Berkeley Springs State Park

The warm springs were known and used long before the town existed. This corner of the Eastern Panhandle was ancestral homeland and shared hunting ground for the Shawnee, the Lenape, and other peoples who traveled the valleys of the region, and the springs were a gathering place valued for the mild, mineral-rich water. Those nations are not federally recognized in West Virginia today, and their descendant communities continue elsewhere.

Colonial visitors began arriving in the mid-1700s, and word of the springs spread through Virginia society. In 1776 the Virginia legislature chartered a town at the springs and named it Bath, though nearly everyone has always called it Berkeley Springs. It became a fashionable resort where planters and politicians came to take the waters, and it holds the distinction of being the country's first spa town, a role it has never entirely given up.

George Washington first came to the springs as a teenage surveyor and returned over the years, and his name is attached to the place in a way that has become part of its identity. In the park, a small stone-lined basin fed by the springs is marked as George Washington's Bathtub, the spot where tradition says he bathed, a modest monument that visitors still gather around.

The park's historic bathhouses carry the tradition forward. Built in Roman revival style, they offer warm mineral soaks and spa treatments in a setting that has served bathers for well over a century. Alongside them, open spouts let anyone drink the spring water or fill a container to take with them, a ritual that draws regulars back again and again.

Berkeley Springs today is a small, artsy town that wears its long resort history lightly. Galleries, studios, cafes, and independent shops line the streets around the park, and the town has grown a reputation as a haven for artists and craftspeople drawn to the setting. An annual water-tasting festival, treating spring waters from around the world with the seriousness of a wine competition, is a quirky expression of the town's identity.

Because the park sits at the center of everything, a visit naturally combines a soak or a drink at the springs with a wander through the shops. The scale is human and walkable, the pace unhurried, and the warm water is always the constant that anchors it all.

Because the springs run warm all year, Berkeley Springs is a rare place that is arguably at its best in the cold months, when a mineral soak feels most welcome and the town is quiet. Winter visitors have the bathhouses and the streets more to themselves.

Spring and summer bring green to the surrounding Potomac highlands and busier weekends in town, while fall paints the ridges in color and draws leaf-peepers passing through. The nearby Cacapon Resort State Park and the ridge above town add hiking, a lake, and a mountaintop overlook to round out a stay.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.