Heading to Nashville? If you’re looking for a resort with a wow factor, Gaylord Opryland Resort is just the ticket. By far the largest hotel in Nashville, this sprawling 2,800-room resort is a destination unto itself. It can feel like a giant terrarium, housing three landscaped atriums with lush gardens with waterfalls, fountain shows, and winding pathways that travel past koi ponds and tropical plants, all waterproof under nine acres of glass roofs. One of the atriums even features a covered river where guests can take boat cruises.
Country music fans will love that the community has a stellar location right next to the Grand Ole Opry and just minutes from downtown Nashville. The resort also has multiple venues where you can hear live Nashville music, or you can book a dinner cruise on Nashville’s Cumberland River on the General Jackson paddlewheeler showboat with its four decks and a beautiful two-story Victorian theater, where they present live shows.
The resort is almost a city within a city, with 17 restaurants ranging from casual to fine dining (including pizzas, burgers, tex-mex, and ice cream) and numerous shops. The complex offers three outdoor and one indoor swimming pools, as well as a games room and activities for children. Parents can hit the gym, book treatments at the resort’s spa, while golfers can book a tee time at the 18-hole Gaylord Springs Golf Links, designed by former US Open and PGA champion Larry Nelson.
One downside to this complex is that it can seem too big and impersonal, and you can walk a long way to get from A to B. Families can also feel nickel and dime here, due to the resort fee (which covers wi-fi), pricey parking fees and lack of a complimentary breakfast.
With eight categories of rooms and suites, there are options at various prices. Some of the rooms have private balconies overlooking the spectacular atrium.
ICE! and the Country Christmas Celebration
The highlight of the year is the resort’s six-week Country Christmas celebration, featuring more than two million lights and dozens of extravagantly decorated Christmas trees. From mid-November through New Years Day, families visiting the Gaylord Opryland Resort can experience ICE !, a themed extravaganza carved from more than two million pounds of colorful ice and kept at nine degrees.
The attraction features a two-story ice slide room and an interactive The Frostbite Factory experience where visitors can see firsthand how Chinese master ice-carving craftsmen create ICE.
Other activities include:
- snow tubing and ice skating
- decorate gingerbread houses
- Festival of the Trees, with dozens of extravagantly decorated Christmas trees throughout the resort
- carriage rides
- Opryland Children’s Train
- holiday treasure hunt
Check rates at Gaylord Opryland Resort
