This might sound strange, but I love road trips. I love preparing for road trips and making playlists of music to listen to, finding a good book to listen to on Audible, or podcasts that will make me laugh. Road trips are for snacking, guilt-free, and watching the scenery change through each state line. My boyfriend and I have only taken trips less than five hours of drive time, but for my graduation, I wanted to celebrate with a real trip that would be unforgettable.
The best part about driving out of Florida is experiencing flat land turn into hills, and then turn into mountains. We can be called lucky for having miles of beaches on either coast of our peninsula, and enough theme parks to keep us busy and interested every weekend. After two decades of growing up here, though, the appeal of mountains and freshwater rivers grows.
I chose Chattanooga as our destination because of its leniency in location. Only an eight-hour drive away from my home in Orlando, two hours away from Atlanta, and less than two hours away from Nashville, I started to research hotels in the area. One thing led to the next in my rabbit hole of internet searches, and I came across Treetop Hideaways, a "hotel" with only two treehouse cabins at the base of Lookout Mountain. They are expensive. You may roll your eyes at me at the price of just a one night stay, but in my eyes—splitting the cost with my partner meant the both of us only had to put fifty dollars away every month for three months. That's doable. For an amazing experience, waking up to the sunrise behind the mountains we could see through our window, the seclusion and uniqueness of the cabin, that is definitely doable.
We booked the Luna Loft in early October to stay on December 10th. If you're thinking about looking into Treetop Hideaways, you definitely need to plan months ahead of time, because they get booked quickly. Our treehouse had a vintage, velvet loveseat, covered in fluffy pillows, and sat underneath foliage art. The walls were completely wood, adding to the rustic charm. To get to the queen bed, there was a steep staircase that climbs alongside floor to ceiling windows. We even had a small porch with stools—perfect for drinking coffee while watching the sun set behind the mountains. If it wasn't wet outside when we arrived, we could have made a fire right behind our cabin with complimentary wood, coal, and matches. They even left us supplies to make smores, alongside coffee, hot chocolate, and a bottle of Chardonnay.
The Luna Loft Mia Reid
We arrived shortly after check-in time, 3 p.m., leaving us plenty of time to walk around the grounds outside our cabin. There was a stream and miniature waterfalls that could be heard in the distance, and plenty of rocks to climb on. Since we were pretty beat from the long drive, we were fine with grabbing dinner at sundown and watching movies cuddled up in our treehouse loft. If we paid close to $300 for it, we were going to enjoy it fully.
The next morning, we woke early to get breakfast at First Watch and head to Cloudland Canyon State Park, only a thirty-minute drive from Chattanooga. We came to find out that the park also has rental cabins, with miles of trails to cliffs and waterfall scenery. Guests can hike, bike, kayak, and take cave tours during certain months. Neither of us had ever seen a waterfall, and we opted to follow the Waterfall trail that leads to Cherokee Falls and Hemlock Falls. Be prepared for hundreds of stairs and slippery paths. I checked our steps on my phone at the end of the afternoon, and we walked over four miles and the equivalent to fifty floors. Before leaving, we wanted to check out one more lookout area on the West Rim trail, so we drove to another parking lot indicated on the map and walked the (much easier) trail to the edge of the mountain.
Cloudland CanyonMia Reid
After our excursion, we were exhausted, and by then we could check into our Airbnb back in Chattanooga. After a nap and dinner, I forced my partner into seeing Rock City's Enchanted Garden of Lights. He had heard from friends that Rock City was a tourist trap, and he wasn't convinced that seeing a bunch of holiday lights could be so entertaining. It definitely is a tourist trap, costing twenty-two dollars per ticket, but I thoroughly enjoyed it (he did too, although begrudgingly). We could see the entirety of Chattanooga from the top of the mountain Rock City sits on. And Lover's Leap waterfall was viewable even in the dark. If you have kids, the light-show is a huge bonus, with plenty of photo-ops with Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Before heading home, we stopped at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta for one last adventure to see whale sharks and penguins.
Although we didn't have enough time in our short three-day trip to see Ruby Falls or visit other mountains, we had the best trip that was memorable and fun.
