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    LULA · MISSISSIPPI · COAHOMA COUNTY

    Twenty Minutes
    From the Crossroads.

    Isle Casino Hotel Lula — where you sleep when you come for the blues

    People fly in from Europe and Japan to stand at the corner of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, where Robert Johnson is supposed to have made his deal. They visit the Delta Blues Museum in the old freight depot, they see a band at Ground Zero, and then they discover Clarksdale doesn't have many hotel rooms. Twenty minutes north on Highway 61 there's a Caesars property on the riverbank with a pool, a poker room and a floor that runs until two in the morning. That's Lula. It isn't a Vegas resort and it doesn't pretend to be — it's the right basecamp for the best music pilgrimage in America.

    Part of the Vantage Corridor Casino Network

    Isle Casino Hotel Lula

    Caesars Entertainment · 777 Isle of Capri Pkwy, Lula, MS 38644

    It sits directly on the bank of the Mississippi in Coahoma County, and it's a Caesars Rewards property — which is worth more here than the size of the floor suggests, because a stay in the Delta earns tier credits that spend in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The hotel has been renovated and carries more than 120 rooms and suites, which in this part of Mississippi makes it the largest block of decent rooms for a long way in any direction.

    The casino is a Delta casino: slots, table games and a poker room, at a scale that suits the county rather than a Strip. What it has over anywhere closer to Clarksdale is a real hotel, a pool and parking.

    Operator

    Caesars Entertainment — Caesars Rewards

    Hotel

    120+ renovated rooms and suites

    Gaming

    Slots, table games, poker room

    Floor hours

    Open 24 hours Friday and Saturday; until 2 AM weeknights

    On property

    American restaurant, cafés, seasonal outdoor pool, fitness center

    Setting

    On the Mississippi River, Coahoma County

    Check the hours before a late night. This is not a 24/7 market. The floor runs around the clock on weekends and closes at 2 AM during the week — normal for a small Delta property and a genuine surprise to anyone arriving from Vegas or Tunica expecting a room that never shuts. Plan the weeknight accordingly.

    ROOMS AT ISLE CASINO HOTEL LULA

    The closest hotel of its size to Clarksdale and the Crossroads.

    Clarksdale is the destination and Lula is where the rooms are. Twenty minutes on Highway 61, a renovated Caesars property with a pool and river frontage, and Caesars Rewards tier credits that carry to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Orleans and the rest of the network. For a blues weekend — Friday at Ground Zero, Saturday at the museum and the Crossroads — this is the practical base.

    See Current Isle Lula Rates →

    Lula.Casino earns a commission if you book through this link, at no additional cost to you. We are not affiliated with Caesars Entertainment.

    Clarksdale

    Ground zero for the blues — and the reason to be down here

    Clarksdale is a small Mississippi Delta town that produced or drew in an implausible share of American music. Muddy Waters worked a plantation outside it. John Lee Hooker, Sam Cooke and Ike Turner came from here or near it. Son House played here. It has been called ground zero for the blues for so long that the club took the name.

    The Crossroads — Highways 61 and 49

    The intersection is marked with a sign of three oversized guitars. Robert Johnson is said to have met the devil at a Delta crossroads and traded his soul for his playing; Clarksdale claims this one, and in April 1999 the state legislature authorized the city to designate the 61/49 intersection as the Crossroads. Whether it's the right corner is beside the point — this is where people come.

    Delta Blues Museum

    Mississippi's oldest music museum, founded in 1979 by the Carnegie Public Library board and reorganized as a standalone museum in 1999. It's housed in the Clarksdale freight depot, built in 1918 for the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad.

    Ground Zero Blues Club

    Co-owned by Morgan Freeman, Memphis entertainment executive Howard Stovall, and businessman Eric Meier. Live blues, a floor covered in signatures, and the most reliable place in the Delta to hear a band on a weekend night.

    Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival

    Clarksdale's long-running summer festival. If you're planning a trip around live music rather than a specific date, check the festival calendar first — this town's rooms fill on festival weekends and Lula's fill right behind them.

    You're on Highway 61

    The Blues Highway runs right past the door

    US-61 runs from New Orleans north through Baton Rouge, Natchez, Vicksburg, the Delta and Memphis, and eventually to Minnesota. The stretch through Coahoma and Tunica counties is the one that gave it the name. Lula sits on it. So does Clarksdale, twenty minutes south. So does Tunica, forty minutes north.

    North — Tunica, 40 minutes

    Five casinos still open in what was once America's third-largest gaming market. Worth a day if you want a bigger floor and a poker room with more action.

    → Tunica.Casino

    South — the Delta and Vicksburg

    Highway 61 continues south through Cleveland, Greenville and Vicksburg. The Mississippi Blues Trail markers run the length of it. If you have three days, drive it.

    → BestInMississippi.Casino

    Further south — New Orleans

    The Blues Highway ends where the music went. About six hours from Lula, and there's a Caesars property at the other end too.

    → BestInNewOrleans.Casino

    Getting to Lula

    There is no way around a car

    Drive times

    • —Clarksdale — about 20 minutes south on US-61
    • —Tunica — about 40 minutes north on US-61
    • —Memphis — about 70 minutes north, and Memphis International (MEM) is the practical airport
    • —Jackson, Mississippi — about two and a half hours south
    • —New Orleans — about six hours south

    Practical notes

    • —You need a car. There is no transit here and the distances between towns are real.
    • —The Delta is flat, agricultural and sparsely populated — fuel up when you can
    • —Cell coverage is generally fine on US-61 and patchier off it
    • —Memphis is the airport for both this and Tunica

    Mississippi gaming rules

    • —Minimum age is 21 for casino gaming and sports betting
    • —Regulated by the Mississippi Gaming Commission
    • —Sports betting is legal on-property only — Mississippi has no statewide mobile sports betting. You must be physically inside a licensed casino to place a bet.
    • —Mississippi does not permit online casino gaming
    • —Mississippi's casinos cluster in three regions: the Gulf Coast, the Delta including Lula and Tunica, and the river counties

    Caesars Rewards in the Delta

    • —Isle Casino Hotel Lula is a Caesars Rewards property
    • —Tier credits earned here carry across the full Caesars network
    • —Horseshoe Tunica, forty minutes north, is the other Caesars property in this part of the Delta
    • —For a player who travels, Delta room rates are among the cheapest ways to hold Caesars status

    More in the Network

    Play Responsibly in Mississippi

    Free, confidential help is available around the clock. The Mississippi Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling runs the state helpline, and voluntary self-exclusion is available at every licensed Mississippi casino.

    Mississippi Gambling Helpline

    1-888-777-9696

    24 hours a day, 7 days a week — free and confidential

    msgambler.org

    You must be 21 or older to gamble in Mississippi. Lula.Casino is an independent guide and is not affiliated with Caesars Entertainment, the Mississippi Gaming Commission, or any casino property. Room counts, floor hours and drive times are approximate and subject to change — verify with the property before you travel.