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Making America's Best Idea Even Better
Hot Springs National ParkLarge white rv from side with silver truck to its left; several other rvs in background. Trees shading campsites.
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Hot Springs National Park
Traditional Baths
Large ceramic white bath tub, typical of those in the traditional bathhouses, with a large faucet on the left and a grab bar on the gray marble wall behind the tub;blond haired woman in the tub

Courtesy of Buckstaff Baths

The traditional bath is in an over-sized tub in a private stall.

A regimented bathing routine was established in the 1800s according to the tradition of the European spas. This routine is still used at most of the bathhouses today. You may decline any portions you do not wish to have.

1. Purchase a bath ticket and lock your valuables in a security box.

2. You will be guided to the dressing room where an attendant provides a bathsheet for you to wear.

3. In the bath halls, you have a private bath tub which your attendant has cleaned and filled with fresh 98-100-degree water. The tubs are large enough for you to stretch out and soak for 20 minutes. You may purchase a personal luffa bath mitt for a back scrub if desired.

4. Full steam cabinets (two minutes) or head-out cabinets (five minutes) can benefit lung or sinus conditions.

5. Sitz (sitting) tubs filled with 108-degree water for ten minutes are great for problems and pains in the lower back.

6. Applications of hot packs (up to four for twenty minutes) provide heat therapy for specific aches or pains.

7. The two-minute cool-down shower is a refreshing, tingling experience.

8. A full-body Swedish massage lasting twenty minutes or more is optional and costs extra.
Pres. Roosevelt is in an open touring car on Fountain St. in front of the Arlington Hotel. A crowd surrounds the car.  

Did You Know?
On June 10, 1936, President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Hot Springs National Park and toured the Fordyce Bathhouse as part of the Arkansas centennial celebration. FDR used the baths at Warm Springs, Georgia, on a regular basis to relieve his polio. He never bathed in Hot Springs.

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Last Updated: August 22, 2007 at 12:15 EST