Zimmerman Family Airstream: Hot Springs National Park Travel Guide
Welcome to your Hot Springs National Park travel guide.
In the past, when I’ve shared about our travels, I’ve always gotten so many questions about how I plan a trip.
For years, this question stumped me. Planning trips comes more easily to me than almost anything. At the end of a long day, you won’t find me scrolling through Instagram, but you can surely find me researching my way to a new travel destination.
I believe that what comes naturally to us is usually a huge indicator of our God-given strengths and abilities.
So today, I’m sharing our travel guide to Hot Springs National Park, in the hopes that the next time you need to scratch that travel itch, it’ll be easier for you to hit the road and find adventure at Hot Springs. You can watch our travel video in Hot Springs here.
Where to stay.
If you’re in a home on wheels, you’ll want to stay here. It’s super close to both the park and downtown, because the national park visitor’s center is downtown, and the unique downtown experience is part of the charm of Hot Springs.
We’ve also stayed at Catherine’s Landing, which is a beautiful cabin with stunning scenery, nature trails, and a great playground.
Before we were a full-time travel family, we would take weekend trips in Arkansas. During one of those trips, we stayed at this amazing loft downtown.
If you want to stay in a hotel, check out The Arlington and The Waters. I did a wedding or two at The Arlington back in my wedding days, and it’s stunning and full of history!
Where to eat.
If you want to eat my favorite breakfast… ever, then you need to stop at The Pancake Shop.
It’s simple, it’s so good, and the staff is incredibly friendly. The most recent time we ate there, our server stopped by as we were getting ready to leave and told us another couple had taken care of our tab. Of course I got a little teary. This place is magical.
We tried out a new place this time around, Grateful Head Pizza. Bonus for Brian, they had gluten-free pizza and beer! We sat outside and enjoyed our scenery, which is incredible because the restaurant is built on the side of a cliff. You’ll feel like you’re eating pizza and beer in a treehouse fort.
If you don’t need GF pizza, check out Deluca’s Pizzeria. You can’t find better pizza!
Finally, although we didn’t get to stop in this time, McClard’s has incredible BBQ, and has been around for almost a century. I love finding local treasures like McClard’s!
Grab a drink.
The Ohio Club is the perfect spot for a quick drink or a night of live music, and it’s stuffed full of Arkansas history!
What to do.
There’s not just a national park, there’s a theme park in Hot Springs! If you need to switch it up, check out Magic Springs Amusement Park.
Garvan Gardens Chapel is another throwback from my wedding days, and has some of the most beautiful architecture I’ve ever seen. You might feel like you’ve fallen into a Tolkien story.
Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort has been around since 1904 and is a great time if you don’t need to stick to kid-friendly activities.
Just because Hot Springs has an incredible national park doesn’t mean you should sleep on Lake Catherine State Park . Spend the day walking trails and wading through streams. It’s stunning here!
Just one look at the website and you’ll get why the Mid-America Science Museum is a must-see destination.
Explore the park.
I don’t know where else you can be in the middle of a national park and in a downtown square. It’s really special!
We all loved filling up our water bottles from the hot springs.
Check out all the park has to offer here: https://www.nps.gov/hosp/planyourvisit/maps.htm
Jr. Ranger Program.
Hot Springs is where we kicked off the Jr. Ranger Program. Since we knew we were planning on seeing quite a few parks within the year, it was totally worth it for us. Keep reading to see if it’s something that’s a good fit for you!
Okay, so the program consisted of each kid getting a “workbook” and a pencil. They had to finish seven activities in their workbook, and when they did, they earned their Hot Springs pin. It was basically a scavenger hunt.
The activities were simple and fun. Interesting enough for my seven year old, and simple enough for my two five year olds. Some of the activities were like, “feel the water from the hot spring fountain, what does it feel like?” or, “taste the water from the hot spring.” Again, simple but fun. As a parent, you’re not gonna spend your whole day helping your kid hunt.
Hot Springs also has several bath houses, and each one has different architecture. One of the activities was to match which bath house belonged to which picture of an architectural element.
I don’t like busywork or activities just for the sake of checking boxes, but this was totally worth doing. At the end, the kids recited the ranger pledge (they just raise their right hand and repeat after the ranger - no memorizing necessary!) and they each received their badge!
Once we got back to the Airstream, the kids pinned their badges to this, and then they’ll be able to collect pins from every park we visit!
At the end of the trip, we checked Hot Springs National Park off our National Park bucket list. We used this fun scratch off map and the kids love it!
Catch up on all our airstream adventures here!
Want to get a PDF version of this travel guide so you can take it on the road with you?
