Coming Back in September, City Ideas?

[SimplyDeb]

Originally Posted by RobertAlton

....Looking forward more than ever to visiting Knoxville. Hopefully in September as well.

Oh, good luck to you on your visit! We'll have to compare notes when we return. Balance is an important word in my life

[RobertAlton]

I agree... and likewise

[SimplyDeb]

Thank you, will jot that down.

[SimplyDeb]

I wanted to follow up on my trip. We spent some time in the Knoxville area in September. I needed to know if it still felt good to me, see more, and my husband made his first trip to the area.

We broke our drive up into 2 days, which extended our trip.

TN will stay on our short list and has bumped to the number one spot for now. We wanted to spend time both downtown and outside. We stayed at the Hilton in downtown Knoxville for three days, and spent a lot of time walking around the city.

We then moved over to a cabin in Townsend for a week. We spend part of every single day out driving around different areas. We drove around, looked up some properties and went to see how they actually were laid out to see if it matched expectations, etc.

It's a true lesson that you really need to see a property. What it looks like online is different in person. Not the home itself, but the lay out, how close it is to the neighbor, or who your neighbor is, or what type of road it's on, etc....get out there and drive around. It helps you get a feel for what you like.

We spent a lot of time in Townsend, Maryville, and Dandridge. We went to West Knox for a little bit, but it didn't appeal to us. We ended up really liking Dandridge, and spent two days around the area. We also liked Townsend, but it was more touristy. Dandridge felt like it could be home. Off on it's own, but close enough to the city if you need to go over there.

Anyway, I wanted to thank everybody for their time, help, and suggestions.

Knox was truly one of the first cities I didn't have anxiety walking around. The descriptions are right, it's more like a big town than a city feel. Also, I was up on the 17th floor of the Hilton, so I got a great view of traffic flow over a weekend, and on a weekday. I got to see how few people were out walking around the area - and understand that the college area is where it hops.

Thx again. We'll be back, and I think this is where we'll end up moving in the next year or two. I think FL will remain a place to vacation, because TN feels like home.

[hiknapster]

Glad you enjoyed it. Dandridge would be a great choice!

We stayed at the Hilton once. It's in an odd area and you could stay there and think there is no one downtown. Don't get me wrong. It's a great area but you could stay there and never realize there is more going on. In that one spot it is dead. Market Square, Gay Street and the Old City is where it's at, especially on Saturdays but many other days and nights as well.

The Cumberland Strip is where the kids are. It's an okay area but nothing great. They are going to begin revitalization down there.

Oh, well. Glad you had fun and hopefully you found you new "utopia!"

[hiknapster]

We just came back from being downtown. We got down there at about 4 p.m. The shops and restaurants stay open surprisingly late now on Sundays. Gosh it was so busy for that time of the week. It's a pity you didn't realize that Market Square, Gay Street and The Old City were only around the corner. I'm surprised the concierge didn't tell you.

[SimplyDeb]

?? I did walk around....not sure if you thought I was just sitting in my hotel room!

We walked around Downtown Knoxville for 2 1/2 hours one day, taking in Gay Street, Market Square, World's Fair Park and more. We walked up and down Gay St at least 3 times that day, saw the homeless in the park between there and next to Market Street. It was very quiet when we saw it, and we watched an interesting ceremony of some guy blessing the fountains at World's Fair Park (we're guessing that's what the guy was doing??!!) - we like that security roamed around as well...I went in and talked to the people at the Knox Welcome Center/Blue Plate corner, and we walked up and down many of the side streets connecting them all. We saw the Federal Building nearby, the library, we saw an older little hotel, lots of condos, etc.

A lot of small cafes, some theaters, etc, a big general store, and more...we thought it was lovely.

[SimplyDeb]

When I say "how few people" -- remember I'm used to cities like Philly and NYC big difference.