Arkansas is filled with warm, friendly people who'll welcome you with a handshake. Besides their wonderful people, Arkansas has diverse landscapes and a four-season climate. Arkansas annually attracts visitors from across the nation and abroad. Many are drawn to its abundant opportunities for outdoor adventures and to its natural beauty, as seen in the state's waterfalls, tour caverns and wild caving experiences, forested mountain trails and scenic drives. Some come to dig for keeper diamonds and quartz crystals. Come and explore Arkansas beauty!

Hot Springs' Gangster Legacy

Need a Soprano fix? Come see Hot Springs legacy as a gangster hangout has been honored with opening of The Gangster Museum of America. The focus will be on the 1920s-40s era of the town, when gangsters such as Al Capone and Lucky Luciano vacationed there. Unlike other museums, the artifacts are all indigenous to the area, and the museum is located on Central Avenue, the very street where all of the history took place.

Quapaw Bath and Spa Re-Opens!

The Quapaw Bathhouse on Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park has reopened as a family oriented spa. The Spanish Colonial Revival style building will feature full spa services such as large capacity public hot water pools with fountains and whirlpools, semi-private tub area,day spa with massage and beauty treatments, steam cave sauna with cool plunge pool and mud baths. In addition to a gift shop, reception hall and snack bar.

Favorite Fall Foliage Drive

Explore the explosion of fall colors! Arkansas is blessed with more than its share of beautiful, year-round vistas, but autumn is a showcase season for The Natural State. Every color associated with fall – candy apple red, lime green, pumpkin orange, sunshine yellow, brassy bronze – are on display, usually from mid-to-late October into November. State and national scenic drives provide up-close views. Find your favorite “off the beaten path” scenic drive this year!

Dine on a Plane

Meals aboard a plane have not always been considered unusual, but they are quickly becoming an endangered species. You can still have a meal aboard a plane, albeit a stationary one, at this one-of-a-kind restaurant. Housed in a Southwest Airlines Boeing 727, the interior has been painstakingly restored to the original "Southwest" look and seats have been reconfigured to fit tables. Diners can stash their coats in the overhead bins. It features Southern-style home cooking.

Dig for Diamonds and Keep What You Find!

Experience the fun of digging for treasure. The only place on the North American continent where you can dig for diamonds for a small fee and keep what you find. New Diamond Discovery Center provides an introduction to diamond searching, equipment rentals and exhibit gallery. Diamond Springs is a 14,700-square-foot, mining-themed aquatic playground plus there is camping, picnic sites, trail, wildlife observation blind and gift shop.

Attend the New Great Passion Play

Celebrating 40 years, The Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs is offering special ticket prices this season and has revamped its outdoor drama with new narrative and music. While the play opened in July 1968, today there is even more to praise at this complex of biblically based attractions in addition to the play itself. This year the play contains parables and text from different gospels in the New Testament, focusing on more miracles Christ performed in the days before his crucifixion and resurrection.

The Trail of Holiday Lights

The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism strings together over 65 communities in the Trail of Holiday Lights guide, listing lighting displays, parades and events this Christmas season with a map and a description for towns all across The Natural State. The trail begins in Northwest Arkansas, winds its way across the Ozarks to the Northeast corner of the state, down through the Delta, into the Timberlands, back in the Ouachitas, through the River Valley and ends in the Heart of Arkansas.

The Clinton Presidential Library

The Clinton Presidential Library and Park -- America's 12th Presidential Library is now officially open. Located on the banks of the Arkansas River in the River Market District of downtown Little Rock, the $160-million-dollar structure contains 20,000 square feet of library and museum space, including an authentic replica of the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. Exhibits in the Clinton Library museum are designed by Ralph Appelbaum and Associates of New York. Among its numerous notable achievements, Appelbaum and Associates created the powerful exhibits at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. The Clinton Library contains the largest collection of presidential papers and artifacts in U.S. history.

Enjoy an Out-of-the-Ordinary Dining Experience

Do you belong to the majority of people who are interested in unusual places to eat? Then you are absolutely right in the Natural State of Arkansas! Unusual cuisine can mean any number of things – menus with unusual or different foods, dining establishments found in out-of-the-ordinary locales, local hot spots, etc - and Arkansas is definitely the place to go for "unique dining". Not only because restaurants can be found in buildings that you don’t ordinarily expect to find a dining location, at least nowadays, but because the restaurants have all been given "thumbs-up" as to the cuisine offered.

Arkansas Destinations, Inc.
1900 North Bryant
Suite 202
Little Rock, AR 72207
Tel: (501) 603-0113
Toll Free: (866) WE PLAN LR
Website: www.ardestinations.com