The running of the tubs event features costumed teams in wheeled bathtubs running through Bathhouse Row.

Hot Springs is home to its fair share of quirky, zany and downright eccentric oddities — but that’s part of what makes the Spa City such a great destination. Make sure your visit includes one or more of these uniquely Hot Springs activities.

Stueart Pennington Running of the Tubs
This zany Hot Springs tradition is going on 14 years of tub-running fun. The event features costumed teams in wheeled bathtubs running through historic Bathhouse Row. Audience members are encouraged to get in the spirit by bringing water guns, and wearing house slippers, shower caps and robes while cheering on the parade. (HELD IN JUNE EACH YEAR.)


The Gangster Museum of America
Step into a time machine and head back to the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s when mineral water, gambling and bootlegging brought visitors from all over the world to Hot Springs. The Gangster Museum of America offers a historic and entertaining glimpse into how some of the nation’s most notorious criminals lived and played in this quaint mountain town. (OPEN YEAR-ROUND.)

Al Capone was a frequent Hot Springs visitor. Here, he's pictured riding a donkey at Happy Hollow Springs with his brother, Ralph (Bottles) Capone.

Hot Springs Haunted Tours
Discover the lesser-known stories of Hot Springs’ storied past during one of the Hot Springs Haunted Tours. Your tour guide will escort you on a 90-minute walking tour of Hot Springs, telling tales that will give you goosebumps. Be sure to bring your camera — people on past tours have managed to capture photos of apparitions. (OPEN YEAR-ROUND.)

Superior Bathhouse Brewery
Superior Bathhouse Brewery is a craft brewery located in the historic 1916 Superior Bathhouse on Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park — and the only brewery in the country located inside a national park. Weekly tours feature the distilling processes and samples within the historic bathhouse surroundings. (OPEN YEAR-ROUND.)

Superior Bathhouse Brewery is the world's first brewery to use thermal spring water as its main ingredient.

Hot Springs International Horror Film Fest
Hot Springs International Horror Film Fest is an annual independent film festival that is hauntingly fun for locals and visitors alike. The film fest screens and honors films from around the globe, including plenty of fantasy, thrills, intrigue, slashers and more. (HELD IN SEPTEMBER EACH YEAR.)

Maxwell Blade’s Odditorium & Curiosities Museum
This “Odditorium” features a collection of more than 300 rare and strange objects from all over the world, and is housed in a building that was once one of the only drive-through mortuaries in The South. Some of the oddities include voodoo dolls, a silver Inca skull discovered in 1913 at the base of Machu Picchu, the huge rings of sideshow giants, a Fiji mermaid and one of Edgar Allen Poe’s inkwells. (OPEN YEAR-ROUND.)

Arkansas Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo
Where else in Arkansas can you hold baby alligators and feed alligators meat on a stick? The Arkansas Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo was founded in 1902 as a tourist attraction for people visiting Hot Springs for the thermal baths. Today, the Arkansas Alligator Farm & Petting Zoo features adult and baby alligators native to southern Arkansas, four types of primates, Arkansas mountain lions, wild ducks, wolves, turkeys, peacocks and more. (OPEN YEAR-ROUND.)