French Lick Resort Review for June 2026

The story of French Lick Resort begins not with gambling but with water. In the 1840s, people travelled to the springs of Orange County in southern Indiana to drink the sulfurous mineral water that bubbled up through the limestone, believing it to have curative properties. Hotels were built to accommodate them. The French Lick Springs Hotel opened in 1845. The town that grew around it attracted presidents, celebrities, and the American leisure class of the late 19th and early 20th century in the way that spa towns did before commercial air travel redirected that energy elsewhere.

The other hotel, West Baden Springs Hotel, opened in 1902 with a 200-foot clear-span dome above its atrium, at the time the largest in the world, earning it the nickname the Eighth Wonder of the World. For context, the Pantheon in Rome has a 142-foot dome. West Baden's was 58 feet wider. The hotel changed hands multiple times through the 20th century, served at various points as a Jesuit seminary and a college campus, fell into serious disrepair, and was twice nearly demolished. Both hotels were designated National Historic Landmarks.

The revival came when the Cook Group, a Bloomington, Indiana-based medical device company, began a restoration effort that would eventually cost over $600 million. The casino, which opened in 2006 as Indiana's first completely non-smoking casino, was the financial catalyst that made the restoration of both historic hotels economically viable. French Lick Resort now spreads across 3,200 acres of the southern Indiana hills, with the French Lick Springs Hotel, West Baden Springs Hotel, and the newer Valley Tower Hotel together providing over 700 rooms and suites, two championship golf courses and a 9-hole course, two full-service spas, and one of the most genuinely distinctive resort environments in the country.

French Lick sits in Orange County in southern Indiana, approximately 100 miles south of Indianapolis and 70 miles northwest of Louisville. From Indianapolis, the drive via US-150 takes around an hour and 45 minutes. From Louisville, it's around 90 minutes via IN-64 and IN-56. Nashville, Tennessee, is approximately three hours.

The French Lick Municipal Airport handles private and charter aircraft. Commercial travellers use either Indianapolis International Airport or Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport and drive. A complimentary resort-wide shuttle service connects all three hotels, the casino, the golf courses, and the spa facilities across the 3,200-acre property.

The gaming floor is Indiana's only fully non-smoking gaming venue, a designation it has held since opening in 2006. An outdoor smoking patio with a covered shelter sits directly outside for guests who prefer to smoke. The layout is spacious, with generous distances between gaming positions and comfortable seating areas throughout that give the floor a less cramped feel than most casinos of comparable size.

A dedicated high-limit room offers table games and slots up to $100 denomination, with a VIP lounge adjacent. The casino's identity is explicitly part of a broader resort experience rather than the primary reason to visit, and the property manages that balance well. Guests who are primarily golfers or spa visitors encounter the casino as an amenity. Guests who are primarily casino visitors encounter the golf, spa, and historic hotels as a setting that no other Indiana casino can offer.

Table Games

25-plus live table games running 24 hours: Blackjack (including 21+3 and Blazing 7s variants), Craps, Roulette, Mini-Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Three Card Poker, Mississippi Stud, and Texas Hold'em Bonus. The fully non-smoking environment extends across the entire floor, a meaningful differentiator for players who find smoke a deterrent to extended session play.

Slots

Over 600 slot machines run across the floor in a range of denominations. The count is lower than most comparable Indiana casinos, reflecting the property's resort orientation. The machine selection covers the major contemporary titles and is well maintained, with progressive jackpots and video poker alongside the standard reel and video formats.

Rewards Club

French Lick Rewards is the property's loyalty program, operating across three tiers with points earned on gaming, hotel stays, dining, spa, and golf spend. Points are redeemable for room coupons, dining credits, and free play. The breadth of the resort's amenities means the program carries more cross-property value than at a gaming-only destination, with golf and spa redemptions alongside the standard casino-focused options.

Did You Know?

Three hotels provide over 700 rooms and suites across 3,200 acres, each with its own character and price point.

French Lick Springs Hotel is the larger of the two historic properties, with 443 rooms and suites. Originally built in 1845 and expanded through the early 20th century, the hotel's restoration preserved the grand corridors, high ceilings, and period detailing of the original structure while fitting the rooms with contemporary comforts, including premium bedding and flat-screen televisions. The casino connects directly to this hotel. Both indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, stables, tennis courts, and a six-lane bowling alley are available to guests.

West Baden Springs Hotel has 243 rooms and suites and is, by any reasonable measure, the more spectacular of the two. The 200-foot atrium dome is the centerpiece of the interior, and rooms arranged around the atrium in the original style give the hotel an atmosphere that is genuinely unlike any other hotel in the United States. The European-style decor, atrium-view balconies, and the extraordinary history of the building create a hotel stay that has no real equivalent anywhere in the Midwest. I stayed here on my last visit. Walking into that atrium for the first time is one of those moments where you genuinely stop and look up.

Valley Tower Hotel is the newer, more modern option, positioned directly adjacent to the casino and the French Lick Springs Hotel event center. It offers a more contemporary aesthetic for guests who prefer that over historic grandeur, alongside a direct connection to the gaming floor.

Where to Eat

Thirteen dining options across the resort span fine dining steakhouses, casual gastropubs, grab-and-go casino floor options, and golf clubhouse restaurants.

1875: The Steakhouse is the fine dining anchor, named for May 17, 1875, the date of the first Kentucky Derby. Hagen's Golf Course Restaurant, a short shuttle ride from the main hotels, is the one guests consistently single out for its BBQ ribs, and the combination of the golf course setting and the quality of the food makes it worth the trip across the property.

Pool and Spa

French Lick Resort operates two full-service spas with a combined 36 treatment rooms, making this one of the most substantial spa provisions at any casino resort in the Midwest. The Spa at French Lick, the primary facility, retains access to the property's historic mineral springs for its signature Pluto Mineral Bath treatment, an experience that connects directly to the reason visitors first came to this part of Indiana in the 1840s. Additional treatments include massages, facials, body wraps, and light therapy.

Both hotel properties have indoor and outdoor pools, with French Lick Springs Hotel offering the larger complex. A KidsFest recreational area for children aged 6 to 12 operates at the resort, which, given the fully non-smoking casino floor, makes French Lick one of the more family-friendly casino resort environments in the state.

Entertainment

French Lick Resort hosts concerts, comedy shows, and special events across multiple venues, including the grand atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel, which functions as an extraordinary natural concert hall. The French Lick Scenic Railway offers historic train rides through the surrounding hills for guests who want to explore beyond the resort grounds. Horseback riding at The Stables, hiking and biking on the Buffalo Trace Trail, and the KidsFest recreational facility give the resort a depth of non-casino activity that earns its description as a genuine destination resort rather than a casino with attached amenities.

Golf

Two championship courses and a 9-hole layout across 3,200 acres make French Lick Resort one of the most complete golf destinations at any casino property in the country.

The Pete Dye Course, perched on one of the highest points in Indiana, has been named the best golf course in Indiana by Golfweek for 16 consecutive years. Dye's signature design philosophy of elevated greens, dramatic bunkering, and visual intimidation is expressed in full here, with 40-mile panoramic views of the southern Indiana hills from multiple holes. Pete Dye called it his favorite inland design. 

The Donald Ross Course is the historic anchor, an original design by the Scottish-born architect who shaped American golf course design in the early 20th century. Walter Hagen won the 1924 PGA Championship on this course, one of the specific historical facts that gives French Lick's golf credentials a grounding in actual tournament history rather than marketing retrospection.

The Valley Links Course is the third option, a more playable 9-hole layout for guests who want to enjoy the setting without the difficulty of the Dye or Ross courses.

French Lick Resort is the most historically distinctive casino destination in the Midwest and arguably in the country. Two National Historic Landmark hotels, one of which contains what was the largest clear-span dome in the world at the time of its construction, two championship golf courses, including the course where Walter Hagen won the 1924 PGA Championship, the only fully non-smoking casino in Indiana, and a mineral spring spa heritage dating to the 1840s create a combination that no other casino resort can replicate.

The gaming floor is smaller, and the slot count is lower than that of the pure gaming destinations in this batch. That is a fair trade for everything else the property delivers, and the casino has been honest about its own position within a broader resort experience since the day it opened. It is there to serve the resort's economics and to offer something for guests who want it, not to compete with Horseshoe Hammond on volume.

For guests who want a casino resort weekend that is also a genuine immersion in American resort history, French Lick Resort has no competition in Indiana and very little across the entire country.