* This blog post is sponsored by The Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association.

At least once a year, our family likes to go on a quick weekend getaway. A weekend getaway is just that—one that isn’t too complicated and is within a 3-hour drive of Tulsa.  Since our city is right in the middle of the map, we have quite a few options and have been to some really great places.  But since we’re always up for a new adventure, when The Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association invited us for a visit, we were all in!

With a full weekend itinerary, we left Tulsa on a Friday morning and drove straight to Siloam Springs, Arkansas to kick off our adventure. We started at AM Eats & Tea Treats for breakfast. It’s right in their cute little downtown, and they had a great menu for any craving. After breakfast, we explored their downtown, popping into the different shops and boutiques. We even found an incredible bakery and grabbed some treats for the road. There was a beautiful park and creek in their downtown, so we walked and ran around to burn off some energy before getting back into the car to head to our next stop.

From Siloam Springs, we took the short drive to Rogers, Arkansas. We started our visit at the iconic Onyx Coffee Labs, who is headquartered in Downtown Rogers. The coffee shop was absolutely stunning, our coffees (and hot chocolate for the mini) were delicious, and we even got to watch the roasting process. We took our coffees to go so that we could explore more of Downtown Rogers. There were so many adorable shops, boutiques, bakeries, and cafes. We could have spent the entire day exploring everything! While downtown, we ducked into the Daisy Airgun Museum, home of the world’s largest BB gun, and other fun treasures. This was such a fun find, and we all loved the quick tour. After the museum, we stumbled upon a really great park at the edge of downtown, so we spent some time running, playing, and climbing. Somehow, we decided we were still up for one more adventure in Rogers, so we made the quick drive over to K1 Speed Go Karts. My husband and son both love Go Karts, so this was right up their alley. (And I’m a good sport, so I suited up too.). This wound up being one of our favorite parts of the trip, because the place was really fun, and the staff is great with all ages and experience levels.

After parking our karts, we made the drive to Bentonville, Arkansas for our last stop of the day. When we got to Bentonville, it was early afternoon, and we drove straight to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to explore. This museum is world famous, and for good reason. It is such a gorgeous space, both inside and out, and their collection is an eclectic curation that any art lover will enjoy. While at the museum, we grabbed a snack and drink from their onsite restaurant, which is such a great option. You could truly spend an entire day at this museum! After a couple of hours at the museum, we were ready to check into our hotel and rest up before dinner. There are so many great hotel options in Bentonville, but we were thrilled to be staying at 21C Bentonville. There are a handful of 21C properties in the country, all known for their fun and funky interiors and art collections, their exceptional customer experience, and those big ol penguins. (Pro Tip: Ask the front desk to surprise your kiddos with a penguin, and you won’t be disappointed. You may find it outside your room, in your hallway, or even in your bed!). After a quick check in and refresh, we walked over to the downtown square for dinner at Bar Cleeta. Not only was this our favorite meal of our entire trip, it was actually my favorite thing we did the entire weekend. The menu is full of small plates, meant to be shared. We were pretty hungry, so we had quite the spread to share, which was so fun. The entire restaurant team was welcoming and helpful and gave the best recommendations. And they even made our son his own little mocktail, which made him feel so special. After dinner, we walked around downtown, popping into the shops and boutiques. We stumbled on an ice cream shop and decided we needed one more treat before calling it a night.

We got up early on Saturday morning to get a head start on our next trip. After a quick stop at Airship Coffee before leaving Bentonville, we made the quick drive to Springdale, Arkansas. Our first stop was Susan’s for breakfast. This place was popular! And for good reason, because the food was great, and the restaurant staff was so fun. The Springdale Dia de Los Muertos Festival was happening in their downtown, so we drove over to check it out. There were so many vendors, food trucks, and activities, and we loved walking through and taking in the culture and significance of the event. While downtown, we stopped in several shops and boutiques and met lots of very friendly locals.

From Springdale, it was time to take the drive to the land of the Hogs…Fayetteville, Arkansas. There really is something special about a college town…the energy, the excitement, and the variety of things to do, see, and eat. We started our day at Pink Alchemy for some delicious lattes and a cozy spot to relax for a bit. Right next door to the coffee shop is the shopping hotspot, Presley Paige, full of all the best gifts, holiday decor, and home goods, so I spent quite a bit of time inside. Now that we were fueled up, we made the short drive over to Downtown Fayetteville to walk around. It’s very close to the University of Arkansas, so this area has all the best shops, restaurants, bars, and green spaces for walking or sitting. We loved this area and could have spent an entire weekend in this town. We had one more drive to make this day, but we stopped at Creme Ice Cream Co. on our way out of town for one of their famous ice cream flights.

With full bellies and full hearts, we made the beautiful drive to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Eureka Springs is full of culture and history, and you can feel it as soon as you pull into their downtown. Hilly, windy roads lined with shops, restaurants, art galleries, and maybe a tarot reader or two. Our first stop was to check into our hotel, Basin Park Hotel, a very well-known historic downtown hotel. It still has all of its original charm, with a few upgrades for modern convenience. After dropping our bags, we went up to their rooftop restaurant for a snack and a drink. From the rooftop terrace, you can see the entire street, and it was such a beautiful view! It was only a quick stop at the rooftop, because our next adventure was taking our hotel’s shuttle over to the Crescent Hotel for a ghost tour. Eureka Springs is known for its history and its connection to ghosts, and the Cresent Hotel is known for ghost sitings and is full of stories. The hotel offers a few different tours, but we took the kid-friendly tour, which was perfect. It wasn’t scary, it was the right amount of a history lesson, and it was a lot of fun. After our tour, we went upstairs to SkyBar Pizza. There was quite a bit of a wait, so we put our name on the list and went to explore the hotel a bit more. They have a really fun area in the back with yard games, a food truck, a bar, and live music, so we spent some time out there while we waited for our table. The pizza was worth the wait, and we shuttled back to our hotel after we finished.

On Sunday mornings, things open a little later in downtown, so we made the short (yet hilly) walk over to Harold’s for breakfast. This cute little spot was some of the best food we had on the trip, and the staff was so great. Everything is made from scratch with its own little twist, and we all loved it. By the time we finished breakfast, downtown was waking up, so we were able to visit some of the shops and galleries, and even grabbed a coffee. Sadly, it was time to pack up and head to our last stop in Northwest Arkansas.

We loaded up and made our final drive to Bella Vista, Arkansas, which is absolutely beautiful. This is an outdoors paradise! Hiking, biking, golf, boating, kayaking, walking, running…anything you could want to do outside, this is the spot. We were scheduled to take a bike tour at Tweety Bird Trailhead, but our weather wasn’t cooperating. However, it’s high on our list for our next visit, because I know we would have loved it. We did find a couple of outdoor spaces to visit while in town so that we could get our fix of this stunning part of the state. Before making our drive home, we had a late lunch at Bella’s Table, which was the perfect ending to our trip.

I cannot say enough good things about our weekend in Northwest Arkansas. My biggest takeaway is how much there is to do, see, explore, and eat, and how any of these towns we visited could be their own weekend trip. We are so grateful for this weekend away and cannot wait to do it again soon!

I hope you’ll plan a trip there soon and tell me everything you do, because you know I’ll be back!

XOXO,

Molly B.