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This week was spring break, and we decided to do a make-up trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We had booked this trip for Spring Break 2023 but all got sick at the same time about a day before we were supposed to leave. I also JUST got the Fuji X100VI, which should make for an awesome travel camera, and I was eager to give it a shot.
We stayed at Best Western Inn of the Ozarks. It was a pretty decent little motel. Nothing too fancy, but the suites are a pretty good amount of space for the price, there’s a trolley stop right out front, they have some interesting amenities, and there’s a pretty solid restaurant in the lobby.
The rooms are about what you would expect for a Best Western. Kinda dated but clean. There’s a living room with a fold out sofa, desk, and a wet bar with fridge and microwave.
(All the hotel room pics were taken with my iPhone 15 Pro because I was too lazy to get out the X-S20 and put on a wide lens)
The bedroom had the bathroom attached and also had a king bed as well as two sinks. Both rooms had a TV. There was a nice little balcony off the bedroom.
The first day we were all fairly tired from the drive, and I made the expert level mistake of leaving some important medicine at home, so I had to drive about two hours round trip to Rogers, Arkansas to pick up an emergency refill of some asthma medication, so by the time I got done with that I was totally beat. We elected to give the on-site restaurant a shot.
Myrtie Mae’s Cafe is located in the lobby of the hotel. We called in an order and went to pick it up a few minutes later. They have a gift shop that sells all kinds of trinkets that Ava immediately raided for cute stuffed animals.
Every picture from this point on is from the Fuji X100VI
We took our food back to the room. Me and Daisy both got burgers. The burgers were really good! I admit my expectations were not that high but they were solid diner-style burgers with fries. Everything was hot and fresh. They came with toppings on the side so you could put whatever you want on it.
In short, the on-site restaurant is solid. Don’t be afraid to grab some food there. The only downside for me was since the restaurant was on-site, the hotel doesn’t do any kind of breakfast. I generally just want a coffee and maybe a muffin or bagel for breakfast. I don’t really want to have a whole eggs and hash browns and breakfast meats affair and then go walk around for hours. Also no free coffee other than the crappy room coffee was annoying.
The next day we got up and decided to head downtown. Since it’s off-season the trolley didn’t run on Monday, so we drove and parked at a paid lot. We did lots of walking around and lots of picture taking. Ava did lots of shopping. Downtown Eureka Springs is super cute with tons of little stores, cafes, candy shops, etc.
We were starting to get snacky after a couple of hours of walking, and we ended up at Brews, a coffee shop downtown that to my surprise and delight, also had beer. Ava got some popcorn and me and Daisy shared an order of cheese sticks. I got a Scottish Ale and Daisy got a something. This was one of my favorites places of a trip, good food, a totally laid back vibe, good beers. I will definitely be back to this place. Next time we stay I will likely get a hotel in downtown proper and hit up Brews for coffee and breakfast at least once.
We made our way back to the hotel to relax for a bit, and then started thinking about dinner. I had already spotted a highly-rated food truck right across the street from the hotel, and we were tired from trekking around downtown, so taco truck to the rescue.
Carmen’s Food Truck is, as mentioned, directly across the street from the Best Western, and it’s legitimately one of the best taco trucks I’ve ever had the pleasure of dining at. I highly recommend the Al Pastor.
The second day we got a trolley pass and headed back downtown to walk around some more. I highly recommend you take the trolley. You can buy an all day or multi-day pass on their website and it’s a lot more convenient than having to park and walk. Especially considering how mountainous downtown Eureka Springs is. The trolleys are also just cool.
We did more shopping, mostly at the behest of Ava. BTW if you’ve never been to Eureka Springs, it’s VERY hilly. Like wear comfy shoes and plan on getting a good workout in just walking from one end of downtown to the other.
Anyway, we had some snacks at Ellen’s Patisserie, which doesn’t have a website that I can find so I’ll just link to the google maps listing. Then we trekked around to a few stores while I took tons of pictures with my new camera.
We had heard from someone that Eureka Springs had some shops with “Working Bunnies” and as you would imagine Ava was all about that. We found them at Easy by West. Ava got a “Eureka Springs Working Bunnies” t shirt and we got to see the bunnies in action. Super cute.
I got chicken tenders, Daisy got a BBQ sandwich, and Ava got mini corndogs. Everything was really good, and obviously made in house (other than the corndogs, but come one, no one makes those from scratch), and since we were taking the trolley home I drank a couple of local beers.
By day 3 Daisy wasn’t feeling great and no one really felt like walking around downtown again. We decided to take a rest day around the hotel. Ava and I went to check out their mini golf and game room. On a deck on the back side of the hotel they have a big covered deck with 9 holes of mini golf, some video games, skeeball, pool tables, ping pong, and air hockey. The mini golf is free, most of the other stuff takes quarters.
Overall, I really enjoyed Eureka Springs and I will definitely be back. I would like to stay at a hotel that’s actually downtown on the main strip, maybe during the holiday season or something.
Pretty much every picture on this trip was taken with the Fuji X100VI. This is my first real trip since I got the camera and I have to say I’m very impressed. The size and handling is great. I kept mine in my bag when I wasn’t shooting pictures, and around my neck on a OP/Tech neck strap when I was actively taking a bunch of pictures. Before the trip I did get a Fuji Filter Adapter just to have the option to use a diffusion filter on it, but for this entire trip I shot with just a plain UV filter, which was really more for protection than anything. I found the cheap K&F Concept lens cap to work better than the press fit factory fuji lens cap. Battery life was a non-issue, but I would suggest you do what I did and buy some extra batteries with a charger just because they’re so cheap it seems dumb not to. Overall, super happy with the X100VI and hopefully if you’re reading this in the future you can actually buy one for MSRP.
Also, ran into another guy with a Fuji X-S20 literally the first time we stepped onto the Main Street, he’s the one who suggested Brews, I should have asked him for his website or something so I could see the pictures he was taking. He had a Viltrox 27mm f1.2 on it.
Okay, thanks enough rambling for now. Hopefully this serves as a pretty good example of what you can expect from the X100VI as a travel camera.
