5 Things You Need To Know About Fayetteville, Arkansas

What if I told you there is a city with affordable housing and an amazing landscape filled with trail systems? On top of that, this city is loved by college students who stay there forever. It’s a real city, and it’s called Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a city that can serve the needs of college students as well as other older generations equally. Additionally, the city prides itself on affordable housing, great trail systems, and outdoor activities areas. Fayetteville also has a City Plan for every year until 2040.

Today, I’ll write about the five most important things you need to know about Fayetteville, Arkansas. Before that, don’t forget to download my 3-day itineraries, so you don’t miss anything special in Northwest Arkansas.

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1. Fayetteville, Arkansas, Is a College Town

The first thing we will discuss is the fact that Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a college town.

So the really cool thing about the college here is the fact that it has so much fandom around the whole area. Everything around here is Razorbacks in the whole state, even parts of Missouri and Oklahoma. So even if you go up to Missouri, there are so many people watching the Razorbacks, which is the mascot here in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The college has just grown exponentially over the last 20 years because the college teams have done so well in the last couple of years. So, there’s been so much popularity focused on the college between track and field, between softball, baseball, and, of course, football.

The University of Arkansas has drawn so much attention thanks to the Razorbacks, and it’s bringing all sorts of new people from across the world to actually go to college in Fayetteville. It’s funny because I know so many people that have come to Fayetteville for their master’s and also Ph.Ds.

They’re coming here from China, India, and South America, and they’re doing their full residency right here in Fayetteville, Arkansas because they’ve heard how amazing the whole area is.

Planning a trip to Fayetteville? Here are a few “Must-know” Things to know about Fayetteville

Caveat: It’s Not Like Any Other College Town

So obviously, Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a college town, but it’s a different college town. Let me explain why.

So I’ve been to a lot of college towns across America, and the thing with college towns is they’re focused around the 20-something group. And that’s great, but Fayetteville is different because so many people come here to college, and they end up staying because they quickly realize that there’s nature, great housing, and plenty of jobs.

So when you go down to Fayetteville, you’ll notice a mixture of people all across the board.

There’s one street called Dickson Street, and it’s more of a college-age-themed street, but if you go there on a Friday or Saturday night, it’s a mixture of people all the way from the sixties down to forties, thirties, and twenties.

It’s just not one actual core group of 20-somethings that runs the whole city. It’s a fully-fledged family-friendly city, and the colleges are part of it.

2. Affordable Housing

Fayetteville, Arkansas, is one of the most affordable places to live in the US. Now, it doesn’t mean it has the cheapest housing in all of the US. It means that the jobs and salaries provided here, together with other metrics, show that Fayetteville is the third or fourth most affordable place to live in the US.

This has been going on for almost five years at Fayetteville. It’s cool that you can come to college here, and the college is affordable, as well as housing. Everything’s so affordable in the area based on salaries and jobs.

As a side note, there are so many jobs that need to be filled in the whole area because of the exponential growth in different industries. There are jobs for you in Northwest Arkansas. So it’s really cool to be part of an area with a focus and desire to ensure that housing around the whole area is very affordable.

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

People LOVE Fayetteville! Wanna know why? Read here

3. City Planning Until 2040

The third reason is a little weird, but I really love it, and it’s because Fayetteville has planned its city all the way up until 2040.

This is weird for me because I moved here from the Chicago-land area about two years ago, and there was no planning for any of the cities around the whole area. So, when the Chicago-land area grew exponentially, it became a huge tax burden on everyone because they planned it so poorly.

Because Fayetteville planned the city out until 2040, they have all the infrastructure in place. They know what they’re doing and where everything will be located. So, they’re just executing the plan they planned for the next 20 years.

Having that 2040 plan makes a big difference because you can tell someone who lives here that they’re planning the whole city and thinking about moving ahead and knowing that there will be growth and where the growth will happen. It makes it much more comfortable knowing that you’ve invested in the right area when moving down to Northwest Arkansas.

4. Paths, Trails, and Mountains

The fourth reason is the fact that Fayetteville has endless trails around the whole area. Now, this goes for all of Northwest Arkansas in general, but Fayetteville is a really special place because it wants to reduce the number of cars in the downtown section (and yes, this is a part of their 2040 plan).

So, what they want to do is, if you do live downtown, they want you to use scooters or bikes. There are so many pathways around the area that you can scoot around, and you can just go to grocery stores, coffee shops, work, and all around downtown Fayetteville.

They’ve designed it to make sure that all the trail systems interconnect and go up to Bentonville, whether it’s between dirt or paved paths. The Razorback Greenway is a 35-mile (56 km) trail that runs all the way from Mount Kessler, all the way up to Bentonville, and to Missouri.

There are tributary trails that run off of the Razorback pathway, but they have so many pathways in Fayetteville that you can move around town so efficiently. And it’s really fun because you can jump on your scooter, head right down to the nearest coffee shop, grab some groceries, and head right back.

Got kids? Here is a list of things to do for kids in Fayetteville!

5. Outdoor Respect

The final thing on this list you need to know about Fayetteville is the fact that it really focuses on the outdoors here, mainly in two ways.

Fayetteville Invests Into Making Great Outdoor Experience

The first factor is that they invest so much money into making great outdoor experiences for everyone who lives here between Walker Park and Wilson Park, which are just major parks in the area with:

Pools
Swing sets
Tennis courts
Pickleball courts
Sandpits for beach volleyball
Walking paths
Golf courts

On top of that, they have two major mountains:

Mount Centennial, or Centennial park at Millsap Mountain
Kessler Mountain

I think they have 20 soccer parks and 15 baseball fields on Kessler Mountain. You need to check out Mount Kessler when you come here because it’s an amazing experience for kids and adults. Of course, there are trails everywhere in those mountains.

If you’re like me, you’ll want to see all of Fayetteville, so read my article about my perfect weekend in Fayetteville as a good guide when you come here for a weekend.

Fayetteville Has Huge Respect for the Outdoors

The second thing about the outdoors is that they’re very respectful of the outdoors here in Fayetteville. This applies to the whole area, and specifically Fayetteville, but they’re really conscious of how they treat the outdoors around here.

So, for instance, when they’re building trail systems, they’re very particular in making sure that the lighting systems don’t have a lot of excess light into the outdoors. That’s why it’s very dark when coming down to Fayetteville over the mountains.

They’re also very eco-friendly when they’re building new things in Fayetteville. They’re so focused on the outdoors when it comes to murals, artwork, trail systems, and parks.