Adventureland Inn
Full view
View all photos(114)114
Pool & Beach (16)
Room & Suite (8)
View prices for your travel dates
Contact accommodation for availability.
There are similar hotels available.
View allAbout
3.0
#12 of 13 hotels in AltoonaLocation
4.3
Cleanliness
3.5
Service
3.5
Value
2.8
Welcome to Adventureland Resort! At Adventureland Inn you will find 185 guest rooms with over 30,000 square feet of flexible meeting space! Adventureland Inn is a full service hotel with an on-site restaurant, Spectators Sports Bar and Grill. Our indoor pool areas and courtyards are among the finest in the area, with three pools featuring the only swim-up bar in the Midwest! We are located right next to Iowa's largest attraction, Adventureland Park and also next to Iowa’s largest casino, Prairie Meadows!
Read more
Suggest edits to improve what we show.Improve this listing
Property amenities
Free parking
Free High Speed Internet (WiFi)
Pool
Bar / lounge
Water park
Conference facilities
Banquet room
Convenience store
Parking
Wifi
Hot tub
Indoor pool
Heated pool
Restaurant
Breakfast available
Swimup bar
Poolside bar
Meeting rooms
Non-smoking hotel
Self-serve laundry
Room features
Air conditioning
Safe
Coffee / tea maker
Refrigerator
Bath / shower
Room types
Non-smoking rooms
Suites
Family rooms
Good to know
HOTEL STYLE
Mid-range
Family
Languages Spoken
English
Location
3200 Adventureland Dr, Altoona, IA 50009-1697
Getting there
Somewhat walkable
Grade: 64 out of 100
64
Des Moines Airport
12 mi•
See all flights
Rental Cars
17 Restaurants
within 0.75 miles
326Reviews13Q+A54Room tips
Reviews
Traveler rating
- 69
- 73
- 79
- 55
- 50
Time of year
Traveler type
Language
Selected filters
- Filter
- English
Sort by:
Detailed Reviews
I have stayed at the Adventureland Inn twice a year for the last 6 years. (Since having kids) I will never go again which is very unfortunate. I reserved two adjoining rooms and requested pool side. One room was fine, the other was in the corner of the pool area in a high traffic area. This means my balcony was being shared by everyone that was going between the two courtyards. I complained to the front desk asking for a different set of adjoining rooms but was told there were none available. I asked for compensation as I felt this was a substandard room, they offered $10.00 off. Ridiculous!
These rooms cost $130 a night where as the outside rooms that do not face the courtyard is $79.00, that is what I felt was fair. Pay the outside room price as I did not get a balcony. I explained to the management (who said he was the owner, if so, he is in serious need of customer skills) that I would not return ever again. They didn't care, they get so much out of town business that it is not going to effect them one bit, and they know this. If I were to go back, I would stay at the Holiday Inn at the Airport with it's Holidome or at the Settle Inn. Just as much for the family to do at lower cost and better Management.
These rooms cost $130 a night where as the outside rooms that do not face the courtyard is $79.00, that is what I felt was fair. Pay the outside room price as I did not get a balcony. I explained to the management (who said he was the owner, if so, he is in serious need of customer skills) that I would not return ever again. They didn't care, they get so much out of town business that it is not going to effect them one bit, and they know this. If I were to go back, I would stay at the Holiday Inn at the Airport with it's Holidome or at the Settle Inn. Just as much for the family to do at lower cost and better Management.
Read more
Date of stay: October 2005
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The only nice thing about our stay were the pools. They were the perfect temperature. Hot tubs were too warm though. The rooms were a different story though, they were absolutely filthy. When I say filthy thats exactley what I mean. The bathrooms had mold growing in the grout on the bathroom walls. The shower heads leaked so bad the it was almost impossible to get water to come out of the shower head. The floors in the bathroom had so much crud in them that it was utterley disgusting.
If I were a hotel or motel manager I would of been pretty embarrased to rent rooms out in that condition. The towel were in desperate nee of replacement. Thert were still food crumbs on the floor from the previous guests. The climate control did not work. I was very disappointed. I had stayed there a year ago and it was nothing like it is now. At that time the carpets were all stained but that was the worst of it. After this last visit I would have to be pretty desperate for a place to stay before returning. For the the cost of the room a person does deserve a clean room.
If I were a hotel or motel manager I would of been pretty embarrased to rent rooms out in that condition. The towel were in desperate nee of replacement. Thert were still food crumbs on the floor from the previous guests. The climate control did not work. I was very disappointed. I had stayed there a year ago and it was nothing like it is now. At that time the carpets were all stained but that was the worst of it. After this last visit I would have to be pretty desperate for a place to stay before returning. For the the cost of the room a person does deserve a clean room.
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Where do I start? I will start with the few positives. The employee staff, with the exception of the manager, were very nice. The pool was fun for the kids, though not worth the extra money, and the trolly to the park was a nice addition.
The negatives- our first night there we opted for the buffet in the hotel. I really wish I had listened to the other reviews. The buffet is set up in the greenhouse pool area-the food tasted horrible, the salad was soggy like from being in the humidity and the buffet was way over priced. We did order off the menu the next night and it was okay.
The second night we came home from a long day at Adventureland wanting to use the pool and noticed our room was infested with ants. I don't mean one or two, there were easily 100 of them in a pop tart box sitting on the nightstand, crawing on the nightstand, and all over the bed. We called the front desk and they promptly put us in a new room, even sending over housekeeping to help us move. Super, while being rushed out of the room having to repack and then unpack again for 5 people I noticed my Seiko watch missing. We promptly requested to be let back in the room to look for it and were told no, housekeping would look for it. Guess somebody has a really nice watch now because we never got it back. The hotel manager would not let us file a report or anything. We didn't even get a discount or anything. We were told our room was "upgraded." That meant a poolside room-noise from the pool included.
The hotel appears very clean, that is a farce. While packing our stuff we were looking under the bed and found a shirt-that did not belong to any of us. If a shirt was not noticed I hate to see whatelse was not noticed. Our sink also kept stopping up.
The kids pool area really needs some slip proof stuff on the stairs to the slide, my 2 year old fell several times. I slipped also helping her up. There are also no lifeguards, which I expected, but they have employees there who are supposed to be monitoring the pool for inappropriate behavior. They were too busy talking or reading. My husband had to tell some kids to stop shooting the water gun in my 2 year olds face several times. I'm all for having fun, but your fun should not impede on other peoples.
This was our first visit to Adventureland and the Adventureland Inn. I would not pay to stay there again.
The negatives- our first night there we opted for the buffet in the hotel. I really wish I had listened to the other reviews. The buffet is set up in the greenhouse pool area-the food tasted horrible, the salad was soggy like from being in the humidity and the buffet was way over priced. We did order off the menu the next night and it was okay.
The second night we came home from a long day at Adventureland wanting to use the pool and noticed our room was infested with ants. I don't mean one or two, there were easily 100 of them in a pop tart box sitting on the nightstand, crawing on the nightstand, and all over the bed. We called the front desk and they promptly put us in a new room, even sending over housekeeping to help us move. Super, while being rushed out of the room having to repack and then unpack again for 5 people I noticed my Seiko watch missing. We promptly requested to be let back in the room to look for it and were told no, housekeping would look for it. Guess somebody has a really nice watch now because we never got it back. The hotel manager would not let us file a report or anything. We didn't even get a discount or anything. We were told our room was "upgraded." That meant a poolside room-noise from the pool included.
The hotel appears very clean, that is a farce. While packing our stuff we were looking under the bed and found a shirt-that did not belong to any of us. If a shirt was not noticed I hate to see whatelse was not noticed. Our sink also kept stopping up.
The kids pool area really needs some slip proof stuff on the stairs to the slide, my 2 year old fell several times. I slipped also helping her up. There are also no lifeguards, which I expected, but they have employees there who are supposed to be monitoring the pool for inappropriate behavior. They were too busy talking or reading. My husband had to tell some kids to stop shooting the water gun in my 2 year olds face several times. I'm all for having fun, but your fun should not impede on other peoples.
This was our first visit to Adventureland and the Adventureland Inn. I would not pay to stay there again.
Read more
Date of stay: June 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I was not very impressed by this place! The pictures they show on their website are a total lie. The pool looks impressive online but was horrible in person. There were crickets all over the room. The pillows were an inch thick. The dinner buffet was horrible. We had pizza and pasta for dinner and it had been sitting out for quite a while under heat lamps, by the pool, where flies were having their fare share of it as well. The ONLY good thing about this place is that they haul you over to Adventureland...which is only a short walk from the hotel. We skipped the trolly at night and walked over ourselves. Would definitely NOT recommend this hotel to anyone!!!
Read more
Date of stay: August 2010
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The hotel and accomadations were okay, however when we first checked in are reservations were incorrect. Then when they moved our rooms to accomidate the original reservation they switched the names so my traveling companion had my room and vice versa. And then to make matters worse they have billed to seperate credit cards of mine multiple times, and my friend's card three times. This keep in mind is for two rooms for only one night. Several long distance phone calls later, it is still not correct. And thus too much disorganization and access to my card, is leaving my cards badely beaten. Never again.
Read more
Date of stay: September 2005
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We just got back from Adventureland Inn and I would not pay that much to stay there again. The location was nice, since we were going to the state fair also, it worked out great. We had a suite since we have a large family and the room was nice and big but it was very old carpet, pictures, it wasn't the cleanest of rooms, but it wasn't grossly dirty either. For the amount we paid for a suite I would just assume it was up to date in their decor. About the pool situation, yes, it has 3 pools but 2 of them are in a different courtyard, so if you have to supervise your kids in the pool area, you can't use the swim up bar if your kids like waterslides, cuz they are in a different location. If you want to use the swim up bar, they have that with the pool for infants/toddlers, well how can you use the bar, without leaving your infant alone in the water?? It was a great thought but my kids like waterslides, which aren't anything wonderful, but as I said, were located in a different courtyard. WE stayed at a hotel in Owatonna for the same price, in a suite, with free food for the kids while we were there, free breakfast for everyone, the pool was 10 times better with huge waterslides, and it was very up to date. I would rather drive the 3 hours north and stay there for the same price it cost at this hotel with no freebies given.
Read more
Date of stay: August 2005
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
My daughter recently had her wedding at Adventureland Inn. Although they have made some updates to the hotel since the time we booked the wedding, I was NOT impressed with the service we recieved. I would like to WARN other parents not to sacrifice your children to such terrible management on such a special day. Our sales manager was a young woman who had taken over for our former sales manager. (They obviously have a problem holding on to good staff.) She was unhelpful, did not return phone calls, very sarcastic, rude, and treated us like dollar signs. Suprisingly our rooms were not that bad. We did recieve what we had asked for, however, I'm certain that this was because we had worked with a very nice young woman who, not suprisingly, was gone when we had arrived the day of the wedding. In her place was a very rude new manager who needed some training in customer service. Because I was on a mission to "save the day" for my daughter and my new son-in-law, I spent the evening focusing on crisis management rather than enjoying the evening. NOT a good place for a wedding. WAKE UP ADVENTURELAND!
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Arrived Sat Jan 3, 2004 and stayed one night. Reserved a pool side room and did indeed get a pool side room. Agree with previous reviews on a few things: our room was extremely hot, breakfast buffet very pricey and surely not worth the $. Go across the street to Burger King & get more bang for your buck. Older gentleman dressed as a referee was way out of line. He seemed to be just looking for trouble with the kids. We came across as a grumpy ol man who hated kids. We believe in safety, but he took his job way to far. He needs to deal with the children in a nicer, friendlier way. He could still be stearn, but do it in a fun loving way. Pools and hot tubs were nice & warm. Over all had a good time and would go back someday.
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I had my wedding in the two upstairs ballrooms this past weekend, and it started out really rough. First, the events coordinator wasn't on site to make sure everything was going smoothly. The sound wasn't working at first in the ceremony room and we had no idea how to work any of the equipment. Once the reception started, we started dinner, which were heavy appetizers priced for 200-225 people, and we ran out of food halfway through everyone getting a chance to eat. Barely 100 people got to eat. They did accomodate and bring more food, but that's when the rudeness started. I was approached by a female worker telling me they wanted to shut down the reception as a whole because of "outside beverages." Keep in mind that it's about 7-8 and they had run out of beer at the cash bar. They came up at about 9 or 10 and offered to tap a keg that they had sitting behind the bar, but wanted to charge $5 a cup when a bottle of beer that had more in it was only $4. The drink that caused this dilemma was one person, who had paid for a room as well and bought the pop from their machine. I will admit outside alcohol did eventually get brought in, but only because they had none. My step dad got upset that they came to me for the issue and went up to them. It got heated and both parties were yelling and cops were threatened to get called. Four managers again pulled me to the side and told me I had to control my reception or they were calling the police to have him arrested and shutting us down. I kept telling them I had nothing to do with it and wasn't paying attention to everyone else on MY wedding day. My husband came over and was talking to the manager and the manager informed my husband that there was a reception going on downstairs and they had paid more money than we had. That comment should NEVER be brought up in any type of conversation with a client who is also paying a sufficient amount of money to you as well. Even more so THE GROOM! He then told us that they were leaving it to the Altoona police. They left, and we had a really good night. I got past the rudeness and enjoyed my wedding night the best that I could. Overall, it is a nice place and everything, but the staff is unprofessional and extremely rude if something isn't going as planned. The only nice person was the bartender and he felt terrible that they had run out of alcohol and wouldn't restock with the three other bars in the hotel. My wedding night wasn't a complete "disaster" by any means, but I wouldn't suggest having a big meaningful event here unless you can control 200+ people and can deal with the unprofessionalism. And you better hope there isn't another party paying more money than you because you will here about it. I heard they're sending us an apology letter with a free night stay and free dinner, but we haven't decided if we'll actually use it. We also left our unity sand in the ceremony room after miscommunication as to who was picking it up, and got it back yesterday and it was obviously shaken up. The sand was no longer in layers. That's not something that you can just "redo" but either is a wedding night.
Read more
Date of stay: September 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I was given the jacuzzi room for my retirement gift from co-workers. I was disapointed that the room had little style. It reminded me of a hospital room. The table chair had green silly string stuck to it, the rug needed vacuumed, and there was a wrist band on the floor. The jacuzzi start button was broken off, so you had to stick your finger in this hole to start it. I will not go back to this Inn.
Read more
Date of stay: January 2006
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The west pool is smaller and has the 2 small waterslides. The East pool has the little kids pool (zero depth entry) and the bigger pool that has the swim-up bar (kids can swim here too). The west pool is a little quieter, but the east pool is where most of the action is.
The water was much warmer than I was expecting. We only went in the little kids pool so I can only answer for that one.
Unfortunately we do not have a gym on property.
"Kids running havack and NY boyfriend and I went into hot tub and no one watching the kids and a kid was splashing in his face so had to leave"Read full review
…
PRICE RANGE
$122 - $212 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
adventureland des moines, adventureland hotel altoona, adventureland inn des moines, adventure land inn
LOCATION
United StatesIowaAltoona
NUMBER OF ROOMS
185
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
Is This Your Tripadvisor Listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim Your Listing