Family Fun in Tennessee

We just got back from a trip to Tennessee and I have to say that state has a TON to offer families. I’ll be covering what we did in Tennesee as well as some things we did in western North Carolina as well. There’s lots to see and do in that area (but transportation can be a bit tricky) — so read on for some ideas.

How to get to Tennessee?

There are a few options:

You can fly into Nashville. This is a large regional airport with lots of flights. We actually had a layover here on our way to our NEXT destination. This way is easy, but it might not be the closest to what you want to do.

You can Fly into Knoxville. This is a smaller airport, and didn’t service Southwest who we had some credits with and planned to use.

Southwest is actually a GREAT one to use to travel to this area, and I HIGHLY recommend their credit card if you’re flying them, the points don’t expire and they’re very family-friendly.

You can also fly into Memphis, but it’s further out from a lot that I’m going to mention, so it wasn’t an option for us. Same for Chattanooga.

We actually flew into Charlotte, North Carolina — for a couple of reasons. Again — this is a larger airport, rental cars weren’t expensive and it put us in a very beautiful area.

Btw, if you’re looking for more vacation ideas — check these out:

• Favorite Places to Visit in Washington DC
• San Diego For Families
• Being Optimistic in Parenting & Travel with Melissa from Mix In Some Magic
• Boston With Teenagers: Family Travel in Beantown

Family Fun in North Carolina

Unfortunately, we flew in soon after hurricane Helene. We had to adjust our trip to accommodate the big upheavel in the North Carolina/Tennessee border. The Charlotte Area had well-recovered by the time we arrived. Our hotel was happy to have us, but we did have to adjust our trip a bit.

We were planning to go to The Biltmore estate. Actually, we plan to go back there at some point. I’ve researched it a lot. The daughter we were traveling with is 15, so a good age. I don’t think that this mansion would be really interesting prior to high-school-ish age. Obviously, you know your own kids and what they prefer but for us, 15 would have been a great age.

Keep in mind that tickets to the estate aren’t cheap, so you’d want to be sure that your family will likely enjoy it before you go.

The Biltmore is REALLY close to Tennessee, and is right along the Blue Ridge Highway which was another point we hoped to visit. I think it’s a great add-on to other fun areas in western Tennessee.

The Blue Ridge Highway ends up right at the Great Smoky Mountains which we did visit and really enjoyed. We ended-up having to go on a Saturday and I wouldn’t recommend that — it was really busy and long lines of cars.

However, I knew that would be the case — so we left Tennessee early in the morning and hit Cade’s cove early on. We made it up to the Newfound gap where you can see into North Carolina and then down into Tennessee and it was absolutely beautiful. But, with all the people we decided to head back at that point.

We, again — would love to visit on a weekday at some point. 🙂

Instead of going to the Biltmore we went to the US National White Water Center that’s in Charlotte. It was really one of my favorites of the whole trip. I had recently had surgery so I was out for the activities (although I could go for free — you can enjoy the walkways for free), but my husband and daughter did zip lines, ropes courses and white water rafting. My daughter even stepped off a 100 foot platform (it slows you down as you get to the bottom).

It was a highlight, I can’t recommend it any more. We went on a weekday in October, and it wasn’t super busy — I’d guess it gets busier in the summer and weekends, but we loved our time there. I would totally recommend it to families. I believe kids as young as 8 can go on the White Water Rafting journeys, and there were young kids enjoying the ropes courses.

Where We Stayed: We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Belmont. Nothing fancy, but they were nice.

Quick note: NONE of these stays were comp’d in any way — but I think it’s nice to know where people stayed. 🙂

I should also say this trip wasn’t cheap… so you want to be sure to calculate costs — this trip calculator can help you out (it’s set for Disneyland, but can work for any trip):

Family Fun in Tennesee

From Charlotte we moved into Tennessee — we bypassed anything touched by Helene — so we went up to Virginia, and then down into Seviereville.

Don’t forget to stop at a Buckee’s on your way there. It’s a GREAT place to get some trip food that everyone can enjoy. I will admit that the BBQ always makes me a little nauseous (could be my GLP-1) though. We loved the:

• Sugar roasted cashews
• Cheese in a cup (the cheese cubes are GREAT for travel)
• Jerkey

Other things we weren’t as big of fans of — the beaver nuggets (pricey and maybe a bit too sweet), fudge – seems less good than other places we had fudge, and I’d heard CRAZY good things about the Oatmeal cookies — for me it was a meh.

They also have the best bathrooms at a truck stop and you won’t be waiting for a pump since they have 100+ of them.

It’s a fun place to visit, but don’t get caught-up in the hype and buy too much!

Then we drove down to Pigeon Forge. We stayed at the Dollywood Dream More resort for a couple of nights. We absolutely loved it. I have a whole post on Dollywood that you should check-out. It really is my favorite theme park in the US, but don’t go because one of my favorite parts is the chill vibe that comes with it. 🙂

The Dollywood hotel was much more expensive on the weekends, so we moved to The Arbor’s at Island Landing. Honestly guys — not a fan (which is annoying considering all the hype it gets on Trip Advisor). Our room felt damp, and there was NO noise barrier between our walls and the cars out on the parkway (the VERY LOUD cars I should add). I wouldn’t stay there again.

We also visited Gatlinburg. Boy oh boy is that place busy! I was glad we stayed in Pigeon Forge, but there would certainly be a lot to see/do in Gatlinburg. We drove to the Smokies NOT using “the spur” in Gatlinburg and then drove back THROUGH Gatlinburg. It takes a while, this is truth.

You could 100% do a trip JUST in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. There is TONS to do, lots to see in the Smokies… it would be really fun for families. My husband and I felt like they are the Las Vegas of family fun.

Where we Stayed: We ended-up in 3 hotels due to some re-arranging due to the storm:

• The Best Western Plaza Inn – This one was fine, we were able to park right next to our room which was a huge plus, breakfast was fine.
• Dollywood Dream More Resort – The motto of “Dream More, Learn More, Care More and Be More” were echo’d throughout the hotel. It made me heart melt. The room was great, and we were able to get cinnamon bread in the morning down at the pantry. The pool was great, we LOVED this hotel. It can be pricey, but I booked and then kept look back for specials they had, I got it pretty close to $210/night.
• The Arbors at Island Landing – I loved the breakfast over at Regan’s (we upgraded, but it was super yummy), but the room felt damp, no sound proofing. They’d re-done the bathroom but the bowl sink was just odd. The room was fine, just not what I expected from “#1 on Trip Advisor”.

Family Fun in Nashville

From Pigeon Forge we drove to Nashville. It’s about 3.5 hours, but it does have a Buckee’s right in the middle of the drive, which was awesome.

Now, I need to say that beyond Taylor Swift (for one of us) we’re not huge Country fans in this house. We are, big music fans, so we thought it would be an amazing trip for us.

We were given tickets to the Hop on Hop Off Bus experience, and I love those. Yes, you could Uber around town a lot and save some cash, but honestly — when it’s a city you’ve never been to before it’s REALLY nice to be taken around to see the sights first.

We gave ourselves one day to that and got off on a few of the stops — we really enjoyed:

• The Marthon Motor Works place — there’s a museum of cars across the street that was super cool, and we enjoyed all the machines inside along with the shops (loved their deli too).
• Musicians’ Hall of Fame — my husband wasn’t too keen on the Country Music Hall of Fame, but he teaches music appreciation and really enjoyed this museum. Great for music buffs. We never would’ve known about this place if it wasn’t for the tour.
• The shops near the Assembly Food Hall were fun for my daughter and I to enjoy while my husband did the museum.
• The assembly food hall is AWESOME for families since there are so many amazing options in one spot so everyone can get something they love.

I have previously had 5 Daughter’s Donuts, and I have to say — as a California donut snob I didn’t love them — just my opinion.

In an effort to show how cheap we are — we also felt like paying the $10/person wasn’t in our budget for the Parthenon, but we got to look at it from the trolley, which seemed like enough.

We also did the night tour — “Soul of Music City” which was REALLY fun. While the day tour gives you transportation and history, the night one had singing, and the magic of the city lit up at night. lots of cool musical information about who had recorded there. We were big fans of it.

On our second day we Uber’d to the capitol, which was interesting. We then walked down to the Tennessee state museum (free) — which was also interesting. I wouldn’t recommend either for small kids though. Maybe 10 and up. We also went to the Farmer’s Market there and had a tasty lunch.

We then Uber’d to The Gultch which wasn’t anything particularly special and then down to Broadway to try out some Honky Tonks which my daughter wasn’t a fan of. We left there pretty quickly.

On the way INTO Nashville we visited Stone’s River Battle field that is in Murfreesboro. The museum was nice — you can also take a drive around to see the actual battlefield.

Where we stayed: We stayed at the Drury Plaza Hotel. We loved how they gave us breakfast and dinner each day, the location was nice — close to broadway, but not too close. The workers were very kind and the rooms were well-appointed.

Transportation?

We had a rental car from Charlotte until we drove into Nashville. We dropped it off at the airport once we were in Nashville. Between the rental fee, the cost to park and gas we just decided it would be cheaper to just Uber in the city. We’re lucky we don’t have car-seats.

We used Costco travel to book the rental car. I kept checking about 3 months out, and found the best pricing maybe 4 weeks before our trip. They have free cancellations, so it made it easy to keep looking.

Lyft was usually cheaper than Uber for most of our journeys, but we tend to price check them both before picking one. Most of the rides were under $10.

I did take a peek into public transportation, but it seemed complicated. We’ve used it before, but unless the city makes it VERY simple for tourists often an Uber/Lyft is easier — so, we decided to do that.

Final Thoughts

Nashville was sort of a “meh” for us — we arrived on a Sunday night and left on a Wednesday mid-morning. I would have been fine with one less day there. Again, we’re not huge country fans (but we appreciate musicians).

We LOVED Dollywood, although the rest of Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg isn’t my favorite. There is definitely a LOT of things to do in the area — it’s just hard to know which will really be fun for you vs just a way to spend money.

We LOVED the Smokies and we sure wish we could’ve seen the Blue Ridge Highway. I’m not sure when that will be fixed, but we hope to go back when it is and try this trip again. We also really enjoyed Charlotte and what it had to offer. If I had to do this trip again:

• 1-2 Nights Charlotte, visit the White Water Center (maybe stay up near the Blue Ridge on the 2nd night)
• 1 night Ashville to visit the Biltmore
• Down the Blue Ridge towards Cherokee where I’d spend a night.
• Spend that next day experiencing the Smokies
• Stay in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge for 3 nights
• 2 days at Dollywood (you could easily do 1 day, but 2 days gives you more time to relax and explore).
• Nashville for 2 nights

I hope you found this helpful. I bet most people going to Nashville are big country fans, but maybe you wondered what it’s like if you’re not. I hope you visit at least the Blue Ridge/Smokies area — very worth it!