Hot Springs — You won't get the cold shoulder in this hospitable Arkansas town

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but the first time he sang that song, he was in Hot Springs, Ark.

And that's a pretty cool thing, because if you want to talk about leaving your heart somewhere, you could do a lot worse than Hot Springs. What with a national park in the center of town, a longtime commitment to art and culture, an interesting and checkered past and an innate friendliness among the people, the town fairly oozes charm.

It's a fun place to visit, to explore, to soak up the atmosphere.

Water, of course, is the first thing that sets it apart.

The non-sulfuric springs that give the town its name have long drawn visitors — back as far as native tribes in the area who knew about them, and then after Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto visited them in 1514.

The springs have been protected by the federal government since 1932 and became a national park. During the heyday of the bathhouse era, the springs drew everyone from presidents to baseball players to gangsters to Hot Springs to take the waters.

It's not the only water that has defined the area, however. A nearby freshwater spring is the source for Mountain Valley Spring Water, the first bottled water company in the country and once owned by William Randolph Hearst. Visit the company's museum/headquarters and you'll learn how the water — twice awarded the gold medal as the best-tasting water in the world at an international water-tasting competition — travels to a depth of 1,800 feet and back to the surface through layers of shale, sandstone and limestone to be naturally filtered as it acquires a mix of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium. It's a journey that takes some 3,500 years. Then you drink it!

And then there are the five lakes and three rivers that are within easy driving distance of the town. They offer unlimited recreational possibilities: boating, fishing, kayaking and more.

You can take a scenic tour on an old-time riverboat, Belle of Hot Springs, on Lake Hamilton. It will take you past million-dollar mansions, natural woodlands, quaint resorts and panoramic views of the Ouachita (pronounced Wash-i-taw) Mountains. Or, you can do a "duck" tour in an amphibious vehicle that does both land and water.

Resorts on Lake Ouachita offer everything from the latest in spa treatments, to hiking and horseback riding along mountain trails.

As enjoyable as the water is, bricks can also be credited with creating interest in Hot Springs.