Weekend in Hot springs, Arkansas

Hot Springs, Arkansas is the best holiday spot to spend a weekend far different from regular routine. If you really want to get soaked in Natural spring waters, yes its that, get here to relieve your muscle soreness and also for best spa experience ever.

Hot Springs national park is within the Ouachita mountains in a region called the ZigZag mountains. All the mountains were folded, uplifted and tilted approx 280 to 200 million years ago. Hotsprings is full of charm and so scenic.
Hotsprings is called as “Place of healing”, people all over America had decided not to fight in this place and believed that natural hot mineral water with 143 degrees temperature had healing properties, thus it is named so. Later days they built bathhouses to provide extraordinary Spa services. We loved our day in this town.

Best Time To Visit

Year-round destination

Do you know something?

The temperature of the water eliminates harmful bacteria, and most of the springs on Hot springs mountain are covered to prevent contamination.
You will definitely surprised when you feel the water from fountains or springs hot, but yes, the water comes out of the ground naturally hot.

How many days we spent:

We decided to spend two nights visiting Hot Springs National Park during a weekend in October.
We reached Hotsprings by Friday noon, took rest for a while and decided to hang out in the bathhouse row for a couple of hours. Visited Hot springs national park, Garvan woodland Gardens, Drove around Ouchitha national forest a bit, lakes, etc on the next day.

Trip Budget:

Nothing here is pricey, so it is an affordable trip, for us (2 Persons) it cost around 300 bucks excluding travel.

What I felt interesting?

Park has free faucets to fill up your jugs/water cans everywhere around, remember to bring an empty water container. Water from faucets are warm but still, they are tasty, I have seen few people bringing their bottles with some part of ice to make water come to normal temperature. Drink hearty, Drink healthy.

Be cautious when planned to be in the downtown/Park area:

Seems like this tiny place is always crowded. Parking areas around the park are usually paid parking spots, if in case you find some free spots, ohh you are lucky, but please keep in mind that you may have people literally waiting/fighting to get that spot when you are trying to get out. This happened with us and we ended up spending 20 minutes to settle down things there.
Get there early if you want to avoid the crazy!

What all we did:

Bathhouse Row

This is the historic heart of American Spa, we “took the waters” of the natural hot springs which are 4,000 years old at Quapaw bathhouse which was the best part of our visit to this place.

This place will be booked all the time, so make sure you book an appointment before you get there.

Thermal Pools: There are pools starting from 95 to 104 degrees, you can check which suits you well, I believe they call these as thermal pools which will cost 20$ person (Prices may vary).
Visitors can stay for as long as you want in these pools and can even get to eat in the bath area.

Private Bath’s/ Couple Baths:
Their bathtubs are cozy, you will have your own room with a bathtub when you pick this. They even include mineral baths, aromatherapy, etc. You will be allotted a bathing assistant to guide/help you, you will have the ability to adjust water temperatures, etc.
It costs around 30$ for individual and 45$ for couples (Prices may vary)

There are a couple of gift shops in and around these bathhouses, you can try talking to the people there to get some good tips and ideas on what all can be covered when in the city, don’t forget to check if there are any scheduled live concerts which you can attend.

Fordyce Visitor Centre:

Fordyce Bathhouse occupied an ideal location next to the formal entrance of the park. The stained glass ceiling in the bath hall creates an underwater atmosphere.
Confirm you attend the Fordyce Visitor Centre first and explore the 3 floors of history to know how the town evolved. The architecture of the Bathhouse row is beautiful to ascertain.
Also, confirm you walk the ‘Promenade’ behind the bathtub houses and feel the temperature of the water from a spring – I was totally amazed!

There is a showcase of cooling rooms (a place to relax after baths), steam cabinet(rooms to stimulate skin secretions).

Hot Springs National Park

Hot springs National park is not something similar to other’s, you don’t feel like you are away from the city as when you are in other parks. This small town had lots of interesting shops around. They had homemade organic bath shop with hands creams, soaps, shampoos, etc and all are natural.
All the shops were also very interestingly arranged and well organized. They had a good collection of crystal’s which are too old. There is also a wax museum here.

Check Hot springs mountain tower for spectacular views of park around.
Take Hot springs mountain drive if you had a chance, thrilling drive, check this video, could not shoot whole drive but tried to do for 3-5 minutes in the beginning.

Garvan Woodland Gardens: 15$ per person

Garvan Woodland Gardens is one another stop that you should not miss. These gardens provide and enhance unique parts of the Ouachita national forest. There are small trials to go tour around the gardens. The surrounding area is really beautiful.

Check the Anthony Chapel located here, this has a very unique structure which is made of native wood and glass with a 57-ft. ceiling. (You don’t need to pay if you just want to check Anthony Chapel and don’t want to tour Gardens). Anthony Chapel will be opened for weddings and some other events, so do check the concerned department if there are any scheduled events during the time of your visit because usually chapel is closed for visitors during this time. You can purchase tickets here.