Places to stay near attractions in Chattanooga

Chattanooga, Tennessee sits in a broad bend of the Tennessee River at the point where the Cumberland Plateau and the Blue Ridge Mountains meet — hence its nickname, the Scenic City. Once known as the most polluted city in America in the late 1960s, Chattanooga's downtown-riverfront revival is now one of the most-studied urban comebacks in the country, anchored by the Tennessee Aquarium (the largest freshwater aquarium in the world), the Hunter Museum of American Art perched above the river, and the pedestrian Walnut Street Bridge.

Lookout Mountain rises 2,000 feet above the south side of downtown and holds three of the city's most famous attractions: Rock City Gardens, Ruby Falls (the tallest and deepest underground waterfall open to the public in the U.S.), and the Incline Railway. Point Park and the Battles for Chattanooga Museum interpret the pivotal 1863 Civil War campaign that opened the Deep South to Union forces.

Outdoor Chattanooga is nationally ranked for climbing (Tennessee Wall, Sunset Rock, Foster Falls), mountain biking (Raccoon Mountain, Enterprise South), paddling (Hiwassee, Ocoee, Tennessee River), and hang gliding at Lookout Mountain Flight Park. The city pairs naturally with Cloudland Canyon in Georgia and the Ocoee River an hour east.