Cities generally aren’t known for being camper friendly, but Nashville is the exception:
We spent a week hanging out at the Nashville Jellystone near Opryland, just a quick fifteen minute drive away from downtown Nashville.
While the campground is directly off a major highway for easy access, you don’t have to worry about road noise or feeling like you’re in the heart of the city at this campground.
This quiet campground is minutes away from local attractions like the Opry Mills Mall, Grand Ole Opry, and the Nashville Zoo.
But the best part of Jellystone campgrounds—in my opinion—is that you don’t have to leave the park to have a good time. In addition to holding weekly and sometimes even daily events, every park has a few awesome amenities to keep you and your family entertained. (It is worth noting that this Jellystone has a HUGE pool that was unfortunately closed for the season during our visit. Womp womp.) If you are camping in Nashville, TN, Jellystone Park is a must-visit.
Hot Rod Ice Cream Shoppe
Plenty of campgrounds have on site stores, but this one offers an onsite restaurant. They offer the classics like pizza and chicken wings, but if you’re anything like my husband, you’ll come to the Hot Rod Ice Cream Shoppe looking for a waffle cone.
I of course had to order a sundae with the “Whole Pic-a-nic Basket” flavor of ice cream: vanilla with M&M’s, Snickers, Three Musketeers, and a ton of other candy mixed in. Basically a dream come true.
The ice cream parlor is decked out in 1950s style complete with music from the time period and hilarious signs that explain the jargon of the time.
Located directly above the registration office, it’s a convenient and delicious place to reward yourself with a sweet treat after a long day.
Nature Trail
We timed our visit perfectly with the arrival of spring weather, which meant we watched the bare trees fill out with bright green leaves.
Heath and I like to take morning walks through campgrounds and we really lucked out finding this short trail through the trees at the back of this Jellystone.
We love going on hikes, but I’m a fairly high-maintenance camper (or glamper, really). I’m always on the prowl for an RV park with a pool and good wi-fi, so we finding a campground with lots of amenities that still gives you a good dose of nature was a treat.
Putt-Putt
Let it be known that despite the lack of video evidence, I totally hit a hole in one on this course! It was hole 4 and I was amazing. (Also triple bogeyed on hole 9 so don’t expect to see me at the Masters any time soon.)
It’s free to play this little nine hole course and you can borrow balls and putters from the office.
Playground
You don’t see child-less adults on playgrounds often, but I’m a sucker for a good swing.
As far as RV parks go, I think I’ve only ever seen one other campground with a playground. This one is certainly the biggest one I’ve seen complete with slides, swings, and monkey bars.
Giant Inflatables, Hay Rides, & Gem Mining
We experienced a few April showers during our visit, so we missed out on a few of the activities you can typically expect during a visit to Jellystone like hay rides and gem mining.
Not thinking after a night of rain, Heath and I saw an obstacle course inflatable and decided it would be really run to race. We set up the camera, counted down, sprinted to the top…and it was SOAKED.
A puddle of water awaited us at the top, and at the bottom of the slide a small pond had formed. If we weren’t fully clothed, it easily would’ve been one of the world’s funnest slip-n-slides. But instead our clothes were saturated and then we noticed the caution sign urging us to not play on the wet inflatables ?
Whoops!
We had a really awesome week hanging out here . Nashville is one of our favorite stops in our travels and we’ll be back at this park soon.
Heath and his wife Alyssa are filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and full-time RVers. From 2014-15 they traveled to all 50 states filming a documentary called Hourly America — a film about meaning in work as Heath worked a job in every state. Heath is also the cofounder of CampgroundBooking.com and podcast host of The RV Entrepreneur podcast, a top ranked travel podcast. You can read more about them on their RVing blog at HeathandAlyssa.com.
