Little Rock is a city comprised of dozens of pockets, enclaves and boroughs. That’s actually the biggest difference between plotting out a trip and physically traveling through the city. On a map, everything seems part of one urban area, but visiting here feels like hopscotching around a series of neighborhoods, each quietly tucked into the natural landscape.

Our trip to Little Rock was at first shaped around the city’s historical sites, but, soon after we started planning our trip, the focus shifted to outdoor activities and dining. In the end, Little Rock is a great city for both types of explorers. Planning your vacation to Little Rock is a chance to stimulate your mind and body with sites and attractions that will stay with you for years.

Planning Your Trip

When to Visit

Spring and Fall are the best times to visit. Spring weather usually picks up in mid April and continues through early June, and fall weather starts late August and continues through October. During these times there is light rain and moderate temperatures that make spending time outside very comfortable for all travelers.

Also, these are the times when Little Rock packs in weekend festivals. Two festivals in particular that I’m planning our next visits around are the “World Cheese Dip Championship” and the “Arkansas Cornbread Festival”.

How Long to Visit

On it’s own, Little Rock is a comfortable four day destination. Over a long weekend, visitors have enough time to explore the landscape, historical attractions, work up a sweat and dine in a large selection of the best spots in town. You’ll also have enough left over to fill another weekend visit that might be timed with something like the Arkansas cornbread Festival. (Did I mention that this festival has it’s own pan of cornbread photo-op mascot?)

Getting to Little Rock 

The closest airport to Little Rock is the Clinton National Airport (LIT). It’s served by all the major airlines and is only about 10 minutes from central Little Rock.

For many people traveling to Little Rock, driving is just as easy and sometimes an overall faster option. Located at the intersection of I-40 (traveling East to West) and I-30 (traveling North to South), the city is very convenient. Road tripping is also a great option because to see Little Rock, you’ll need a car.

Getting Around

As I mentioned in the beginning, our visit to Little Rock left us with the impression that its a city comprised of a bunch of smaller boroughs. To explore all there is in Little Rock, you’re going to need a car. That said, you won’t be living in your car. The most we drove to and from one attraction was 30 mins.

Expected Expenses of a Car in Little Rock

Overnight : When budgeting for your trip, keep in mind that most hotels in the city will offer valet or paid parking. The further you are from the density of Downtown Little Rock, the more likely you are to find free self parking at your accommodations.

Sightseeing : Expect an even 50/50 split on paid vs free parking when seeing the main attractions as well as dining out. On the average day, we spent about $3-$6 on parking. That said, most of the attractions we liked the most had readily available free parking, and when traveling outside of the city center free parking was abundant.

How Expensive is Little Rock

Little Rock is an affordable destination. While some hotels and restaurants are more expensive, a budget conscious traveler will have an easy time finding options within their price range. Many of the sites we recommend most to visitors are low cost or free, which allows you to save your money for dining. You’ll read later about all the amazing food- so don’t skimp there. You’ll want to try some of Arkansas’ amazing beer and award winning cheese dips at every meal. 🙂

Areas Around Little Rock

According to the official Little Rock Tourism site, there are about 15 separate and distinct areas of Little Rock. However, I would say that actually planning a trip, this list can be broken down into three different areas once nearby/similar neighborhoods are grouped together and some areas without much tourist activity can be removed.

Downtown – This is the central area of Little Rock, which comprises the neighborhoods of River Market, Quapaw Quarter, Main Street Creative Quarter, South Main Street Creative District, and East Village. While each of these areas has it’s own unique shops and attractions, driving through the town, these areas are very close if not on-top-of each other and are visually very similar. 

This area of town is best for booking your hotel if you want to take advantage of the city’s walkability.

This is where we decided to stay (River Market to be exact). We could walk to breakfast and dinner at a different place every day and we were close by the main attractions that brought us to visit Little Rock in the first place (namely the Clinton Presidential Library and Central High School). Also, we recommend staying in this area because it’s central location makes traveling to and from the further reaches of the city easy.

Midtown – East of downtown Little Rock, this area is made up of Hillcrest, Riverdale and Heights. While, to me, the name might suggest a very urban setting, this is a more suburban area with great outdoor recreation options and fresh new dining. Being near the Arkansas River Tail, athletic travelers can forego their car and bike from here to most sites in the downtown area.

This part of Little Rock is still close to downtown, and is a great place to stay if you want to have easy access to Downtown but also self parking and a less dense landscape.

Greater Little Rock – This is the broadest category and encompasses West Little Rock, Southwest District, North Little Rock, and outlying attractions that fall more into the ‘Central Arkansas’ section. Why is this group so wide? Like grouping together the multiple districts that make up our ‘Downtown’ neighborhood, these more wide ranging areas feel similar to travelers in that they are further from the well known city sites and the urban landscape. Sure, they might be very different, but most visitors (especially first time visitors) will only be traveling to and from these areas for a specific attraction or event. If you choose to stay in one of these neighborhoods, you’ll be spending more overall time commuting to the main attractions of the city.

This is an ideal area for attractions and dining, but not the first place to stay if ‘visiting Little Rock’ is the intent of the trip.

Where to Stay

With the way the city is laid out, if this is your first visit I highly recommend finding accommodations downtown. I would underline that recommendation and add you’ll probably want to find a hotel close to the river, which is home to an amazing walking trail and playground for kids. Sure, you’ll have to pay a bit more for parking and your room, but you’ll be able to spend so much more time actually exploring the city and less time in your car.

Top Sights to See

Pinnacle Mountain State Park – I’m listing this hiking/biking spot first because of how surprising and awe inspiring it was when we visited. We had done a bit of research on outdoor experiences in Little Rock and were lead to Pinnacle, but the information alone didn’t prepare us for the challenge of the hike, the spectacular views we found around sunset or the first time we saw a tarantula in the wild.

Pinnacle Mountain State Park is about twenty minutes from downtown Little Rock. The way out winds you through the suburbs and then the edges of farmland before you see the peak of Pinnacle rising up. The hike itself should be broken into two parts – a nice, uphill woodland trail and then a lumpy, granite final-push scramble. To reach the top, you don’t need to be in great shape, but you need to be able to hike well. If you’re up the the challenge, just remember – hiking isn’t a race, take a rest when you need and you’ll be able to reach the top. From the top, you’ll be able to see what feels like 20 miles. (Sunset from the top is probably spectacular but without flashlights we weren’t going to try hiking down at night.)

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site – This is the place that got me the most excited about visiting Little Rock. Having read “Warriors Don’t Cry” in high school, I was very anxious to take in Central High School with my own eyes. All I can say is that it fulfilled my expectations and left me with a deep since of understanding I won’t ever forget.

Little Rock Central High School is the only national park inside of a fully operating high school. The tour begins in a small museum and National Park headquarters across the street and then takes guest onto the school grounds, retelling the story of the Little Rock Nine leading up the integration of the school and then picks up after the school year to talk about Arkansas’ ‘Lost Year’ and other anecdotes connecting the stories of students and the city to the progress and setbacks that followed the Little Rock Nine’s Integration.

Central High School isn’t the Whole Story of Little Rock – If you are interested in visiting the National Park, make sure to add these other sites onto your trip to get a more in depth view of civil rights and Little Rock’s place in history:

• Testament: The Little Rock Nine Monument – Located at the State Capital, this monument is a set of nine statues each depicting one of the Little Rock Nine and each staring up at the Governor’s office.
• Mosaic Templars Cultural Center – This is a medium sized museum devoted to telling the experiences of African-Americans in Arkansas. The entire self lead tour takes about :45 mins, and includes detailed depictions of Little Rock’s ‘City Within a City’, the 9th Street Business District, and the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.
• National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis) – Only two hours away from Downtown Little Rock, the National Civil Rights Museum is a great compliment to visiting Central High School.

The Old Mill – This should be called the Grimm’s Fairy Tale Garden because walking through it feels much more like walking through a Disney Princess Movie than anything to do with ‘Gone with the Wind’. Of all the places we’ve visited in the United States, this is one of the most magical. An old stone mill house overlooks a waterfall fed pond crisscrossed by tangled wood walkways and troll worthy stone bridges. We only spent an hour here, but could have brought a picnic and a few princess dresses and spent an entire afternoon.

Families : Riverfront Park – Little Rock’s Riverfront Park is home to a half dozen sites including a sculpture garden, Junction Bridge, and the History Pavilion. While we spent a couple of hours playing on the junction bridge and meandered through the sculpture garden after dinner, the most amazing spot we found was Margaret Clark Adventure Park. At first glance, it’s easy to tell that this playground has a different approach to ‘play’. With the majority of the features being made of rock, this is a place for kids to climb, boulder, crawl through tunnels, and explore unlike any I have ever seen. We visited this park daily.

Biking – There are two approaches to biking in Little Rock, street/trail biking and mountain biking. Whichever you prefer, you have to experience the city on two wheels.

• Streets and Trails – Little Rock is home to a 15-mile loop section of the Arkansas River Trail which connects to the overall much larger trail system running throughout Little Rock and the greater Arkansas area. You can choose to bike along the river through the city on either side of the river or wind your way through Two Rivers Park, Burns Park, and Emerald Park.
• Mountain Biking – Mountain biking has exploded in central Arkansas, and Little Rock is home to a number of great parks with varying terrain.  While visiting, I got a tour of Ratttlesnake Ridge Natural Area with the man who created its trail system. After spending nearly a year exploring the landscape, he used the natural highlights of the land to help shape and define the new trail system.

Stay tuned for our personal travel stories from our time in Little Rock. We hope this guide helps you plan your own visit to Little Rock.