http://www.RealAdventures.com/vacations/433604_active-adventures-sports.htm Check out some of the recently updated travel & vacation listings on RealAdventures. Be inspired, go explore! en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:54:24 GMT Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:54:24 GMT http://www.RealAdventures.com http://www.RealAdventures.com/vacations/433604_active-adventures-sports.htm 100 100 http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1156617_Harbor-Haven http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1156617_Harbor-Haven Vacation Rentals Tennessee Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:04:10 Harbor Haven is located in a beautiful valley near fishing , boating and antiquing. Calm and secluded it's guaranteed to sooth your nerves . - US $110 Night
Harbor Haven is located in a beautiful valley near fishing , boating and antiquing. Calm and secluded it's guaranteed to sooth your nerves .



Details & Reservations: Harbor Haven
RealAdventures | Tennessee Vacation Rentals

]]> http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1125617_Holiday-Inn-Select-Nashville-Opryland-Airport http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1125617_Holiday-Inn-Select-Nashville-Opryland-Airport Hotels & Resorts Tennessee Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:10:00 Pay tribute to Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. Pull up a stool at a jammin' honkytonk, and watch tomorrow's stars. Come experience your Nashville vacationand tune into a legendary musical heritage, pulsing nightlife, and thriving business district. - US $129 Night
Pay tribute to Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. Pull up a stool at a jammin' honkytonk, and watch tomorrow's stars. Come experience your Nashville vacationand tune into a legendary musical heritage, pulsing nightlife, and thriving business district.


Lose yourself in endless fun and excitement near the Holiday Inn Select Opryland / Airport. Learn how country music went from a regional favorite to a national phenomenon. See the stage where country legends like Loretta Lynn got their big break. Thrill to the smell of burning rubber and the sound of roaring racecar engines. Situated just minutes from downtown Nashville, our elegant Nashville hotel near Opryland is your ticket to local icons such as the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum and Ryman Auditorium former home of the Grand Ole Opry. But Music City USA is more than just tunes. Nicknamed the "Athens of the South," this pulsing metropolis is also a vibrant cultural center. Marvel over groundbreaking exhibits at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. Come to the Cumberland Science Museum, and learn how jets soar.
Details & Reservations: Holiday Inn Select Nashville Opryland Airport
RealAdventures | Tennessee Hotels & Resorts

]]> http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1026026_Nashville-Vacation-Packages-Tours-Grand-Ole-Opry http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1026026_Nashville-Vacation-Packages-Tours-Grand-Ole-Opry Tickets Tennessee Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:10:00 Travel to the country music capital, Nashville, TN and enjoy luxury hotel accommodations and exciting attractions such as the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville Zoo. Vacations Made Easy can assist you with all your Nashville travel needs. - US $59 Person
Travel to the country music capital, Nashville, TN and enjoy luxury hotel accommodations and exciting attractions such as the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville Zoo. Vacations Made Easy can assist you with all your Nashville travel needs.



Details & Reservations: Nashville Vacation Packages, Tours, Grand Ole Opry
RealAdventures | Tennessee Tickets

]]> http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1026028_Gaylord-Opryland-offers-guests-a-unique-vacation http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1026028_Gaylord-Opryland-offers-guests-a-unique-vacation Articles Tennessee Mon, 02 Aug 2004 00:08:00 Gaylord Operyland offers guests a unique vacation with plenty of sights to see, but the highlight of the place is the country music. - US $99 - 995
Gaylord Operyland offers guests a unique vacation with plenty of sights to see, but the highlight of the place is the country music.







Gaylord Opryland offers guests a unique vacation

Enjoy country music at its birthplace

By Arvin Steinberg



I have traveled the world, but I have never seen anything like it.

Imagine entering a lovely hotel lobby with marble floors, elegant colorful carpets, and massive white pillars.


Then, after registering you leave the lobby and step into a huge spectacular tropical garden. A fourstory cascading waterfall is at one side. There are 8,200 tropical ornamental plants here. There is also a revolving lounge and a seafood restaurant. Wherever you walk you are surrounded by an array of brilliant colors and aromas. Six floors of guestrooms with balconies overlook this wonderful tropical garden. The sunlight is bright. At first you think you are outside, but then you see a glass ceiling high above. This astonishing area is the Cascades atrium of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center Nashville.


But this is only the beginning of this amazing resort. There are two other magnificent atriums here. Just step on an escalator, and it will take you to a skywalk above the Garden Conservatory. Here, a massive atrium under a high glass ceiling featuring a collection of 10,000 tropical plants is a feast for your senses. The beauty of the place is astounding. You can go below and explore the waterfalls, fountains, secluded park benches, and winding pathways in the luscious gardens. Although this area is a great getaway from everything (also a perfect setting for a small romantic wedding), there are some excellent restaurants in the midst of all of the gardens. Volares Italian Restaurant serves up some great pizzas and pastas. Guestrooms with balconies also surround this unusually interesting cornucopia of colors.

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The third atrium, know as the Delta, is a spectacular indoor garden with a subtropical feeling. Here there are 370 trees and palms &8211 between 20 and 40feet tall and thousands of smaller plants. Guestroom balconies also surround this atrium and the glassdomed ceiling at one point rises to a height of 15 stories. A huge waterfall flows into an indoor river. You can ride a flat boat on this quartermile Delta River while a guide narrates the journey describing everything from the fish and other marine life in the river to the host of amenities the Delta offers. There is an island in the middle complete with shops, restaurants, meeting rooms, and even a food court. Guests often gather around a fountain of dancing waters that spout up at different heights and seem to be moving in concert with music. It reaches a crescendo when a geyser of water jets skyward 85 feet into the air. And remember, everything is indoors.


Sound fantastic? And these are not small atriums with everything crammed inside. They are immense. A staff of 20 fulltime interior horticulturists maintain these picturesque plants and gardens. The Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center Nashville has 2881 guestrooms. It is the largest nongaming inhotel facility in the world.

Another area of Gaylord Opryland is The Magnolia. Here you can browse in unique shops or enjoy some great restaurants. The restaurants in this area include Rachel's, that features a grand buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Findley's Irish Pub, and Rusty's Sports Bar & Grill. The entire resort is low key and informal. Even at the award winning Old Hickory Steakhouse in the Delta atrium no ties or jackets are required.

The convention center at Gaylord Opryland draws thousands of visitors. There are five grand ballrooms here with some 600,000 square feet of flexible space, and the murals in the lobby of the Tennessee Ballroom are outstanding. I didn't attend a convention, but I loved the &8220Rockwell's America Celebrating the Art of Norman Rockwell&8221 exhibition that was located in the convention center. This is the largest Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post exhibition ever created. It is a unique interactive exhibition where Norman Rockwell's most famous Saturday Evening Post art are brought to life in theatrical settings and with live characters.

The Norman Rockwell exhibit that will run for four months, is just one example of the high quality attractions you will find at Gaylord Opryland. Another is to cruise on the General Jackson Showboat. It is 300 feet long with four decks including a twostory Victorian Theater making it the largest showboat in the world. I took the threehour dinner cruise down the Cumberland River. The Peking Acrobats show far exceeded my expectations. This show that will also run for four months is a worldclass performance of amazing feats of balance, precision and dexterity.

The centerpiece of the Gaylord Opryland entertainment resort is the renowned Grand Ole Opry House. This is a 4,400seat auditorium that you can reach in a few minutes by shuttle bus from the hotel. If you would like a little exercise after dinner, it's only a short walk from the hotel.

The Grand Ole Opry, which originates here, is the longest running live radio show in the world. It began in November 1925. In March 1974 it moved from the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville to its present location.

I went to a Saturday night show, and what a show it was. The house was packed. I heard wellknown performers such as Porter Wagoner, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Steve Wariner, as well as several rising stars, one of whom was Anita Cochran who gave a strong performance.

This is a live radio show, so as each artist finished, he or she was followed
by a commercial, during which those on stage and the audience talked among themselves until the sign came up that we were back on the air.

The show ran for more than three hours. It was the highlight of my visit to Nashville. Although I was never really into country music, that has changed. When I returned to my home in Fort Lauderdale, the first thing I did was purchase a country music CD.

In addition to all of the above, there is still lots more to do and see in Nashville. Probably the best way to do this is to take the Grand Ole Nashville bus tour from the hotel. This is an interesting threehour narrated tour. It takes you to a selfguided tour of the historic Ryman Auditorium, the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, and also to Music Row where most of America's recording studios are located. You can also see the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Parthenon, a fullscale replica of the Parthenon in Athens. The bus tour will also show you the homes of top country stars including Ronnie Milsap, Martina McBride, and Earl Scruggs.

Being a sports nut, I also visited the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame & Museum. It is located in downtown Nashville at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, home of the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators. The exhibits at the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame & Museum cover college and professional sports as well as the Olympics.

Tennessee has a longstanding tradition of accomplishment in the Olympics. There is an impressive exhibit commemorating Wilma Rudolf of Clarksville, Tennessee. This remarkable athlete overcame childhood pneumonia, scarlet fever, and polio requiring leg braces to become a legend in track. She was a triplegold medal winner and set world track records at the Rome Olympics in 1960. Later Wilma Rudolf used her fame to advance civil rights in Tennessee.
















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Details & Reservations: Gaylord Opryland offers guests a unique vacation
RealAdventures | Tennessee Articles

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