Shae and I spent the last four weeks of 2018 in Tennessee, staying in four cities while there – Chattanooga, Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. We actually stayed in Nashville twice as we spent 10 days there before Christmas and returned on December 31 to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Tennessee wasn’t as fun as I thought it might be, but we also didn’t visit at the best time of year. I probably would’ve enjoyed it more if we’d visited in the spring or fall as the weather would’ve been much better for hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Despite that, we did have some fun along the way and got to eat lots of great food. Here are our best and worst things from our month in Tennessee.
Favorite Accommodation We Stayed At
Stephen – This is a tie between the Country Inn & Suites Chattanooga-Lookout Mountain and our Airbnb in Knoxville. It was nice to get an upgrade to a one bedroom suite at the Country Inn & Suites, while the Airbnb was nice and spacious.
Shae – My favorite accommodation was the Airbnb. There was a fenced-in yard for Truffles, great neighborhoods to walk in and great access to the highway.
Favorite Meal
Stephen – This one is hard to choose as we had so much good food, especially BBQ. Central BBQ and The Bar-B-Q Shop in Memphis were excellent, Bennett’s Pit BBQ in Pigeon Forge was delicious, while Calhoun’s in Knoxville was also fantastic. Our (non-BBQ) meal at Connors in Knoxville was incredibly tasty as well (thanks to Stef for the gift card for Christmas), so I can’t really choose one in particular.
Shae – We had a lot of great food but my favorite was Connors. Not only was it delicious, it was a gift from one of my dearest friends, Stefanie and her family, in England. An honorable mention goes out to Gibson’s Donuts in Memphis though. They were amazingly friendly and the donuts were to die for!
Most Disappointing Meal
Stephen – The breakfasts and evening hors d’oeuvres in the Executive Lounge at the Hilton Nashville Airport. The breakfast food was either overcooked or frozen, while there was hardly any food provided in the evening.
Shae – I was most disappointed by Nashville hot chicken. It wasn’t anything like I was hoping and I’d definitely skip it in the future.
Favorite Free Activity
Stephen – I’m actually really struggling to think of something for this one as I don’t remember us doing much in Tennessee that was free. I guess it would be taking Truffles to get her photo taken with Santa at the Bass Pro Shops in Memphis as it was pet-friendly and free.
Shae – Yes – this was so great as a free activity! I also got to tour behind the scenes with an Air Traffic Controller who’s in our Inner Circle Facebook Group. This was free and I found it really fascinating! But my official vote goes to visiting the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park and other sites on the Trail of Tears.
Favorite Paid Activity
Stephen – The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. It’s an excellent museum and is definitely something I’d say is a must-do there.
Shae – I’d have to agree that the National Civil Rights Museum was amazing. I also really loved our llama trek with The Wandering Llamas and the Founder’s Tour at Uncle Nearest for very different reasons and so it’s a tie for me.
Favorite Pet-Friendly Activity
Stephen – Taking Truffles to the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid in Memphis.
Shae – There weren’t as many pet-friendly places as I’d hoped in Tennessee. If we’d known Truffles could’ve come along, it would’ve been Pins Mechanical Company because they’re dog-friendly and we spent a hilarious evening there on New Year’s Eve. But since she didn’t actually go, I’ll agree that it was Bass Pro Shops as well.
Least Favorite Activity
Stephen – Hmmm…..driving through Pigeon Forge was depressing. It was like Vegas and Myrtle Beach had a baby that managed to be even tackier – I’ve no idea why it holds so much appeal nowadays. I was also disappointed with The Lost Sea Adventure. Getting to go in a boat on the US’s largest underground lake was OK, but the cave it’s in was a letdown compared to places like Grand Caverns and the Luray Caverns, while I didn’t think our tour guide was the most engaging of guides either. It seems like Tennessee has a lot of overpriced tourist “attractions” and this was one of them.
Shae – My least favorite activity was probably the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway in Chattanooga, but only because it was so stress-inducing. But honestly, I really didn’t like our day trip to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, although it was completely rescued by our moonshine tasting at Sugarlands Distilling Company.
Favorite Hike
Stephen – I don’t think we actually did any hiking in Tennessee which is a shame due to all the opportunities there. It was really cold on the only days we were near hike-worthy places though, so we ended up giving it a miss.
Shae – Excuse me Stephen Pepper, we went on a 2 hour Llama hike/trek, and it was EVERYTHING. (Stephen – I thought of that more as a walk than a hike 😉 )
Favorite Quirky Thing We Did
Stephen – Although we saw the Peabody Duck march in Memphis, I enjoyed the llama trek much more.
Shae – I’d class the Peabody Duck march as much more “quirky” than the llama trek and I enjoyed it for its inherent silliness.
Favorite Memory
Stephen – Spending Christmas Day with Shae’s mom and stepdad.
Shae – Oh man. I love it when we meet new people and see old friends. We got to spend Christmas with my mom and stepdad including an epic night of Reindeer Games, met two Inner Circle members in Elizabeth and Jennifer, drinks with Toye, Kyle and Gia and then a surprise addition of a meet-up with friends we made in Enterprise, Alabama in our first year, J.R. and Rob. They happened to be in Tennessee and made a stop to see us while we were in Chattanooga.
Funniest Moment
Stephen – Truffles being incredibly excited on Christmas Eve. She could smell all the treats hidden away and was like a child wanting to unwrap everything! You can see the tablecloth moving back and forth in the video below because of her tail hitting it like a windmill in all her excitement.
Shae – Aww Truffles is always cute but my vote has to go to discovering that there’s an International Towing Museum in Chattanooga and the time we spent with J.R. and Rob discussing its existence.
Thing We Most Regretted
Stephen – Having to drive through Pigeon Forge.
Shae – I regret having to drive back 1.5 hours to Memphis once we moved on to Mississippi to see the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum. Not because it was bad, but because I had especially gone back to have a Traveling Teach lesson about it and then upon arrival found out we couldn’t take pictures or video, so it wasn’t something we needed to make a special trip back for.
Something We Missed And Want To See
Stephen – Going hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. There’s one of Thomas Dambo’s trolls there, so it would be nice to see that, seeing as I’ve seen them in Illinois, Kentucky, Denmark and Belgium.
Shae – I too missed seeing the troll, but it’s on private property so you have to book in to a hotel to see it. I’m also sad that I was finally in Doug the Pug’s home town and didn’t run in to him. Finally, I missed not seeing Ruby Falls and Rock City in Chattanooga, but they were cost prohibitive for what they were. We missed the state capitol, getting our pin and a stamp for our book because of the holiday hours, so we’ll need to go back for that.
Our Biggest Surprise
Stephen – How awful Pigeon Forge was.
Shae – How much I didn’t really like Tennessee. I thought I would like it, but overall I wasn’t impressed. I mean it’s no Connecticut though.
My Tennessee Drinking Game Would Be…
Stephen – I have two competing ones:
- Take a drink every time you see a boot shop in Nashville.
- Take a drink every time you see an ad for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital (it’s in Memphis, so there are lots of TV and billboard ads)
Shae – Drink every time you see the Tennessee state flag. They’re almost as proud of it as Texas is of theirs.
Summary Of Tennessee In 10 Words Or Less
Stephen – Lots of overpriced tourist attractions, lots of great BBQ too.
Shae – Eat in Memphis, visit Uncle Nearest, walk llamas, skip Chattanooga. (Sorry Elizabeth!!)
Tennessee Cities We Visited In Order From Favorite To Least Favorite
Stephen – Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville. Memphis was my clear favorite, while you could mix up the order of the other three and I wouldn’t have any complaints as I thought they were fairly comparable.
Shae – Knoxville since it had the llamas. Memphis was really tops though for the food and the Civil Rights history. Nashville and Chattanooga are kind of a toss up for last. I wasn’t enamored with either.
Im surprised you didn’t like Nashville more.
Are you keeping a list of most favorite to least favorite states and what made them great or not so much?
If we were into country music and the whole music scene, we’d probably have loved Nashville. When we returned for New Year’s Eve we stayed in the Gulch neighborhood which was really nice.
As for favorite states, we’re not really keeping a list at the moment, although we do have some definite favorites. Mine are Vermont, Kentucky and Wisconsin, closely followed by Alabama and Virginia. It’s tough though as some of our experiences are affected by when we visited the states. For example, I loved Vermont as we visited in May/June when the weather was great, but I don’t think I’d have loved it so much when covered in snow.
Aww, I do hate to hear that you didn’t really enjoy Tennessee. I think you missed out on cool things in and around downtown Knoxville that are free like the East Tennessee History Center. It’s free on Sundays. Lots of historic sites that are under $10 to visit. Anywho, do try to come back in nicer weather and give us another chance. (I totally agree with Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg)
Yep, I don’t think we ended up heading into downtown Knoxville in the end as we were there over Christmas and visited a few places in the local area instead. I’d be interested in returning to Tennessee at some point to check out what we missed 🙂
No one loves their state flag more than Texans. No one.
That’s true!