prettiest part of the Hill Country, and the Frio Bat Flight is an awesome experience, but Neal's is a dump. We stayed in unit 37, a so-called two bedroom unit. One bedroom did not have a window. It was a cave with no reading light. You have to make your own bed--with worn out sheets and no fitted sheet for the mattress. The quilts were just as worn and threadbare. There were insects in the shower stall. The kitchen was equipped with one spoon. A handle fell off the water tap for the kitchen sink. The front porch had not been swept and the two plastic chairs on it were filthy. You would not have wanted to sit on them. The grounds around the building were littered with trash. This was not just worn. It was a dump. This place has got to be living on its yester-year reputation. I found it insulting to be charged $139 per night for this. I would never recommend this place to any other traveling birders. There simply have to be motels around there that are cleaner and offer a more reasonable price. That said, it is probably an acceptable place for tent and RV camping (assuming the restrooms are cleaner than the lodging units).