Sassafras Inn — Hotel in Mena

Like many people, my family and I decided to travel to view the 2024 solar eclipse into the area of totality. I was not on the ball with reserving a place for us to stay, mostly because it is very stressful for our family to leave home due to severe fragrance and food allergies. I drug my feet until about two weeks out, at which point everywhere I called almost hung up on me, but not before telling me it would be $600 a night if we had called in time.

I started looking for inns at the recommendation of one of the ladies at a fully booked hotel and found the Sassafras Inn. The owner was so kind, completely different demeanor from everyone else I had spoken with outside of the one lady that recommended looking at inns. Not to mention it was much less expensive compared to anywhere else.

I explained our situation with fragrances and foods, and when I say Sassafras Inn went above and beyond for us on short notice, it is an understatement. We have never had such a wonderful, stress-free lodging situation as we did on this vacation. They pulled out all of the stops to make sure we were taken care of. It truly felt like a vacation, and a home away from home, because of the owners.

The Sassafras Inn was clean and very spacious. We had a porch that we could go out onto, the bathroom was immaculate, and our room had it's own A/C air purifier unit that made the air quality amazing. Both doors out of our room also had two different locks, we felt very safe there. The couple that runs the inn are extremely friendly and sweet! They were a wealth of knowledge about the area, history, activities to do, etc. They were also extremely communicative for any questions we had. We also got to meet one of their very adorable cats. :D

I highly recommend the Sassafras Inn to anyone traveling in Arkansas. It is such a different experience than anywhere else we've stayed. It's a community rather than a pit stop or merely a place to crash for the night. The inn is nestled in a nice little small town, and even with the eclipse, there was hardly any hustle and bustle. I'm so thankful we got the chance to stay here, and we hope to come...

Lovely place, lovely people! The appointments were quality - and vintage. The feel was, however, not at all stodgy nor pretentious, but like elegance that meets you happily whoever you are. I really enjoyed talking with Darren and Jillian...although my wife talked with Jill more. I stayed up well past my normal bed time talking with Darren. We went back and forth, but he kept most of the conversation going...he truly has led an interesting life, and I really enjoyed our time there. But, if that's not your preference, he is always ready to disengage...they are totally focused on your enjoyments during your stay. And since he loves coffee as much as I do, the coffee bar (bars, actually, there's a separate station upstairs for the upstairs guests to enjoy) is always open and well-stocked. The place is clean, safe, gorgeous, and has a lovely seating area outside of the room we stayed in. The bed was quite comfortable, and the room just what one would expect and enjoy in such an accommodation. All in all, we highly recommend The Sassafras Inn. Whatever sort of travel stay one might generally prefer, this is a sweet step into the plain folks place that's anything but plain. Bring the friendly, and you will find the friendly. You'll love it! ...

If you find your self in this little slice of Arkansa this is the place to stay! We were very lucky they had a last minute opening for us the day we were needing to stay. The owner reached out quickly after we booked to provide us information about our stay, we even had a chance to meet him when we arrived! He was very nice and friendly and you could tell me cared about the place and the enjoyment of our stay. We had our 3 year old with us and she loved the snacks and drinks. Downstairs there is a little fridge with various drinks and a variety of snacks and fruit. The grounds are beautiful and wonderfully decorated. We stayed in the magnolia suite which is great if you have children. The first room has two twin beds and a coffee bar with snacks if you want to make a nice fresh cup of coffee. The main room is HUGE. A large and comfy kind bed. A tv with all kinds of steaming services and a large bathroom with a shower that has nice hot water (which did have a bathtub, I know is a nice feature when you have kids!) the bedroom also has a couch and a table so plenty of areas for sitting and just relaxing. You can control the temperature of the room which is a very nice feature. All In all it was the next best thing to being home and we would...