Hometown Tourist: The Opryland Hotel

I love to walk around expensive hotels that I’m not staying in. I think I formed this habit at Disney World by looking around their hotels, especially during Christmastime. Once I took a vacation to Disney just to look at the hotels and eat at a few of the restaurants when I couldn’t afford the price of a park ticket!

I’m also a big fan of being a tourist in your own hometown and nearby environs. Sometimes you just need a change of scenery, which can be quite close to home.

OPRYLAND HOTEL

One of those places for me is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. It’s a great place to walk around, take pictures, have a meal and/or a drink, and even enjoy some free entertainment.

HISTORY

It turns out the Opryland Hotel is as old as I am, opening in 1977 as a stately southern mansion. It was built to support visitors to the venerable Grand Ole Opry and the Opryland USA theme park, which is now the huge Opry Mills mall. The original hotel didn’t include any of the magnificent glass atriums it is known for today and instead boasted a huge double staircase and chandelier.

In the 80’s, the first glassed-in Garden Conservatory was added, quickly followed by the Cascades Atrium complete with a huge waterfall and a new, expanded check-in lobby. Then in 1996, the massive Delta Atrium was added, with almost theme-park-like theming, complete with an indoor river with flat-bottom boats and a dancing fountain show.

Today, the Opryland Hotel boasts 9 acres of lush indoor gardens, 2888 rooms,15 restaurants, pools, a spa, and extensive convention space. It the largest non-casino hotel in the United States.

VISITING OPRYLAND HOTEL

First, a note about the traffic. There’s one exchange that serves the Opry, Hotel, and Opry Mills, and it’s always backed up. I’m sure early on a weekday your odds will be better, but when visiting on a weekend or in the evening you can bet on quite a lot of traffic.

PARKING

Don’t pay for parking! Drive to the left past the mall and park in the corner of the mall parking lot for free and walk >10 minutes along the convenient walkway straight to the hotel. At the end of the walkway, you can head right to go straight to the excellent Delta section. Or for the full hotel experience (and less time being lost, IMO) head towards your left to enter the hotel from the front.

CASCADES LOBBY AND ATRIUM

Whether you’re staying there or not, walking through the front doors of a grand hotel is designed to make you feel special. (I also have a particular childlike delight for rotating doors.) As soon as you are inside, you find yourself in a long, low lobby with check-in desks along either wall and plenty of sitting and milling-about space in the middle. Here you’ll find a beautifully lit glass sculpture under a stained-glass cupola situated in the middle of the room. 

Once you pass straight out of the lobby, you find yourself in the beautiful Cascades atrium. A towering double waterfall thunders to a pool below, which surrounds The Falls bar on the left. Due to the crashing water, this ends up being an excellent place to sit with a drink and a book! To the right is a combination American cafe/sushi bar next to a pool of colorful jumping fountains.

There are walkways around both restaurants and a sky bridge that goes behind the waterfall. From here you can also walk out towards the spa and visit the indoor and outdoor pools.

GARDEN CONSERVATORY

The trick to walking through the Opryland Hotel in a somewhat linear manner is to not be distracted by entrances to the Delta Atrium on your right. Ignore the Delta for now and keep going straight ahead towards the original Garden Conservatory.

Walking from the Cascades, you’ll find yourself on a sky bridge overlooking meandering paths through lush vegetation. There are restaurants on your right for Mexican and Italian with a bar in between. The sky bridge gives you a direct path through the conservatory, but head down a level to walk along the paths. Statuary, benches, pools, and rockwork are scattered along each walkway, with a large crystal gazebo anchoring the entrance.

MAGNOLIA MANSION

Exiting the narrow end of the Garden Conservatory, you enter into what was the original, less-atriumy hotel. Here you’ll find gelato (and other desserts) on your left and a Starbucks cafe on your right, with a few cute shops along the hallway. Down further is the original hotel entrance with the grand staircase and chandelier.

Quiet…

This area is a curiously quiet corner of the hotel now, with fireplaces flanking the entrance and comfy armchairs in corners and in rows on the upper level. Via my Disney training, I find that if I ever need a quiet place to get away from the crowds and sit for a little bit, some corner in a lobby of an expensive resort can usually provide that for me. In the Opryland Hotel, this is that place. Fireplaces, sofa, armchairs galore, and hardly any people. Up the grand staircase are rows of armchairs just perfect for an escape.

…and Alcohol

On the lower level is “The District”, a strip of restaurants and clubs set forth as the nightlife area of the hotel, plus several shops. There is an Irish Pub, an electric sports bar, and a Jack Daniel’s restaurant. Further along, you’ll enter into the convention part of the hotel. I suggest wandering around to look at the murals depicting Nashville around the turn of the 20th century. And feel free to duck your head into the Presidential Lobby–it’s quite pretty.

*A little fine-hotel geekery–while walking down a wide staircase, I noticed that the brown carpet was slightly lighter and darker on alternating steps. This is so you can tell the steps apart, especially while descending. This is a subtle design choice to ensure you don’t wipe out walking down the stairs! 

To the right of the Magnolia inside is a little bit of Magnolia outside. There’s a small swimming pool and some paths, but nothing to compare to the wealth of plant life you can find indoors.

THE DELTA

Now to the big finale. Walk down the hall towards the convention center, but turn right at signs for the Delta. You’ll find yourself at the top of a flight of stairs & escalators, looking down one side of the enormous Delta Atrium. Above your head is a beautiful antique chandelier, prettier than the one at the old entrance, IMO.

Ahead is a large multi-tiered fountain, which is a great photo op. And you’ll find yourself walking next to what used to be the exterior of the original mansion hotel.

DELTA ISLAND

Rounding the corner, the whole of the Delta Atrium will come into view. Dominated by Delta Island, there are not just gazebos and fountains, but buildings and rivers! There’s practically a whole town in the middle of this section of the hotel. When added with the convention space in 1996, the Delta Atrium doubled the size and capacity of the existing hotel.

On Delta Island, you’ll find a burger restaurant with excellent “riverfront” dining and a marketplace with casual-service sandwiches and pizza. There are also several shops and a snack option or two in there.

OLD HICKORY RESTAURANT

Perched above the island on the far side of the atrium is the hotel’s signature restaurant, Old Hickory Steakhouse. I can’t vouch for its food, but it’s an impressive southern gothic building, atop a cliff with waterfalls, so it sure looks impressive! The cozy-looking Library Lounge can be found at the end of the same building. When dining at the Old Hickory, your parking is validated, and it is an easy distance from the main Cascades lobby.

Around the corner from the Library Lounge is another cute bar, a tavern serving American craft beers. Connecting the area is the winding Old Hickory Walkway which is a nice quiet path in and of itself.

ENTERTAINMENT

Boat Ride

During the day, you can take a flat-bottom boat tour of the Delta Atrium. Once the boat fills, you’ll get a guided tour of the plants and history of the Opryland Hotel, including it’s oldest tree–a bonsai near the start of the boat tour. You also get to stop under a banyan tree to make your wish for the future, because apparently, that’s a thing.

It’s a cute little tour, costing adults $10.50 and children 4-11 $8.50 (incl. tax.) The boats operate 11 am-6 pm Sunday-Thursdays and 10 am-8 pm Fridays and Saturdays.

Fountain Show

Free for everyone is the impressive fountain show held every hour between 6-10 pm. There is abundant tiered seating directly around the fountain, and it can be viewed from the burger restaurant riverside seating. A great vantage point is the elevated seating at tables behind the pizza and sandwich cafes on Delta Island. Though from the ground you do get an impressive feel for the height of the water at its peak.

The shows use colored lights in the fountain and sheets of lights hanging from the high atrium roof, and impressive water choreography, for lack of a better term. It’s really cool! Much more entertaining than the boat and it costs you nothing.

EXPERIENCE

The last time I went to the Opryland Hotel, I went in the evening (after dinner somewhere cheaper.) I parked at Opry Mills for free, walked to the front and had a drink and lovely charcuterie board at The Falls bar. The entertainment had ended, so I sat and read for a while as I waited for it to get darker outside.

Then I wandered all around the atriums taking pictures of everything lit up for the evening. It was magical! The last time I was there, I entered through the Delta. And since the Delta connects to everywhere, I kept getting lost. This time I avoided the Delta until the end and felt like the whole place made a lot more sense.

Then when I did finally get to the Delta, the music for the fountain show started right as I entered. Talk about dramatic! It sucked me right in and I sat and watched the entirely fun “International Waters” show. I took more pictures around the area while I waited for the next show, but it never seemed to get started so I left. But it was a completely fun evening! I love wandering around by myself.

So you actually want to stay here?

If you actually would like to stay at the Opryland Hotel and enjoy the use of the pools (new waterpark opening summer 2018!) it’s going to cost you between $150-400 per night. And of course, you want an atrium-view room. Who wants a view of the parking lot at a place like this? All atrium-view rooms have French doors that open fully. You can even pull up a chair to sit at your own minute balcony. Find all the available rates here, along with a handy flexible date option to handily find a cheaper day to stay.

OTHER GAYLORD RESORTS

In 2001, the Opryland Hotel rebranded as the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center (so I guess I should have been saying “resort” instead of “hotel” this entire post.) Gaylord is a division of Ryman Hospitality, which also owns the Grand Ole Opry, General Jackson Showboat, and Ryman Auditorium, among other Nashville attractions. The Gaylord Resorts are operated my Mariott.

Other Gaylord Resorts have been built around the country in the atrium style pioneered by the original Nashville location. Gaylord Palms near Disney World in Florida contains an Everglades, St. Augustine, and Key West atriums. The Gaylord Texan Resort sports a Lone Star atrium with a replica of the Alamo and the San Antonio Riverwalk. Gaylord National in DC has an entire glass wall fronting the National Harbor, with a replica colonial village inside. And opening late 2018, Gaylord Rockies seeks to bring the rugged outdoors inside with a focus on the view. All locations host an Old Hickory Steakhouse plus other dining and shopping opportunities. However, all the other locations are about half the size of the Opryland.

CONCLUSION

So even if I don’t get to stay in luxury hotels that often, there’s no reason I can’t still enjoy them! No one is going to kick you out for sitting in a public lobby. I encourage everyone to look around your own hometown for opportunities to step outside your ordinary day-to-day life. If you can’t take a week’s vacation, or a weekend, or a night, take an evening.