Mystic Lake Casino Hotel
Prior Lake, Minnesota
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community owns the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, which sits on the community’s 4,000 acres about 25 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis. When the new Mystic Lake Center opened in January, it made the property one of the Twin Cities’ largest hotels and the area’s only full-service resort.
The Mystic Lake Center expansion included a new 70,000-square-foot conference center as well as a new, nine-story, 180-room hotel tower that brought the hotel’s total number of guest rooms to 766, group sales manager Holland Tudor said.
The resort has seven restaurants, three bars and lounges, and the largest gaming floor in Minnesota, Holland said. Group gaming options include blackjack lessons and tournaments, slot tournaments and a private casino night in a ballroom.
Guests can also arrange for services at the Spa at Mystic Lake or play a round at the 18-hole Meadows at Mystic Lake golf course.
OPOS Tours and Travel can customize group tours for 10 to 200 people to educate visitors about sacred sites and indigenous art and culture. A sustainability tour may showcase the community’s organic farm, recycling plant, beehives, honey bottling, maple bottling and green roofs on the fire station and the on-site Dakotah Sport and Fitness buildings. The Dakotah center has an indoor pool with a waterslide, an ice rink and a bowling alley.
Groups can visit Mazopiya, the natural food market where the community sells its produce and products. With the new expansion, Mystic Lake has “an amazing kitchen,” Tudor said, and the resort offers back-of-the-house tours for guests to see what happens behind the scenes, such as meeting the pastry chef who loves to talk about his sourdough mix that he’s been cultivating for 30 years.
Pechanga Resort and Casino
Temecula, California
When Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California, opened its new 4.5-acre outdoor pool complex in March, it was the final piece of a two-year, $300 million expansion.
The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians owns the casino, which offers gaming, resort amenities and easy access to nearby vineyards and wineries, historic Old Town Temecula, hot-air ballooning and horseback riding.
“Guests definitely enjoy our array of amenities and also all of the rich activities the city of Temecula has to offer through our partnership with them,” said Scott Wilson, Pechanga director of sales.
The resort’s expansion built a second hotel tower, more than doubling the number of guest rooms and suites to 1,090.
The Cove has four pools, three Jacuzzis, dozens of cabanas, a bar that offers both swim-up and walk-up service and a new poolside restaurant, Coveside Grill, that in addition to the Lobby Bar and Grill, was one of two new restaurants included in the expansion.
The project also included a new 25,000-square-foot day spa with 17 treatment rooms and its own dedicated pool, and 70,000 square feet of new meeting and event space. Part of that is the new Pechanga Summit, an event center that can be used for concerts, live-action sports and trade shows. In addition to the entertainment at that venue, groups can often catch shows in the 1,200-seat Pechanga Theater or at the comedy club.
Groups can use the casino’s dedicated poker room, book a private room upstairs in the supermodern bingo hall or reserve the hall’s entire second level that overlooks the floor below for private parties with dedicated food-and-beverage service.
