Chattanooga is such a great destination for families. The downtown has so much to offer for kids of all ages and everything is very walkable. There are plenty of parking garages everywhere and the prices are more reasonable than downtown Atlanta.
WHERE WE STAYED: BODE CHATTANOOGA
We researched several hotels before deciding on BODE. The hotels we considered were The Read House, The Chattanoogan, and The Westin. What made us decide on Bode was the fact that Bode offers multiple bedrooms and bathrooms with full kitchens – something that is so valuable when you are traveling with kids. We chose the 2 Bedroom 2 Bath Premium room, which comes with a full size ping pong table. The room is 1200 sq. ft., with a full size kitchen and a dinner table for 6. The hotel is exceptionally clean and the amenities are great – not only is the ping pong fun, there is also a shared game area in the lobby with shuffleboard, pool table and another ping pong table there. The lobby also serves drinks and small snacks. Bode is not your average hotel though – it has a distinctive industrial style in its rooms with extremely tall ceilings and exposed pipes. The bedrooms and bathrooms are rather small considering the whole space is 1200 sq. ft. The Wi-Fi works great and there are many available power plugs/USB ports to charge all your devices. The beds are very comfortable, as well as the couch and seats in the living room area.
Here are some things to note:
-The frames of the beds come out further than the comforter themselves. And since the frame is solid black metal, it blends in perfectly with the black floor, making it very hard to see. I can see people running into the frame with their toes in the middle of the night.
-There is only one TV and it’s in the living room. No TVs in bedrooms. This was fine for us because our kids were in bed early but usually for a room this size (1200 sq. ft.!!), you would expect a second TV somewhere. The good though: The TV comes with live channels as well as Google Chromecast, that lets you cast Netflix or YouTube or whatever else you may have from your own phone to the TV.
-At least for our room (room 203), the only windows are in the living room area. That means the bedrooms and bathrooms are very dark. We slept well because of this (despite the smoke alarms that went off in the middle of the night in someone else’s room), but I prefer a bedroom with windows.
-The website advertised for Valet parking but there was no valet parking when we got here. There’s a parking garage right across the street.
Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at BODE and I would definitely consider staying here again if we bring the kids.
Places to eat:
Easy Bistro:
We came to Easy Bistro for dinner with our kids. The experience was a bit of love and hate… The restaurant was very pretty inside and things started out very well. We had two cocktails – the Capablanca and the West Side Smash, both were amazing and really started things off on a positive note. The waitress explained that everything can be shared, so we ordered the Steak Tartare, the White Bean and Kale Soup, the Whole Roasted Fish of the Day (1.5 lbs. Beeline Snapper), and a side of Broccoli. The kids ordered from the kids menu, the Buttered Pasta and the Chicken Fingers and Fries. The kids enjoyed their food very much. For us, while I enjoyed the Steak Tartare and the Broccoli, I didn’t find the soup to be particularly impressive. I thought the fish was good but a little fishier than I expected – and I know my fish because I grew up next to the ocean. Teddy enjoyed the fish but found the Broccoli to be poor. All of this would have been fine but the worst part of the meal was the dessert. Since we are unfamiliar with the restaurant, we asked our waitress for her favorite dessert. She suggested the Truffle Ice Cream with sorghum pop and nutmeg. It sounded interesting and we weren’t sure what to expect so we took her recommendation. The kids shared the Profiteroles, which comes in two and was perfect size for them. To our astonishment, our dessert came in a little bowl with just a small scoop of ice cream, and some tiny pieces of popcorn that looked like the bottom of a popcorn bag. No matter how hard I tried, I could not taste any “truffle” in the ice cream. It just tasted like a small scoop of vanilla ice cream to me. And the popcorn? I certainly couldn’t taste any sorghum or nutmeg. It just tasted like it had a little salt on them. I’m not saying the dessert didn’t have truffle or sorghum or nutmeg, it’s just that neither one of us could taste it, and if anyone says they could, I would like to give them a blind taste test between a scoop of that and a scoop of Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream, honestly. So this was a disappointing end to our meal, and I guess overall looking back at it, the restaurant felt more pretentious than necessary. I’m not a total food connoisseur, but I’m familiar with what truffle should taste like and what sorghum should taste like, this just really missed the mark.
Ruby Sunshine
Ruby Sunshine is the sister restaurant chain to the original hugely popular Ruby Slippers cafes originated from New Orleans. We didn’t anticipate the popularity of this restaurant on a Sunday morning in January, so when we arrived, the wait time was very long, but thanks to Yelp’s virtual waitlist, we were able to check in on Yelp and get on the waitlist virtually, walk over to the Children’s Discovery Museum and return when our table was ready. Worked out beautifully.
Ruby Sunshine had a great menu. Lots of morning cocktail options (Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Bellini, etc.), lots of omelet options, eggs benedict, breakfast tacos, French toast, seasonal favorites, etc. etc. I can come here for weeks and not finish trying all the different things. We ended up going with some French Toast and Blackstone Eggs Benedict. Kids ordered some meals from the kids menu, which was cheap AND good. We also shared a Bloody Mary and it was perfect.
Things to do:
Tennessee Aquarium is one of the top aquariums in the nation. The aquarium is divided into two parts, the River Journey, and the Ocean Journey. You can also see penguins, touch a stingray, and even watch sharks and butterflies. My kids and I have been to the Georgia Aquarium before and my older one really was not interested so we decided to skip the aquarium on this trip but headed straight to their IMAX theater.
The IMAX theater is located at the aquarium and they have rotating shows throughout the year. If this is something you like to do, it may be worthwhile to purchase their season tickets. When we went, lots of people there were season ticket holders. We watched a documentary called Superpower Dogs, about dogs who go through training to become superheroes, saving people in avalanche and earthquakes. The movie has a great message and highly informative. Everyone in the family enjoys 3D movies so this was no different. The movie was 45 minutes long, so it’s easier for younger audiences to enjoy. There’re concession stands if you want some popcorn or snacks as well.
My kids LOVED this place. They could have easily spent all day here, but our time was limited because we had just walked from Ruby Sunshine to wait “virtually” for the restaurant to let us know our table was ready. There was places to build things, climb on things, experiment with things, play with STEM toys, and so much more. There was just SO MUCH to do! (Although I will admit, I liked Strong Museum a little more, but both are impressive!) This place is a lot bigger than the INK Children’s Museum my kids grew up with.
Conclusion
Even though our trip was short, it was so nice and the kids really enjoyed it too. There are many things left to do in the Chattanooga area and it’s only a 2 hour drive for us, so we hope to do this more often!