The road into Bath County narrows as the mountains close in. You pass through Warm Springs, the county seat with a population of 121, and something in your blood pressure drops before you even stop the car. The air here carries the scent of pine and cold stream water, and the light falls differently at 2,270 feet. Then the valley opens, and there it is: a colonnaded red-brick structure sitting against the wooded hillside like something that preceded everything around it, which is more or less the truth.
The Omni Homestead Resort has been welcoming guests since 1766, making it the oldest resort in Virginia and one of the longest-running continuously operating resorts in America. That is not a marketing claim. It is a fact that several generations of American history have had the opportunity to complicate things in inconvenient ways, and yet here the place stands. Twenty-four presidents have passed through, beginning with Thomas Jefferson, who spent 22 days soaking in the mineral springs in 1818 while suffering from rheumatism and recorded that a full day of activities, the springs, breakfast, dinner, cost him $2.12.
The Water at the Center of Everything
The springs themselves predate the resort by centuries. Native Americans discovered these mineral pools long before European settlement, and archaeological evidence suggests human use of the area dating back at least 9,000 years. When the first spa structure was built around the springs in 1761, an octagonal stone basin, still standing and open, became the first spa facility in America. The water flows at a constant 98 degrees Fahrenheit, mineral-rich and continuously moving, never stagnant.
The bathhouses, each topped with an open oculus that lets steam rise toward the sky, are worth a visit independent of any stay at the resort. You soak in the same water Jefferson soaked in, under the same mountain light, which is either deeply comforting or slightly unnerving depending on your disposition. Current rates are $35 per person on weekdays — rather more than $2.12, but still reasonable for a direct connection to 260 years of American history.
A Resort That Takes Four Seasons Seriously
The Homestead does not coast on its history. After a renovation completed in 2023, the 2,300-acre property now offers more than 30 on-site recreational activities, and the calendar turns them over as the seasons do.
Spring brings wildflowers to the trails of Warm Springs Mountain Preserve and to the George Washington National Forest beyond. The Cowpasture River, flowing east of the ridge, draws fly fishers working the cold, clear water for trout. The resort’s golf courses open on their spring schedules — two championship layouts, including the Cascades Course, designed by William Flynn and consistently ranked among the top 100 in the country. Sam Snead, who grew up not far from here and served as the Homestead’s golf pro for decades, understood early what visiting golfers eventually discover: this is terrain worth playing slowly.
Summer fills the property with families. There is a water park, hiking trails in both directions, horseback riding through the mountain forest, zip-lining, tennis, clay shooting, and falconry — the last of which has a way of making other resort activities seem somewhat ordinary by comparison.
Autumn is the season that changes everything. The elevation here delays color change until early October, and when it arrives, it arrives without restraint. The Deerlick Trail runs through Homestead property and provides overlooks across a valley floor turned amber and gold. The Bear Loop near the county airport covers 3.4 miles along the Warm Springs ridge. Falling Springs Falls, an 80-foot cascade just off Hot Springs Road, requires no hiking at all — you simply pull over. The effect is the same.
Winter opens the ski slopes. The Homestead ski area, established in 1959, holds the distinction of being the oldest ski resort in Virginia. The vertical drop is modest by western standards, but the combination of skiing and a long soak in 98-degree mineral water afterward is an argument in favor of modest vertical drops that is difficult to counter.
The Town Around It
Warm Springs itself is small enough that calling it a town requires generosity. The courthouse anchors the village, the Bath County Historical Society keeps the record, and the Waterwheel Restaurant occupies the converted gristmill where the creek still runs. That is essentially the inventory. But Bath County broadly — incorporating Hot Springs, where the resort sits, and the surrounding ridges and valleys — offers a cidery (Troddenvale), a craft brewery (Bacova Beer Company), and the Garth Newel Music Center, which stages chamber music performances in a setting of such improbable rural refinement that first-time visitors tend to check the address twice.
The county has no traffic lights. The cell signal is intermittent by design or default, depending on your perspective. These are not bugs.
When to Go
The resort functions well in any season, but October earns special mention. The foliage, the crisp air, and the springs — their warmth more welcome as temperatures drop — converge into something genuinely rare. The holiday season brings its own programming, with the Great Hall decorated and the mountain dark by five in the afternoon, which makes the firelight inside feel earned. For golfers, late April through early June offers the courses at their best, before summer heat sets in. For skiers and those who prefer their scenery stark and uncluttered, January and February provide the mountain at its most austere.
There is a kind of travel that does not require explanation or justification. You go because the place is old enough to have accumulated real weight, because the water is warm and the mountain air is cold, and because somewhere between the Cascades Course and the mineral pools, Jefferson was right: this is among the best in America.