Van Buren Recreation Area — Attraction in Fairfield Bay

I only gave 4 stars because we weren't able to experience everything the marina had to offer, due to age restrictions. That's not their fault (it's AR law, and I'll explain a little below), but it caused us to have to leave without achieving our goal of renting a boat. Since we weren't able to do that, I can't write a comprehensive review. Word to the wise, at the time of writing this post, you have to be born BEFORE 1-1-1986 to be able to rent a boat without taking a course online that is a few hours long. You read that right. 1986. I understand that a boat is a lot like a car in the level of responsibility you must assume when renting one, and a lot NOT like a car in the way it drives. I respect all that. But I thought I was done with being "carded" and not being "old enough" to do things when I hit my 30s. Guess I was wrong. Anyway, I will say that I was pleased to see some nice amenities such as life jackets and large floats to rent, and little 50-cent bags of fish food for sale that we could purchase to feed the little fish outside the store. My son and sister-in-law had fun feeding the fish, and that's about all we wanted to do their after being disappointed by the fact that we couldn't...

Front desk personnel friendly but seemed to lack understanding of how to run a credit card. Maintenance personnel were very friendly, quick to fix issues and help carry in luggage. The 2 room I rented had ALL amenities. Full kitchen with all dishes and flat ware, microwave, fridge, dish washer.. washer and dryer.. 2 separate bathrooms, balcony with patio furniture. Basically a 2 room apartment for $183 a night. There were some minor issues with the rental like one of the shower heads was messed up. Water barely came out. Other minor cosmetic issues but overall a great suite. Some of the roads are not marked well or not at all. The views are amazing. We plan to go back next year for an...

All I wanted to do for me and my husband's anniversary was to go kayaking together. I reserved kayaks for us and was very excited to get on the water. When we got there I discovered the kayaks they gave us did not have paddles. I am not sure what they expected for us to do with out paddles! They gave us a refund and offered to shuttle us to Sugarloaf to hike for a while but I was still very disappointed. The people who were in line behind us were upset too because apparently they had double booked the kayaks so they did not have ones for their excursion either. The place seemed perfectly fine but someone needs to do a better job of keeping up with...