what makes LOTO so popular?
 

I hear so much about it plus the post on the police boats stressed how many boats are there, why?

Greatest place on earth!!!!

Here now. Ran the Skater all over today. Saw a AM2 and Augie Bush out.
Perfect weather

Unlimited in water dining and partying.

Sitting on my deck now and this is the view.

I can walk 20 steps to my dock, drop the lift and go hammer.

lucky bastard! ;)

The only way to understand is go there.

Yup.

I heard all the hype and took my first ever trip up last year for the shootout.

It's April and I already have my flight, rental car, and room at the Camden booked and paid up for the 2014 shootout. Just need to get a rental boat now.


The place is amazing and beautiful!

Everything BAM said plus...

For those who have limited free time, you can literally make a call to have your boat taken care of. Normal service, emergency service, put in storage, put on your boat lift, winterized, etc by numerous reputable places at the lake. Have an issue Sunday, make a call Monday, and your taken care of & it's ready by Saturday.

Lots of stuff for the family to do. Water parks, mini-golf, go-karts, big outlet mall, movie theaters, lots of golf courses, helicopter rides, etc.

Property is very reasonable and plentiful. From condos to mega-mansions, there's property on the lake to fit anyone's budget. Want to be in the middle of the action, buy a place in the 5 to 21MM. Want to be away in peace and quiet, buy a place from the 35MM and up.

Variety of boats everywhere. From Jon boats and sailboats to 60ft+ cruisers and 200+mph offshore boats, you'll see just about everything on the lake.

Great place , try it once and you will be hooked .We go there a lot

So which is bigger LOTO or Desert Storm? Having never been to either (Bucket list). So LOTO is Aug 23-24 and Desert Storm is April 23-27.

You got to live it, lots of wonderful on the water bar/restaurants, tons of beautiful boat, tons of beautiful women and lots of great people.

LOTO on the Shootout weekend over DS for sure.

Math.....

1. Centrally located in a decent climate
2. Biggest body of water around (not great lakes big but big for that area)
3. Reasonable real estate affordability (leaves money left over for a boat! :D)
4. Plenty of activities, bars/restaurants both on/off the water

And don't forget, TRL505 doesn't go there

DS is great because it's 90 degrees while the rest of the country is still warming up. Boat parade through the channel before the Friday PR is cool. Street party is better laid out. Desert landscape contrasted with water was unique to me.

LOTO has more boats running around though out the week, far more establishments and lodging options. The TWO days of speed runs are better organized. Spectator raft up is huge and better organized.
Walking the docks at Camden on the Lake or Dog Days, you see more boats than in the cove at Nautical Inn DS. LOTO is trying to improve their street party. I did not go last year when it was moved to the park.

Poker run boats roar by faster at DS but the speed limit for LOTO keeps the boats together in one massive rallye going by. Like a huge pack of motorcycles going on for a mile. Paradise Café is great to have brunch and watch them go by.

You cant go wrong either way. IF I could only ever do one, LOTO wins. Once you go to either you will spent time plotting to go back.

My boat is in pieces but i`d like to get out of dodge for a week within 10 hours of Illinois. Would the family still have a good time without the boat? We mostly like to just chill out on a beach and relax

We went last year with no boat and still had a lot of fun. This year we are renting one for the shootout so we can raft on the front line this year.

Last year we stayed 4 nights.... 2 at a place right behind dog days (walked there) and 2 at Camden. For the shootout we paid to hang out in the Starship dinner boat and watched the runs. It was a lot of fun.

Sounds like you've got it all planned out, get a taste of almost everything without driving, great plan.

One thing I always like about Lake of the Ozarks is when your boating everyone waves at everyone like you're in a parade. I also like how the lake is laid out it's always what's around the next corner to me.

Yes they would. Look into staying at Tan-Tar-A. They have an indoor water park and are in a good central location that makes driving around to other sites easy.

Ready for this year. Spending an extra night at the Camden. Sit in the pool and relax.

The rental boat should make it a lot more fun too I think. That front line raft up looks like a blast.

I like wide open bodies of water and I've heard that Lake of the Ozarks should really be called a river because that's basically what it is with no open places to run. Is that true? Just basically a snaking river. What's the widest part of the lake?

I can only speak for what parts I saw. It is river like and not hugely open like the bay or ocean. However it is wide enough if you ask me, nothing narrow about it.

This was last year off my balcony. That is J.T in the skater for a size reference.

http://i58.tinypic.com/30jkvms.jpg

So basically it's just a river??? Sorry, but I would hate that, I like going different places and being able to set the throttle in one position for say 20 miles or more and just cruise. I'd feel confined at Loto.

There's more shoreline than the state of California.

There is a lot of long open straight area. It is a HUGE river/lake. Lots of places to go to as well up and down the entire thing.

I would say it's one of those places you have to go to really get the feel for.

If you're saying seeing a shoreline as "confined" then yes, it's confined, we're originally from LOTO and we have a house down here in SWF now, so we boat in both open water (GOM) and at LOTO and I wouldn't call LOTO confined, crap, unless I'm out in the GOM it's more confined down here in SWF because you have to stay within the markers/buoys, in the Summer time nothing beats LOTO.........that's JMO.

It is a lake created by 2 dams. The main/Osage channel is 90 miles long. The other branches add up to another 50 miles or so.
There are hundreds of places to go on the water. You can cruise 5, 20 or 50+ miles. The main channel is plenty wide enough to run any speeds you choose.

Pretty damn cool lake from the pics and maps on the internet, this is musthttp://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...psb54ba9e4.jpg

Maybe were just spoiled with block island, Newport, montauk, the hamptons, vineyard, Nantucket, etc.... A bunch of local guys went to the shootout two years ago and said they would never go back. I guess I'll have to check it out myself.

Look at what 200K or even 1mm can get you at LOTO and you will see a major part of the attraction.....It has to be some of the cheapest waterfront in the country!

That's true, $1M in southeast FL or CT shoreline gets you about 1500sq ft....

LOTO is great. We have been to both DS and Shootout and I would say LOTO is better all around. We spent a week in 2012 for the shootout. Had the Skater towed out and our Malibu Ski Boat. Rented a house that had a dock that fit both. Found a place out of the beaten path in the Niangua Arm so we could Water Ski close. It worked out great. Have never found a lake where we could Water Ski 3 times a day and in between come back get the Skater haul ass and go have lunch, then come back and ski again. There is also a Gold Club that you can boat to, play a round then get back in the boat and go home. The week we were there the weather was great, not much humidity and not many bugs. The only thing that lacks is good roads to go Cycling on. Scary skinny roads in the area that we rented the house. Could see us owning a place there in about the same location. Nothing like water skiing then hauling ass in the same day over and over again.

We lived in AZ in the late 80's, boated Havasu and Mohave for 4 years. Loved the Desert but unless you want to beach and picnic, there is really very few places to visit. If you are wanting to run, you get to run in circles.

We started going to LOTO about 10 years ago, first was just a visit, with in 4 months of that visit, we bought a condo, started coming numerous weekends a year,(we lived in Wisconsin and it was a 8 hour commute) then 4 years ago, moved full time to LOTO. There is a reason. First and formost, it is the Performance boat capitol of America, There is no place I have ever visited that had a more dense population of performance boats, Period! (it's not if you see a bunch during a Poker Run? it is like that EVERY weekend!)

Next is the on water places to boat to. There are HUNDREDS, restaurants, Bars, Resorts, Coves, etc...

If you want to just get in the boat and run.... There is 80+ miles at wide open throttle if you want, but with the weekend water, that is actually unrealistic, depending on where you run, the traffic can make some very interesting wave action, If you like rough ocean water, we have it, if you want choppy speed water, we have it, if you get in the upper numbers and want glass water, we have it.... You wont get board running here.

And finally, the people; It is a resort area, people come here to have fun and they do.... I am not saying there isn't drama, but... That can be entertaining to watch!

The only problem w/LOTO is it can be way to addictive!

The only problem with LOTO is it's in misery. I mean Missouri.

The Lake of the Ozarks has appeal in winter, as well. Winters here are extraordinarily quiet, traffic is minimal, and bird-watching (especially eagles) is the best of the year.

On warm winter days, I've gone out kayaking and had the entire lake to myself. If we have an unusually cold winter like this past one, we get to enjoy some beautiful scenery of the lake as it freezes over. There's always something new to see.

There are downsides to living here, of course, but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. It's a wonderful place.

There is nothing to like about LOTO. Nobody wants to come here and drive up the property values and then complain about noise and such (Californians take special note as you are way too smart for that) Havasu is SO MUCH BETTER!
Nothing to see here, moving on.....:D:D :drink:

So what is the best city at LOTO to be in? Lake location, things to do, road/airport access etc?

I don't live there but Osage beach was pretty sweet and I have been looking at vaca condos there.

Bring that 50 footer. You can set the throttles to run 80 MPH on Saturday afternoon and run over 90 miles if you want. Any other time you can run basically as fast as you want without much problem. Make a week out of it. You will be surprised how much fuel you can burn.

all the POOTANG!!!!!

Can't make it this year, but next I am going to take 3 weeks and drag the boat to Florida for a Bahama trip then on my home stop for 4 days for LOTO shootout.

1mm to about the 33mm is the main area of the lake where the majority of the busiest restaurants are. Not to say other parts of the lake are not busy, just less...

The East side of the lake (Lake Ozark, Osage Beach to Camdenton) is the "business side", ie: "Conventional" stores, Outlet shopping mall (one of he largest in the country) hotels, shops, etc. West side is more of a resort orientated side. Side note: These are general statements, because there are so many places to go and see, there is easily a mixture on both sides.

There are 3 airports that can easily handle Airplanes/Jets in Osage Beach (2) and Camdenton, but are still primarily private/corporate aircraft. There is no local Airlines. Commercial Airlines, there is Columbia, Springfield, but the larger easier places are St Louis and Kansas City. Oh, if you are flying Rotor or Float,don't worry, many homes have helipads and well..... It is a lake for the floats.

As far as things outside of boating, just google Lake of the Ozarks and spend the next 6+ hours reading