The Best Places to Stay and Do in Knoxville

The spa at Blackberry Mountain sits at 2,800 feet in the Great Smoky Mountains, which Vogue named one of the 100 best spas in the world, and the elevation does half the work before you even walk in. The 5,200-acre property is deliberately underdeveloped, so treatments unfold against a backdrop of rolling clouds and ridge lines. Come expecting a full mountain-resort spa, not a quick in-and-out.

Sheep actually graze the grounds here, which sets the tone before you've unpacked. The Wellhouse is the multi-floor spa at Blackberry Farm, a sprawling Tennessee mountain property where guests tend to arrive and simply not leave. Hiking, fly-fishing, kayaking, yoga on a tree-line deck, and farm animals to pet fill the hours around treatments. Vogue named it among the 100 best spas in the world, which tracks when the backdrop is 4,200 Smoky Mountain acres.

A boutique hotel on the edge of World's Fair Park, the Tennessean holds a Michelin Key and makes a strong case that Knoxville has fully arrived on the overnight scene. Rooms lean into the luxury side of boutique, comfortable without being anonymous, and the downtown location puts you within easy reach of the city's better restaurants and breweries. The kind of place that makes you wonder why you ever booked a chain.

A boutique hotel on the University of Tennessee's main drag, Graduate Knoxville leans hard into Volunteers territory: the rooms are done in orange and white, and a Peyton Manning partnership means the football nostalgia is baked in, not bolted on. The Graduate chain has made college-town hotels its whole thing, and the Michelin Guide has included this one in its Selected Hotels list. Pack accordingly if you're visiting on a game day.