Not many people know what a gem Bentonville, Arkansas, truly is. This city in Northwest Arkansas offers a little bit of everything for everyone. So, here are five things you need to know about Bentonville, Arkansas.
Bentonville, Arkansas, is one of the most popular cities in Northwest Arkansas and Arkansas in general. It’s the birthplace of Walmart and the world-renowned Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Additionally, Bentonville is filled with hundreds of miles of biking trails and outdoor music events.
Today, I’ll present you with five amazing things you probably didn’t know about Bentonville, Arkansas. So, keep reading if you’re maybe planning on moving to this wonderful city.
Video:
1. It’s the Headquarters of Walmart
The first thing you need to know about Bentonville, Arkansas, is the fact that it’s the headquarters of Walmart.
On top of that, Walmart is building a 350-acre (141.64 hectares) campus right here in Bentonville. Before, they had a couple of acres (0.8 hectare) of campus, and it was kind of spread out across the city, but over the course of the last couple of years, they’ve been in huge construction mode and are building a massive campus.
You can take a look at some of the cool features of the new Walmart HQ on their website.
One of the first things you’ll notice about the new HQ is that it’s massive. They’re trying to integrate nature with work, which I think is obviously really intelligent. We don’t want to be cramped up in office space all day. There will be a lot of nature and a lot of walking paths, and this is all going to be connected to downtown Bentonville.
They’ll also have fitness and a childcare center for their employees (and everybody else). So, in case you do work at Walmart, and you do need childcare, that will be available.
They have a hotel there which is fascinating because they bring in a lot of people from out of the Bentonville area and actually out of America.
People LOVE Bentonville! Why? Read to know more
2. Amazing Biking and City Trails
The second thing you need to know about Bentonville, Arkansas, is that they have amazing internal and external trail systems inside and outside the city.
One of the big draws to Bentonville, in general, is the fact that there are hundreds of miles of trail systems around the whole area. So Bentonville really encourages people to bike to work, to a grocery store – everywhere.
Of course, cars are everywhere as well, but they really encourage you to use bikes if you live in downtown Bentonville. Everything’s so accessible by bike that you just jump on your bike and head down.
The trails are only one of the reasons why people love this city; check out other reasons in my article about why people love Bentonville, Arkansas.
There are trail systems connecting everywhere in Bentonville. If you’re looking to do more extreme stuff, let’s say you want to be a mountain biker, hundreds of miles of soft trails are designed specifically for mountain biking in the Bentonville area.
And they stretch all the way from Bella Vista to Bentonville, down to Springdale, to Fayetteville, to Rogers. The whole mountain biking trail system is endless around NWA, but Bentonville has the heart for mountain biking and all the trail systems around the area.
Also, I have a 3-day itinerary that can help you decide what activities to do if you’re overwhelmed by everything Northwest Arkansas has to offer.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a foodie, a sports person, a sightseer, or want to spend quality time with your kids; I have something for you. Check out the link below to learn more:
https://www.allthingsnwa.com/3-day-itinerary-northwest-arkansas
3. Music Festivals
Another really cool thing about Bentonville is the fact that there are going to be so many music festivals this year in Bentonville. Some festivals I’m really excited about are:
- Freshgrass music festival
- Format music festival
- Forest Concert Series
So we have the Freshgrass music festival coming this weekend. It’s kind of like a Bluegrass festival. It’ll be located at the Momentary, and I’m definitely going.
Another music festival coming here is a little bit more electronic, a little more artsy music festival. It’s called Format, and it’s being created by the people who made Lollapalooza in Chicago. They’re coming down here and doing a fantastic, multi day music festival located in Bentonville.
There’s also a Forest Concert Series coming this year to Crystal Bridges. So they’ll have concerts in the forest right around Crystal Bridges (which we’ll talk about in a second). They have all those dates scheduled out, and I mean, how often are you able to see a concert inside a forest?
As you can see, it’s never boring in Bentonville. However, if you’re visiting only for a weekend, read my other article about my perfect weekend in Bentonville.
4. Art and Culture
Art is massive here in Bentonville, Arkansas, and that’s because we have the world-renowned Crystal Bridges right here in the city. So Crystal Bridges is basically an art museum and an art gallery. They change out art all the time. The curators are so good at making it all fresh, cool, really neat, and relevant to the day and time of where we’re living.
From July 2nd until January 2nd, 2023, one of the rare versions of the US Constitution will be here at Crystal Bridges, so I am really excited about that. The price for the exhibition? It’s totally free! So, there’s no entry fee.
5. Great Schools
Bentonville has some of the most desired school districts in the US. It ranks among some of the top-level school districts, and it’s fascinating to be living right here in that area, but NWA has amazing school districts in general.
They’re also very flexible regarding school districts, and even if you’re not from Bentonville and don’t live in that district, you can apply to send your students there.
So in case you don’t end up in the perfect school district, you can always bring your students to the district that you want.
Got kids? here are a few things for your kids to do this weekend in Rogers: Read more
A Side Note: Thaden School
I want to mention that Bentonville holds one of the unique schools that I’ve ever seen in America – Thaden School. The school is based on Louise Thaden, who was one of the first female aviators in the US.
So Thaden School is a world-renowned school. One of the cool things about Thaden School is the fact that there is such an all-encompassing environment for everything between art, culture, science, and technology. But they’re very focused on the social sciences and the culture. It’s truly an up-and-coming school system.
So they’re very innovative and very thoughtful in how they do things. And it’s cool to see them thrive in the last couple of years between the brand new school design, the architecture, and some of the cool things they’re doing over there.