David's World

August 14, 2007

An island in the Tennessee heat: Opryland's biosphere hotel in Nashville

I spent a couple of days in the surreal biosphere called "Gaylord Opryland", a gigantic hotel on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee, which seems to be the largest non-gaming hotel complex in the world. Built in times when energy didn't cost much (and built by Americans!), the Opryland has a number of glass domes spanning the buildings that host almost 3,000 guest rooms. Of course the glasshouses are all cooled down, trees and bushes and everything you'd expect in botanic gardens have been planted. You can spend money on a boat ride on the artificial river around "Delta Island", and of course you'll get everything from first-class steak dinners with excellent wine and cheese to American fast food in the restaurants there.

The whole complex is truly post-apocalyptic. Don't leave the hotel - the nuclear war is raging outside, the sun is burning down (it was!) and there is little to see amidst freeways anyways except the newly moved Grand Ole' Opry (Nashville's big music theater) and a mall. Piggybacking on Nashville's legendary music scene, the hotel creates its own entertainment. No need to leave the complex. Downtown Nashville's music bars are a long cab ride away anyways.

As a Nashvillian who is suffering through the unprecedented heat-wave you experienced while in Nashville, I can agree that the past few days have been ones to avoid outside any building. However, I do want to suggest that when you're next in Nashville you don't limit yourself to the Opryland-osphere. Yes, a cab ride to downtown is expensive, but the hotel has a low-cost shuttle service that will take you down to the city's revitalized downtown. Lots of local color along Lower Broad and Second Avenues. A wonderful art museum, a new state-of-the-art symphony hall, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the legendary Ryman Auditorium are an easy walk from where the shuttle drops you off. Within a year, the Opryland/"Shopryland" complex will be connected into Nashville's "Greenway" system that will allow hotel visitors to stroll along miles and miles along a riverside "linear park." In other words, except during brutal heat or freezing cold -- which we get both, but only in short bursts -- there are plenty of reasons to leave the Opryland Hotel bubble.

Beautifull ,