No one will ever convince me that hot springs are not “out of this world.” My daddy and his sister Aunt Anne and her hubby Uncle Jim all loved and knew where the hot and warm springs were located. I have carried this love into my old age and my hubby, Dai, and I have planned more than one trip around visiting natural mineral springs.
Do Not Drink The Water: I have said countless times to folks when they wound up with a spot of bother in one place or another, that they must have drunk the local water. From childhood in Alabama, from the mountains to the panhandle – there was and still are places where you just do not drink the water.
But often that same water might be magnificent for healing. Warming, comforting in any case.
For our trips we follow the hots springs and not so hot mineral springs. Saratoga Springs, New York; Hot Springs, North Carolina; Berkeley Springs, West Virginia; Las Pozas de Arnedillo (Hot Springs) – La Rioja, Spain; and Bath County’s many springs in Virginia – Warm Springs, Omni Homestead Hot Springs, Blowing Springs, Falling Springs Falls.
We have got to go back to Hot Springs, Virginia, steeped in history and healing even in January for taking the water in the pools in the town of Warm Springs, to golf and enjoy the spa at the Homestead, 5 miles down the road in Hot Springs.
My husband always manages to leave vacation time on the table and more than once we have wound up with a January vacation where we are freezing our posteriors off. I wanted a one-day drive from home and there it was on the map – Hot Springs, Virginia. We went there for our vows-renewal honeymoon trip 20 years before. Now in our 70s, these healing hot mineral springs will pamper us again.
Warm Springs Pools – For 1,000s of years Native Americans enjoyed the wonderful pools. Once Thomas Jefferson swam here, his name is part of their history. 1,700,000 gallons of 96 degree water flows daily from this spring. These pictures show both the men’s and ladies pools. The ladies has the fully open top and the men’s is the raised top with beams. Early each day there is family bathing, then during certain hours each day there are couples bathing hours in both pool houses. Later in the afternoon, men and women are alone in their respective buildings.
Omni Resorts operates the pools in Warm Springs, Virginia
January vacations ~ warm mineral springs with a chance of snow, skiing and a spa
This article is loads of wonderful fun
Inside the Reopening of America’s Oldest Resort
Over the centuries, guests at the Omni Homestead have included everyone from a young Jackie Kennedy to over twenty U.S. presidents.BY EMILY BURACKPUBLISHED: OCT 24, 2023 7:00 AM EST
A must do with must accommodations at Natural Retreats
One of the best discoveries of this trip is Natural Retreats and their wonderful accommodations in the Homestead Preserve from Warm Springs through Hot Springs. No company is any good without the best people and their property manager, Stacy Sexton, began taking care of us old codgers even before we arrived. I can’t say enough nice things about their properties we enjoyed and how wonderfully we were taken care of.
We have now stayed at two of their properties — one with mountain top vistas and one by a wooded valley stream. Both, charming, cozy, comfortable and complete with meeting the needs of the Bath County, Virginia tourists. From any one of the properties of Natural Retreats you can do all the wonderful attractions of the spa and springs region.
Natural Retreats:
Lindsay’s Roost Bar and Grill, Hot Springs, Virginia
The dinner winner for this trip was hands-down Lindsay’s Roost. Mr Lindsay and his great people feed folks from breakfast through dinner. You can escape for eat in or take out and there is even a pool table in the back. The food was really, really good. Yes Sam Snead’s Tavern was great and their pizza was good.
But Lindsay’s had good stick to your ribs warming soups and goulashes, yummy grilled cheese sandwiches to go home with for an unbeatable afternoon in front of a cozy fire. Fresh delicious food on sandwiches, cooked perfect grits to my personal joy and many dinner items that you will enjoy in a wonderful diner.
Of course we sampled the food everywhere, everywhere that was open our time of day and place – the Omni. the Warm Springs Inn Tavern was closed for winter rest which was the biggest disappointment. There was a food truck at the foot of the hill from them but we did not get to try that.
The best of the lot for other eateries was The Water Wheel at the Grist Mill Square
https://www.gristmillsquare.com/
All the photos from Lindsay’s restaurant are from Lindsay’s Roost Google Page – all my blogs are free.
Address: 15 Sunset Hill Rd, Hot Springs, VA 24445 Phone: (540) 839-2142
The Springs
Blowing Springs on 39 across the road from the entrance to Blowing Springs Campground
This entire route from Blowing Springs to Falling Springs is ’bout an hour – plus the stops of course and that will take ’bout… The stars show near areas of springs!
Warm Springs Pools, Blowing Springs, Falling Springs Falls
The spas and treatments centers are many. Of course the magnificent treatments at the Omni cannot be beat = but enjoy the other businesses along the Sam Snead Hwy strip as well. Clinicians who have come to live and work in this paradise of forest woodlands. Many types of massage and healing treatments.
The information was gleaned from online before we left. There is a Bath County brochure we downloaded, chock full of info about where to go, when and what you will see. Natural Retreats had info pages in the houses. The lady at the Blowing Springs park told us via the phone how to find the Blowing Springs site, right across from the park entrance. And Mr. Lindsay of Lindsay’s Roost told us where to go to see Falling Springs Falls and his wonderful cooks prepared our picnic lunch.
Mitchelltown, Virginia sits on the Sam Snead Highway (US220) ’bout halfway between Warm Springs and Hot Springs. The town serves all the needs. We like the houses to stay in, kitchens, living rooms and quiet, and often catering to unwinding rests with reading materials, games and puzzles – most of the time. We always carry a self contained “do nothing kit”. This time he had a new 3-d Puzzle which was cool.
There is the Valley Supermarket IGA in Mitchelltown. Great selection to make your eating “at home” easy enough and you won’t have to carry a car full of food. What the IGA did not have, the Dollar General down the road did have, also with a large freezer of food with more selections. There is a pharmacy, hardware and several general stores far and wide. There is a great hospital just near the Omni Homestead. So there are many pluses for a visit especially for us seniors, people healing and families with children, everyone really.
https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/homestead-virginia
https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/douthat
Extending your trip?
Up the road at Berkeley Springs State Park would be an easy way to add to your trip
Cherie Lynn's Herstory 