Ozarks Microretreat Wows Guests With Estonian Glass Sauna
By Arlene Scott
Senior Wellness Correspondent & Hospitality Consultant
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Forest Springs Resort reopened in May 2026 on ten acres of Ozark forest outside Eureka Springs, Arkansas, with a Haljas Hele Single as its anchor amenity. Rooms start at $108 a night. The sauna and cold plunge are included for every guest.
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When Forest Springs Resort opened in May 2026 on ten wooded acres outside Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the property came with 53 redesigned rooms, a seasonal pool, forest trails, and a cold plunge. But the detail drawing the most attention sits at the edge of the tree line: a glass-walled sauna reflecting the Ozark canopy back at anyone walking past.
The sauna is a Haljas Hele Single, an octagonal mirror-glass cabin designed and built in Tartu, Estonia. With double-glazed argon-filled panels, bird-safe UV lamination, and a seven-person interior, the unit is one of a growing number of Estonian-designed saunas arriving at American hospitality properties that want a thermal amenity they do not have to hide in a basement. Haljas earned its third Red Dot Design Award in 2025 for the Hele Nano, and its installations now include Bolt Farm Treehouse in Tennessee and the Coral Casino Beach Club in Montecito, California.
Forest Springs is a different kind of placement. This is not a coastal luxury resort charging $800 a night. Rooms start around $108 on weekdays, peaking near $235 on holiday weekends, and the sauna, cold plunge, and pool are included for every guest. The property calls its approach “self-guided thermal wellness”: no appointments, no spa menu, no staff hovering with eucalyptus towels. Guests use the circuit on their own schedule.
Key facts
- Property Forest Springs Resort, 2044 E. Van Buren, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
- Opened May 2026
- Rooms 53, reimagined from the former Traveler’s Inn
- Grounds 10+ acres of Ozark forest, 5 minutes from downtown Eureka Springs
- Sauna Haljas Hele Single, octagonal mirror-glass cabin (Tartu, Estonia)
- Thermal circuit Glass sauna, cold plunge, seasonal heated pool
- Nightly rates From ~$108 (midweek) to ~$235 (peak holiday)
- Haljas Hele Single specs ~7.4 x 7.4 ft footprint, 7-person capacity, ~2,500 lbs, 1.2-inch double-glazed argon-filled glass
- Coming soon Red light therapy room (June 2026), pickleball court (July 2026)
- Contact hello@forestspringsresort.com, (479) 239-8978
A wellness town gets a Nordic sauna
Eureka Springs has drawn people looking for restoration for more than a century. By the 1880s, thousands were arriving for the town’s natural mineral springs, making it one of America’s earliest wellness destinations. Forest Springs frames itself as a continuation of that tradition, replacing mineral baths with a Nordic thermal circuit: heat, cold, and ten acres of forest.
The property was previously the Traveler’s Inn, a longtime Eureka Springs landmark. The new owners reimagined the 53-room layout with natural materials, walk-in or rainfall showers, private decks on forest-view rooms, and a design sensibility that favors calm over stimulation. There is no front desk (check-in is self-guided through a mobile app). There is no restaurant (downtown Eureka Springs is five minutes away by trolley, which stops at the property entrance). The lounge serves local wines and “simple things to share.”
It is a stripped-down operating model with a practical upside. A self-guided sauna and cold plunge require minimal staffing compared to a full-service spa. The sauna runs. The cold plunge stays cold. Guests figure out the rest. For a 53-room independent property competing against larger resorts with deeper pockets, that efficiency matters.
Why the Haljas Single fits here
The Estonian sauna manufacturing cluster has been on a tear in American markets. Leil Saunas, Auroom Wellness with its timber sauna cabins, HUUM, and Thermory all ship significant volume to the US. Haljas Houses occupies a different niche: design-forward glass cabins that double as architectural statements.
The Hele Single is an octagonal structure measuring roughly 7.4 by 7.4 feet, with 1.2-inch double-glazed argon-filled glass panels that the company says perform thermally like 2.4 inches of solid wood. The mirrored exterior reflects the surrounding forest, which at Forest Springs means the sauna all but disappears into the Ozark tree line. Inside, seven people can sit comfortably on a circular bench around a stone heater. The whole unit ships fully assembled and weighs around 2,500 pounds, requiring a crane for final placement.
For Forest Springs, the visual effect is immediate. The resort’s own marketing leans hard on the sauna as the centerpiece: “a mirrored sauna and cold plunge, open throughout your stay.” The resort pitches the same circuit to corporate retreats. An unattributed testimonial on the resort’s retreats page reads: “The sauna after a full day of strategy sessions might be the best team-building activity we’ve ever done. Nobody planned it, it just happened.”
The self-guided wellness bet
Forest Springs is not the only property betting on sauna as an anchor amenity rather than an afterthought. Luxury hotel brands have been investing in thermal suites, and standalone bathhouse developers are scaling across American cities. What makes Forest Springs notable is the price point. At $108 to $235 a night with a full thermal circuit included, the property is packaging a sauna experience that does not require a destination-spa budget.
The model has limits. There is no Aufgussmeister on staff, no guided sessions, no signature treatments. Massage services are “coming soon,” coordinated through local Eureka Springs therapists. For guests who want a programmed wellness retreat, this is not it. For guests who want a forest, a glass sauna, and permission to do nothing, it might be exactly right.
The property is also adding amenities on a rolling basis: a red light therapy room is expected in June 2026, and a pickleball court is coming in July. Events and full-property buyouts are available for up to 100 guests, and the resort has already begun marketing corporate retreats and elopements.
Why it matters
Forest Springs is one of the clearest examples of a mid-market American hotel using a high-design Estonian sauna as its core differentiator. The property does not hide the sauna in a basement or treat it as a line item on an amenities list. It is the first thing guests see in the marketing, the first experience described on the website, and the detail generating the most visual attention on social media. If the model works at $108 a night in the Arkansas Ozarks, it strengthens the case that sauna-centered hospitality is not just a coastal luxury play.
The bottom line
An Estonian glass sauna is anchoring a 53-room forest retreat in the Ozarks, and the combination of Nordic thermal design, Eureka Springs heritage, and self-guided simplicity feels like a natural fit. Haljas Houses continues to expand its American footprint beyond luxury one-offs, and Forest Springs is continuing a wellness tradition that the town’s mineral springs started 140 years ago. For operators weighing whether a premium sauna installation pencils out at a mid-market price point, this is a property worth watching.
Correction, September 25, 2026: an earlier version of this article quoted a testimonial on the resort’s website as calling the post-session sauna “the best team-building activity we’ve ever done” and identified its author as a VP of Engineering. The testimonial says the sauna “might be the best team-building activity we’ve ever done,” and the resort’s site does not attribute it to anyone, per Forest Springs Resort’s retreats page.
