How To Make Your First Visit To Hot Springs Village A Success

 

Planning your first trip to Hot Springs Village as a potential retiree is an exciting opportunity to experience the community’s amenities, lifestyle, and natural beauty firsthand. Here are some recommendations to help you get the most out of your visit and make an informed decision about retirement in Hot Springs Village.

Set An Expectation For The Trip

Some people have a casual interest in HSV. Others are more serious, looking to decide on the near term. Figure out where you are in the journey and plan accordingly.

What’s the goal of this first trip? Sit down, talk about it, agree on it, and write it down.

Permit yourself to change your mind once you experience the Village, but it’s wise to have a plan going in. Pursue your ideal outcome – figure out the best scenario possible and what that might look and feel like. Chase that.

Again, new information (and new feelings) can always change it, so permit yourself to change your mind. But, make up your mind in advance what you most want to accomplish with this first trip. Whatever you decide will be fine.

Here are just a few questions that may help:

What are the top 3 things we want to find out during our trip?

What are the top 3 things we most want to experience before we go home?

Who can help us make the most of our time?

Lastly, on this point, make notes during your stay of the questions you have that you didn’t bring with you.

Figure Out Where You’ll Stay

Don’t stay in Hot Springs. There’s nothing wrong with Hot Springs, but if you’re making this trip to investigate HSV as your retirement destination, then stay inside Hot Springs Village.

Is it just you and a spouse? Are you alone?

Then head over to Airbnb and search “Hot Springs Village, Arkansas.” Pay close attention to each listing to be sure it’s inside the Village. If you’re unsure, check before you book it.

Look for a location that has all the amenities you want, but then focus on the detailed description of the area. Do you want to stay on a golf course? Ensure the listing is located on the golf course and not adjacent to it. Do you want to stay in a lakefront listing? Make sure. And if you’re going to stay on one of the four largest lakes, then make sure the listing is on one of them and not one of the much smaller lakes. The four largest are, in descending order of size: Lake Balboa (944 acres), Lake Coronado (380), Lake Cortez (245), and Lake DeSoto (200).

Depending on how you answered step 1 – setting your expectation, then get as specific as necessary. If your goal is to investigate living on a particular golf course, then try to find a listing on that golf course. If your goal is to examine residing on a specific lake, find a listing on that lake.

But it may be you want to figure those things out. That’s okay, pick a place that suits your ideal outcome as your home base while you’re here. That’ll help you learn more about that place or another place similar – a golf course or a lake.

You may want to split your time between a couple of places to gain multiple experiences. Keep in mind that most listings are going to require a stay of 2 or more nights, so if your trip is severely restricted, this might be impractical. Hopefully, you can give yourself 3 nights or longer. Longer