Posted on 05/23/2018 6:14:24 PM PDT by Michael.SF.
Vacationing this coming week in Tennessee and have never been there. Looking for some ideas from fellow Freeper travelers, including insights, new places, off the beaten path places, places locals go to and places to avoid. (see below)
BASS PRO, STAY OFF BEALE STREET AT NIGHT. CCW IF YOU CAN.
FIND HOTEL AWAY FROM AIRPORT HIGH CRIME AREA.
SKIP METAL MUSEUM. SKIP SUN RECORDS, TAKE BASIC TOUR OF ELVIS’S HOME. SKIP REST. AVOID RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT DRY, SCRAWNY TOUGH RIBS, COLD, SERVED ON STYROFOAM PLATES WITH PLASTIC UTENSILS. ALL THE FOOD SUCKS.
WANT GOOD RIBS LONGHORN’S.
PINK PALACE NICE, SO IS ZOO.
CRAZY DRIVERS WITH NO INS SO BEWARE.
DOLLY WOOD FOR MUSIC UNLESS YOU HAVE KIDS PRICE SAME REGARDLESS, PIGEON FORGE AREA HAS LOTS OF ENTERTAINMENT. THERE IS A APPLICIAN MUSEUM NEAR CADES COVE THAT IS REAL NICE, WHOLE OLD FASHION VILLAGE SET UP, REASONABLE.
Native Tennessean, still living in Nashville.
One day is not enough time in Nashville, it will take you half a day to drive across town. Just kidding but traffic is horrible.
Downtown area is best during the day but try to avoid late at night when the drunks and beggars get drunker.
Lunch should be either BBQ or HOT chicken. Most of the restaurants downtown serve their version of hot chicken but best is at Hattie B’s or Princes. Martin’s and Edley’s either are good BBQ joints close to Lower Broad as is Rippy’s on Lower Broad. There are also several craft beer locations serving their products in the downtown area. Make sure to go down Music Row (16th Ave) and take a gander at the nekkid statue in the roundabout.
An extra day in middle TN should be in Franklin, 18 mi south of Nashville. Several Civil War sights around the Battle of Franklin - Carter House and Carnton. Carnton was used as a confederate hospital during the battle. Five generals died there. Five streets in Franklin are named for them. Across the yard is the confederate cemetery. Downtown square hosts the monument to fallen confederates. The statue has NOT been removed although some transplants have suggested it. Main Street Franklin is beautiful. Tree lined street full of restaurants(one has been mentioned, Puckett’s), antique shops, knick knack shops, culminating at the public square where the old courthouse is located. Well worth the short trip down I-65 to visit Franklin.
Enjoy yourself in the Great State of Tennessee!
Any suggestions for hotel/motel stays near Gorges? We like creekside or mountain view places, so as to make it nice sitting on the balcony/porch.
Not sure (there are many things in life I don’t know!) but I think Mateo, NC is way off in the Atlantic surf on the Outer Banks. Hatteras or something. So yeah, maybe NC is wider east to west than TN is on the diagonal.
I mean “Manteo.”
There are some very fine places close to there and not a large number of modestly priced ones. Closest modestly priced is actually in Sapphire and it’s The Brook Trout Inn. The Cashiers Village Inn is the most reasonable that is fairly close, or the Hampton Inn & Suites in Cashiers. The Black Bear Lodge is maybe a little more but pretty nice. If you’re willing to spend more there are some stunning options nearby, really more like old mountain resorts and hunting lodges. The Greystone on Lake Toxaway, The High Hampton, etcetera. The area isn’t as densely populated as Boone and Blowing Rock so the choices close by are not broad. Another point of interest in the area is DuPont State Forest as well as Lake Jocassee below, in South Carolina. Lodging would be most affordable in Brevard, but that’s down in the valley. Pretty town too, though. Whole area is.
If you’re planning on hiking the Panthertown Valley Backcountry area, be aware that there’s a bear activity alert posted. Active or not you’ll likely see bear tracks. Panthertown Valley is a unique place geologically speaking. It’s all at a fairly high elevation but the valley floor is sandy and lined with low granite domes and walls a couple hundred feet high. You’ll run into spots with bright white sandbars in the middle of creeks and the water has a lot of tannins in it so can be a little surreal as if the beach got plunked down in the middle of the mountains.
Manteo is on Roanoke Island right before you hit the Outer Banks. The mileage is actually from the TN border to Whalebone Junction where US64 ends and you take NC12, either north to Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and beyond to the VA border, or south to Oregon Inlet, Pea Island, Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Frisco, Buxton, Avon, Hatteras Village and via ferry to Ocracoke which is the last inhabited island in the chain.
Been looking all through the area on google maps. Looks like we could spend a whole week just getting to all the waterfalls. We like Gatlinburg for all the restaurants, etc., but the crowds are a bit much at times.
Where we picked at Banner Elk this year was about halfway up the Beech, a house with a deck and view of Grandfather. We stayed at a condo on the top of Beech several years ago. We like to cook our own breakfast, and eat on the deck. Maybe grill steaks one night.
If you can think of a place in the area area that fits that bill (real nice deck with views or next to a creek), let me know.
Thanks, I just looked it up. Looks like a place I wouldn’t want to be, in hurricane season.
1600 feet — in the Watauga valley —is a better altitude for me.
The weather is a definitely visible force of nature out there day to day. I love it, the wind, the roar of the surf, so primal. Not many beaches can match it, not in the east at least. Makes you feel free, but very small. The locals ride out minor hurricanes, drive their vehicles into their living rooms to get them off the ground. Major ones, very few remain. New inlets get cut in big storms, so the island can come out from under you.
If you’re willing to rent a house and are staying a full week then the options really open up and there are some great houses. Hard not to have a view there really, and the area is a temperate rainforest so there are creeks and waterfalls everyhwere you look. Got a target number or budget for a nightly or weekly rate?
Try to see Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, if you have time in Nashville area.
If you’re driving from Nashville to Gatlinburg on I-40, Alvin York’s home north of Crossville is supposed to be a nice park.
I can help you out with good quilt shops to visit. :)
A cabin/house rental may be the best bet. I could spend around 1.5-2K/wk and not squeal too much.
OK let me ask around, have a few friends in the area. You want close to Gorges State Park as possible or willing to look at, say, lake and Mountain View in Glenville (10 miles away)?
Anywhere in the area will do. Driving a few miles isn’t a issue, as the hikes are scattered all around.
OK let me look, may be evening before I hear anything.
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