2026's 12 Best Small Towns To Visit In The Ozarks
The Ozarks put on a lively road show in 2026. Hollister channels an English village on Downing Street while Cuba turns Route 66 history into colorful murals. Cotter spans the White River with its landmark bridge, and Mountain View keeps folk music ringing around the square. Eureka Springs climbs a Victorian hillside while Jasper opens onto elk country and the Buffalo National River. Across Arkansas and Missouri, the Ozarks reward a slower look with clear rivers, forested ridges, and unexpected roadside landmarks. History runs through old storefronts and Route 66 stops while trails lead toward caves, springs, and waterfalls. These small towns serve up some of the scenic region’s most quirky and memorable stops.
Hollister, Missouri
Reminiscent of the English countryside, Downing Street features a row of half-timbered Tudor Revival buildings. Built in the 20th century, this district in Hollister earned the nickname "the English Village" and is now lined with antique shops, pubs, and the Ye Olde English Inn. The town is on the south shore of Lake Taneycomo, five minutes from Branson, giving you easy access to shows, theme parks, and outdoor adventure. A short drive from Hollister, Table Rock State Park in Branson provides access to the White River Valley Trail System. Nearby, Big Cedar's Mountain Top Golf Course at 1250 Golf Club Drive in Hollister offers a 13-hole par-3 course laid out by Gary Player with Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris.
Omaha, Arkansas
The tiny population of about 130 people isn't a commentary on the standard of living in Omaha, Arkansas, where the Boone County hills provide fresh air and a slower pace of life. The town is home to a hand-laid stone castle called Lacey Michele's Castle. Shelby Ravellette began laying the rock in the early 1990s as a memorial to his late daughter, Lacey Michele. The grounds now serve as a wedding and overnight rental venue and as headquarters for The Lacey Michele Foundation, a nonprofit that puts its earnings toward preserving this piece of the Ozarks, encouraging the return of native species, and awarding small scholarships to Omaha High School graduates. In town, Lilliehobbs Mercantile serves lunch and fresh bakery treats, and offers a thoughtfully curated collection of local crafts and one-of-a-kind gifts. Eat like a local at the Hog House, a rustic eatery serving burgers, fried mushrooms, and hand-cut fries.
Cotter, Arkansas
Downtown Cotter can be toured in a leisurely afternoon and enjoyed for a lifetime. Cotter Bridge Market serves lunch, coffee, and ice cream, and sells locally made souvenirs and gifts in the shop. Below, The Arkanzen is a Zen-inspired speakeasy wine and native beer lounge. The River Art Gallery showcases the talents of regional artists, and the Cotter Bridge is the landmark everyone comes to photograph.
Completed in 1930 and officially named the R. M. Ruthven Bridge, it carries traffic 1,850 feet across the White River on concrete rainbow arches that reach 216 feet at their longest span. It is the largest surviving Marsh rainbow-arch bridge known anywhere, and in 1986 it became the first structure in Arkansas named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The White River below is a draw for devoted anglers who come for the abundance of rainbow, brown, brook, and cutthroat trout. Big Spring Park sits on the bank, almost directly beneath the arches, and is frequented by locals in the summer for its swimming hole and rope swing.
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
No other town in the Ozarks is like Eureka Springs. The unique town is built on a hillside, so the streets are one switchback after another, with incredible views of the mountains and lakes. The hillside city looks like a Victorian village, and never more so than in December, when the holiday calendar runs through most of the month. The signature night is Living Windows, when downtown storefronts are staged as live holiday scenes. Antiquers love to shop here, and during the holiday season, the shops participate in a Christmas window display competition. Out at The Great Passion Play grounds, hundreds of lit trees fill a drive-through light display that runs from late November into the new year. The whole downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The most famous of those nineteenth-century landmarks is the 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa, which has been dubbed "the most haunted hotel in America."
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Siloam Springs was built around Sager Creek, which runs through the heart of town. Stone retaining walls, footbridges, and dogwoods line the banks through downtown and Memorial Park. The creek is named for Simon Sager, who in 1835 became the first settler to farm the valley. The town itself came later. After the local springs were promoted as medicinal in 1879, the Hico merchant John Valentine Hargrove platted a health resort called Siloam City along the creek in 1880, and it was incorporated as Siloam Springs the following year. The story is told in full at the Siloam Springs Museum, a few blocks from the John Brown University campus, where Sager's 1835 log cabin still stands. Further out, the 165-acre City Lake Park serves as a regional hub for outdoor enthusiasts, with ample opportunity for fishing, hiking, biking, trail running, bird watching, and paddling on the edge of town. The Dogwood Springs Trail weaves through the middle of Siloam Springs, following Sager Creek down toward Washington Street and passing through Bob Henry Park, supplying a calming view of water.
Mountain View, Arkansas
Mountain View, Arkansas, calls itself the Folk Music Capital of the World. The informal music on the square most Friday and Saturday nights with the friendly pickers will become your new favorite way to jam. But while music is the town's identity, it is not the only thing it has to offer. The White River runs north of town and offers fishing, boating, and swimming, and the Blanchard Springs Recreation Area sits about fifteen miles northwest. Guided tours of Blanchard Springs Caverns run on a spring-through-fall season, with the visitor center and caverns closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Time a visit carefully: the caverns close after the 2026 season for their first major renovation since opening in the 1970s, with a reopening anticipated in 2028.
The Ozark Folk Center State Park is just north of downtown, where a craft village is open mid-April through mid-November and offers visitors an opportunity to watch artisans work, stroll through the Heritage Herb Garden, and hear live Southern mountain music.
Jasper, Arkansas
Several hundred elk range the Buffalo River corridor around Jasper, Arkansas, and the reliable place to watch them graze the bottomland fields at dusk is Boxley Valley, southwest of town. The Buffalo National River runs past towering limestone bluffs below some of the wildest, most scenic terrain in the Ozarks, giving the area its reputation for caving, rock climbing, fishing, hunting, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Round Top Mountain, right outside town, loops about three miles past spring wildflowers, summer pawpaw trees, and hard fall color. Elsewhere in Newton County, Glory Hole Falls pours through a hole worn clean through a rock shelf, and it may be the most photographed waterfall in the county. The town square is just a little less rugged than the rural terrain, with shaded gazebos on the lawn of the historic courthouse offering a way to get out of the heat of the sun.
Cuba, Missouri
Stop along historic Route 66 in Cuba, Missouri, and find history, artwork, and a whole lot of heart. Cuba calls itself Route 66's "Mural City" for the 14 murals painted across its downtown buildings, adding two since the original 12 were commissioned for Cuba's 150th anniversary in 2007. These murals tell the fascinating history of the town and culture, something Cuba has no shortage of. The Wagon Wheel Motel, built of Ozark stone in 1934 and taking guests since 1938, is the oldest continuously operating motel on Route 66, and the old Cuba jail and restored Phillips 66 filling station add to this story. About four miles west, at the Fanning 66 Outpost near Cuba, the 42-foot Route 66 Rocker held the Guinness Book of World Records' title for the world's largest rocking chair from 2008 until 2015.
Van Buren, Arkansas
The Arkansas River separates Van Buren from Fort Smith, and makes it a great fishing town. Lee Creek Park, at the end of Main Street, has launches for canoes and kayaks, along with designated fishing areas, and walking trails that run along the river. North of town in the Boston Mountains, Lake Fort Smith State Park boasts camping, mountain biking, and the western end of the Ozark Highlands Trail.
In town, the restored King Opera House presents theatrical productions and other scheduled entertainment at 427 Main Street. The building went up in 1891 as the Wallace Block and was converted to an opera house in 1901 by Col. Henry P. King, whose name it still carries. It anchors the Van Buren Historic District, a stretch of restored Victorian storefronts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. See the district aboard the free Historic Main Street Trolley, which runs a limited weekly schedule worth checking before you go.
Eminence, Missouri
Eminence, Missouri, holds a few hundred year-round residents and sits in the middle of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the first river system in the country to receive federal protection. The town swells every summer with floaters, and the surrounding hills carry one of the largest concentrations of organized trail rides anywhere in the United States. The spring-fed Jacks Fork River runs, crystal-clear, through town, and the nearby Current River attracts thousands of floaters and anglers each year. Wild horses roam the fields around town, providing incredible photographic opportunities, and the Alley Spring Mill, about six miles west of town, is one of the most photographed buildings in Missouri. The Alley Spring Overlook Trail takes you higher, giving you a view of the whole thing.
Calico Rock, Arkansas
Sitting in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains along the White River, Calico Rock and its top-tier trout fishing draw anglers from across the region. You can book a guided trip with Jenkins' Fishing Service and Motel at 100 Mullet Landing in Calico Rock, or use a local boat ramp to launch your own fishing excursion. The permanent 18-hole Pirate's Ridge Disc Golf Course at Rand Park winds through heavily wooded and hilly terrain. The railroad town grew up around the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, whose crews began blasting a route below the bluffs in 1902 and ran the first train into town in August 1903. What earns Calico Rock its street credit is the ghost town inside its own city limits. East Calico, also called Peppersauce, retains at least 23 original structures, including a pool hall, a barber shop, a theater, a cafe, a lumberyard, a cotton gin, a funeral parlor, and an electric plant that sit in an eerie state of abandonment and disrepair.
Best Small Towns to Visit in the Ozarks This Year
In the Ozarks, some of the most memorable travel experiences are found in the quiet charm of small towns. Tucked among rolling hills, sparkling lakes, and scenic forests, waterfalls and historic downtowns are waiting for you. Take a road trip through the Ozarks, and you might just discover that these flyover small towns become your new favorite destination.
