[googleajax]

I have no idea about AR and planning to visit next weekend for 3 days with my family and little kids, I am coming from neighbor state OKC. I glanced through this site and it seems there are so many beautiful places to see, I picked the below places in random out of them.

Hot Springs
Mountain Tower
Mt. Ida, crystal hunting
Ozarks
Fort Smith
Diamond Mine
Fayetteville

It seems the whether is cold now, not sure what places I can cover from the above list. Can someone please recommend me top 5 attractions which I can cover in 3 days?

Thanks for the help.

[Rainbow Island]

We use to go to the diamond mine. My boy found a 1.75 carat diamond. I was working my behind off. Digging, toting, sifting, doing all the things one has to do to find a diamond. My somewhat lazy boy was just walking around complaining about being too hot and seen it right there on top of the ground. It had come a big rain the night before. That is the best time to find one just walking and looking.

[Poltracker]

If you are going to go to the crystal mines, make sure you bring your own tools: a hoe, garden trowels or small shovels, gloves and buckets (too hold your finds). For a casual experience, I would recommend going to Wegner's and visiting their tailings pile. You can rent equipment at the diamond mine (except the gloves). At either place, make sure you bring clothing that you do not mind getting ruined. The clay at both places will stain clothing and is very difficult to remove. Lot of fun though and crystal hunting is usually productive.

If you are coming from OKC, you might want to catch the tourist route through Mena to Mt Ida and then on to Hot Springs and the Diamond mine. One thing to consider, the diamond mine and the Ozarks are in different directions so you might want to plan your route that way. Above all things, have fun

[Rainbow Island]

And to add to what poltracker said. Don't expect to find a diamond your first trip. It can happen and many have. I've never found one. When someone finds a diamond and takes it to the staff to confirm it's a diamond, an alarm goes off to let everyone know of the find. That can either make you work harder to find your own or, in my case, aggrivate you because someone else found another one and you didn't. Also, you will not be in a mine like I had it pitcured. It's just a field that they plow up every so often. There is boundry lines that you have to stay in. The surrounding land also contains diamonds but it is private property. The first time we went, I had a pocket full of diamonds, well I thought I did anyway. There is so many shinny, perttys. I forget the name of it. When you find a diamond, there will be no doubt what it is. There are several diffrent colors of diamonds there. They will not be dirty. If you find something that you have to rub the dirt off of, it's not a diamond. If I remember correctly, The diamonds have an oily surface and that's why dirt don't stick to them. There is a campground there. We have camped there several times. The night before our boy found his diamond, It came a huge storm. We where in a popup camper and where scared to death. Well, this is my take on the diamond mine. I stand to be corrected on some of this and if I stated anything incorrect, it was certainly not on purpose.

[Bail_Khan]

If you are coming via interstate 40 you will be passing through Fort Smith. I would recommend hitting up the hanging judge museum and maybe the Fort Smith museum of history and then moving on. You are a little to early for the US Marshals museum. I would tell you to stop for a bowl of pho but coming from OKC this probably wouldn't be to exiting for you.
Definately go crystal hunting in Mt. Ida you won't leave emptyhanded. Hot Springs is awesome I would recommend you spend at least one night there. If you do go diamond hunting I think you should plan for it to take a good portion of a day.
If you go to Fayettville you might also want to consider going to see Rogers also it is only a short drive.