If you’re looking for a great family getaway just 1.5 hours outside of Atlanta, look no further than Chattanooga! This was our 4th trip to Chattanooga with our kids and every time we go, we wish we could stay longer. There is SO much to do there!
First, we recommend staying at Bode Hotel. It is centrally located and offers 1, 2, and 3 bedroom options with full kitchens. The lobby has a ping pong table, pool table, shuffle board table, and bar with nightly happy hour specials. From our hotel, we walked to the Children’s Creative Discovery Museum, Tennessee Aquarium, Walnut Street Bridge, and Coolidge Park. The hotel is also within walking distance to many family-friendly restaurants and ice cream shops. We only accessed our car on the last day when we drove to Rock City!
The Creative Discovery Museum offers tons of great educational activities for kids. Our kids range in age between 2-7, we planned for approximately 2 hours there, and all four of kids wished we could stay longer. We recommend going on Friday evening as your first stop to your weekend. The crowds were really light! We drove straight there and waited to check in to Bode Hotel until after the museum and dinner. The museum closes at 5:00, so it works well to go straight from there to dinner.
Saturday morning, we got to the Tennessee Aquarium right when they opened and went straight to the top floor of the Ocean building where the touch tanks are. Again, we had the place nearly to ourselves! We worked our way down the 4 flights of the Ocean building, taking in each section as went, and then walked across the sidewalk to the River building. All together, we spent about 2.5 hours at the Aquarium and then another 1/2 hour playing in the water area that is in between both buildings.
After lunch, we walked across Walnut Street Bridge to Coolidge Park and let the kids ride the carousel and choose a shaved ice or ice cream for an afternoon treat.
On our last morning, we drove to Rock City, which we highly recommend for families! Be sure to get there as close to opening as possible to avoid crowds. We arrived at 9:00 (they open at 8:30) on Sunday morning and only saw a handful of families the whole time. They say it takes about 1.5 hours to complete, but our family pace that involves running, skipping, jumping (and lots of excited squealing) got us through the whole area in 50 minutes.
This was a great last activity before heading home. Our entire crew fell asleep for most of the drive home!
In summary, if you’re looking for a quick, relatively inexpensive, and jam-packed-full-of-fun getaway for your family this summer, be sure to visit Chattanooga! You will not regret it and will likely start planning your next visit before the first trip ends. 😉
Stay: Bode Hotels
Go: Creative Discovery Museum, Tennessee Aquarium, Coolidge Park, Rock City
Eat: Community Pie (order to-go and eat outside in the courtyard), Maple Street Biscuit Company, The Ice-Cream Show, Pucketts Grocery, Easy Bistro (across from the hotel and great for a date-night-in with takeout after the kids are asleep)
