This National Park, located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, is all about health and wellness...at least the way they did it back in the early 1900s. Using thermal hot springs to treat a variety of ailments through the heat and the mineral absorption, the spas here would take it to the next level. Today, you can soak in a variety of communal pools at a bath house or draw a private bath at one of the spa retreats still open.
Nav:
Fordyce Bathhouse: This is the heart of the National Park site, where you can take a docent or self-guided tour. The bathhouses took water from the nearby hot springs and channeled it into the facility for a variety of hydrotherapy treatments.
Take a Bath: The Quapaw Baths and Buckstaff Bathhouse offer the opportunity for communal or private bathing in water from the hot springs. The rest of the structures on Bathhouse Row are now shops, restaurants, or breweries (more on that later). I went for the communal option in Quapaw. They have four pools. Same water, so same mineral content, but different temperatures.
Nosh:
Rocky's Corner: Still on Central Ave, where the bathhouses are, but a few miles south out of the main hub. This little gem is a Chicago Cubs themed pizza sports bar.
Nip:
Superior Bathhouse Brewery: You guessed it, it's in the old Superior Bathhouse facility on Bathhouse Row. They say they're the only brewery in a National Park...and the only brewery they know of in the world to brew with mineral water. The water gives the beer a depth but doesn't really add a bitter mineral aftertaste.
