Looking for a nice family hotel in a residential area of knoxville (Chattanooga: apartments, to rent)

[wickster531]

Hello everyone,
I tried to search the forums for this, but I couldn't find any information that I was looking for. My family and I are considering a move to the Knoxville area in our future. My job is on the chopping block at the end of this budget year, and I may or may not have a job come July.

We have lived in the Syracuse, New York area our entire lives, and frankly we are ready to leave New York. I am a Network Administrator for a local school district, and my wife is currently a Stay-at-Home Mom to our three young boys, ages 3 and twin 18 month olds. Prior to that she worked in Office Management and Administration. We have been spending the last several months reviewing areas and looking for a good mix of weather, jobs, people, and things to do, and Knoxville area is at the top of our list.

We know what we are looking for in a place to live; Somewhere with a close community for the children, greats schools, and a safe middle class neighborhood close to Knoxville and other anemeties.

While we haven't gotten any job offers, we're current putting resumes out and hoping for some good feedback. We would like to have a job to come to, but if I lose my job here, we figure we would make the move to an apartment and hope for the best, no job here or there is still no job the way we look at it.

The point of this post was to ask if anyone could suggest some nice hotels in residential areas like Maryville, Bearden or other middle class neighborhoods (i'm open to suggestions outside these areas). We want to come down in late May for a week, and really live in the area, we would like a hotel we can walk out from and through town to local parks and shopping. Our expectation is to treat the vacation like it would be if we lived there, of course we do plan to travel for a visit to the Smokey Mountains while there, but really we want to see if this is truely a place we could envision ourselves living in.

Thank you all for your help and advice.

[airen123]

The only hotels you could walk out and walk around would be downtown, and I don't imagine that's where you and your family envision living. Knoxville is really a driving-around city

There are a few hotels off of Peters Rd that's pretty much in the center of West Knoxville.
Would be really close to Turkey Creek restaurants and shopping and go for a scenic drive down Northshore, where the lake/river areas are, and as well easily hop on Pellissippi Parkway to visit Maryville.

here's one-we actually stayed here our wedding night before leaving for our honeymoon.
Hilton Garden Inn: 216 Peregrine Way, Knoxville · (865) 690-6511

[wickster531]

airen123, thank you for the information, I will look into that hotel and others in that area. I am not particularly worried about being able to just walk out from the hotel, but I did not want to be in the center of downtown or a business district, I wanted to be closer to the residential areas of the region. If you have any other ideas, please let me know.

[F250Glock]

We are moving from Jamestown in three weeks. Last year, we drove down and stayed in a home wood suites in Farragut, and drove around the suburbs, shopping in local stores and the like. We really liked the Sevierville area, so that's where we ended up. We are in a similar field. I work for Cisco Systems, fortunately I can bring my job with me

If I were you, I'd try to check out several of the towns outside Knoxville as well, just to make sure that your not leaving anything on the table so to speak.

Have you looked for local employment in your field yet? (I honestly haven't taken the time to to search as I don't have the need.) I'm not sure how the market for Network Admins is in the area, I know that Chattanooga is trying to cater to high tech companies, so that might be something to consider as well.

Good luck with your search, we will be living there full time in April. Looking so forward to starting a new chapter in our life away from the dependas

[hiknapster]

I'd go with airen's advice. It will keep you in the West Knoxville suburbs. It very well may be near where you will ultimately be employed and the schools are excellent in the area.

[Barking Spider]

Typically hotels are not in residential areas. Several hotels are in Turkey Creek, so you can walk to shopping and restaurants. There is also a bike/walking trial close by too.

[NY Annie]

Use Tripadvisor.com for reviews on hotels and for finding locations. As far as the 2 mentioned above, with 3 toddlers, I strongly recommend Homewood Suites. First, they are a topnotch hotel, part of the Hilton chain. It is our favorite place to stay of all hotels because:

1. kitchen - with toddlers, I'd consider that #1 for you also;
2. Free breakfast - not just donuts, eggs, meat, just about everything;
3. Monday through Thursday - there's a welcome home meal - not perfect - not everything you want, but filling enough that if you've had a nice lunch out, you can substitute it for dinner.

[Pam& Bill]

When Bill and I visited Tn. before we decided to move here, we rented a cabin over in Pigeon Forge and we spent hours exploring the surrounding areas. Then once we made the final decision to move here, Bill searched apartments online in Knoxville.He found our first apartment here in Knoxville that way. Also he researched what was close by in the neighborhood.
When we moved here almost 7 years ago, it was done blindly, as I hadn't discovered City-Data yet. For us it turned out really well where we ended up. We kicked around Tn. for a few years and lived in different areas, but we always came back to Knoxville.
When Bill passed away two years ago, our apartment was in North East Knoxville. After 6 months I found a cottage in Fountain City to rent on Craigslist. So I moved to Fountain City and I can't say enough good things regarding the neighborhood I ended up in. I like the mixture of people here, Fountain City once was a small town on the outskirts of Knoxville and it was annexed in to Knoxville back in the 60's. It still retains its sense of a small town, yet it is part of the city. Two of my neighbors are natives of Fountain City and while it took a bit of time for the ice to be broken, once that happened, my neighborhood reminds me of a small town in upstate NY(Hudson Valley region). My next door neighbors adopted me into the family and we are good neighbors to each other. My neighbor across the street is a wonderful person and either she or her elderly dad mow my lawn. Her mom kept me well supplied in Tomatoes last summer. Another neighbor likes to bake muffins from scratch on Sunday mornings and always brings me up a plate fresh out of the oven.
All the neighborhood kids play in my yard and ride their bikes in my driveway and on summer evenings the kids and I lay on my driveway and watch the bats fly around and we just chit chat about whatever is on their minds.The one decent snowstorm we had this year resulted in two snowmen in my yard. After they were done playing in their yards, they moved to mine because the snow was untouched.... my neighborhood may not be for everyone but it suits me just fine.

[Mel81]

I would recommend staying in the West Knoxville/Farragut area. However, we are just closing on a home in a part of North Knoxville area which I actually don't know much about. I have heard bad things about North Knoxville but the small area which I am moving too seem to have a nice quiet neighborhood so I am hoping that its a good decision. As far as finding a hotel that is within walking distance will be a problem because things are pretty spread out. Good luck in your search. Traveling with small kids is always fun : ) - I have 3 toddlers as well + 3 others.

[wickster531]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I will also look for a Homewood Suites in that area, we were considering a 2 room suite for our needs, and the extras are always nice.

Barking Spider, I'll also look at Turkey Creek area too, that sounds nice and about what I am looking for in our stay.

From what I read here, I think most people are very friendly and helpful, and I look forward to our visit, and we'll see how it expands from there.