Things to do in Eastern Tennessee
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IMAX Theater
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Lookout Mountain
Some of Chattanooga's oldest and best-loved attractions are 6 miles outside the city. Admission price includes: the Incline Railway, which chugs up a steep incline to the top of the mountain; the world's longest underground waterfall, Ruby Falls; and Rock City, a garden with a dramatic cliff-top overlook. Opening hours vary by season. The mountain is also a popular hang-gliding location. The folks at Lookout Mountain Flight Park give lessons.
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Outdoor Chattanooga
Hop on the pedestrian-only bridge to cross into downtown. Below you you'll notice the grass-covered 'living roof' of this city-run agency promoting active recreation. It leads hiking, kayaking and biking trips – call or check the website for schedules. It's also a good resource for outdoor info and trail suggestions.
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Zarzour's
'We treat you like family here,' says the waitress at this tiny wood-paneled slip of a diner, Chattanooga's oldest restaurant. 'We just don't like our family very much!' She's kidding (we think), but that kind of salty banter is what makes Zarzour's such an experience: that, and the just-like-grammy-used-to-make hamburger steak, baked spaghetti and lemon ice box pie (a true classic of the genre).
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Lookout Mountain Flight Park
The folks at Lookout Mountain Flight Park give lessons.
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Hunter Museum of American Art
East of the aquarium is the equally striking glass lobby of this museum, which has a fantastic 19th- and 20th-century collection. Check out the vertigo-inducing glass pedestrian bridge.
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Chattanooga African-American Museum
Chattanooga African-American Museum has a special exhibit on 'Empress of the Blues' singer Bessie Smith, a Chattanooga native.
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Big River Grille & Brewing Works
A lively crowd drinks beer and chows down on crowd-pleasing upmarket pub grub – burgers, calamari, barbecue chicken pizza – in a warehouse-y downtown space with a big front patio.
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Mountain Farm Museum
Adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, this excellent collection of historic buildings evokes life on a typical farmstead of the late 19th century. Together these structures paint a poignant picture of the mountain people who once eked out their sustenance from this rugged and isolated wilderness. The well-tended garden and old-strain cornfields are beautiful to behold any time of year.
The buildings include a meat house, where a mountain farm's most valuable commodity was butchered, dried and smoked. Other structures are dedicated to chickens, apples, corn, water and blacksmithing. A terrific time to visit is in mid-September for the Mountain Life Festival.
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Sugarlands Visitor Center
This excellent visitor center features exhibits, a large bookstore, a free 20-minute film and a well-staffed information desk. During the summer, visitors are welcomed with frequent presentations by rangers, and ranger-led walks to nearby Cataract Falls leave from the patio area four times daily.
The exhibits provide an informative introduction to the incredible biodiversity of life that abounds in the park, with mounted specimens of the plants and animals you may encounter. Outside the center is a strange, cordoned-off piece of concrete called the 'First Amendment Expression Area'; it's often peopled by folks with strong opinions about park issues such as the future of…
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Cades Cove
A cove, in Appalachian parlance, means a valley, but Cades Cove is far more than that. Many consider this special place to be a national treasure, thanks to its poignant cultural legacy, telling pioneer architecture and plentiful wildlife. And then there's the landscape itself, lush green fields enveloped by an unbroken expanse of mountains. It's no wonder so many families return year after year.
The first settlers - most of English, Scotch-Irish and Welsh stock - arrived in the 1820s. By 1850 the valley's population had swelled to its peak of 70 households and 451 residents. Today, thanks to the excellent preservation efforts of the NPS, you can still get a vivid sense…
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Aretha Frankenstein's
This turquoise cottage, tucked away on a residential street in the hip North Shore area, is tops for all-day pancakes and omelets, burritos and BLTs, or enjoying a beer on the sprawling patio.
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Tennessee Aquarium
That glass pyramid looming over the riverside bluffs is the world's largest freshwater aquarium. Climb aboard the aquarium's high-speed catamaran for two-hour excursions through the Tennessee River Gorge (adult/child $29/22). While here, check out a show at the attached IMAX theater.
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