WILD Hotel Stays: Sleeping on a Yacht, in a Treehouse, a Train, or a Bubble in the Forest?!

This week on Pack the Kids, we’re talking all about unique places to stay when traveling with kids—because sometimes the hotel is part of the adventure.

From glamping in a luxury dome in the Blue Ridge Mountains to staying in a converted train station hotel in Chattanooga, we’re sharing our real experiences with creative, family-friendly accommodations across the U.S.

In this episode, we cover:

•  What is glamping?! And how is it different to traditional camping
•  Staying in a dome with mountain views, trails, and a tree net playground
•  Sleeping in a train hotel with vintage railcars and a walkable entertainment area
•  Why unique stays aren't always more expensive
•  Future stays we’re planning (including a yacht, treehouse, and even a grain silo 👀) 

We also play a round of Truth or Trash featuring some of the wildest places you can stay around the world—including a giant potato and a giraffe hotel.

If you’re looking for family travel ideas in Georgia, Chattanooga, or unique stays in the U.S., this episode will give you inspiration to think beyond the typical hotel.

📍 Places Mentioned (With Links)

🌄 Blue Ridge Mountains, Georgia

• Glamp Blue Ridge
  https://www.glampblueridge.com/
• we stayed at the "Terracotta Dome" 
  
   (Luxury dome glamping experience with trails, fire pits, and mountain views) 

🚂 Chattanooga, Tennessee

• The Hotel Chalet at The Choo Choo
  
  (Boutique hotel in a historic train station with restored train car stays) 

🚐 Previous Trip Mention

•  Camper van stay (Yellowstone trip – referenced in earlier episode)

Follow Us on Instagram! @MarnellFamilyRoadshow

Watch us on You Tube @PackTheKidsPodcast

Email us! packthekidspodcast@gmail.com

We want to hear about your adventures too and will choose a few to shout out on the show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Pack the Kids, an adventure podcast for kids and adults, by kids and adults. I'm Sarah, and these are my two travel buddies, Otis and Nash. Each week we will talk about the real stuff that happens when you explore the world with your family. From early wakeups to planning mishaps to stories that you'll be telling forever. So grab a snack, find your seat, and let's pack the kids.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Okay, we are back again. We are back.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Huge news. We are on video. Whoa!

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Maybe we should introduce ourselves. My name is Nash. And it's nice to meet you. I hope it's nice to meet meet you. My name is Otis. I'm s I don't know. I'm eight years old. And it's nice to see you.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

And it's nice to meet you, and it's nice to meet us. And I'm Sarah the Mom. And this is our podcast. Thank you for joining. Since this is the first time you're seeing us on YouTube, we have started a YouTube channel called Pack the Kids. And we would love for you to join us. And that way you can see us and say hi and leave comments and do all the fun things, right? So housekeeping, like we always do, this is where we're going to do our podcast. This is our podcast studio, but it is still a little work in progress. So if you pardon our dust, um, but we, you know what? We just wanted to start because you don't have to be perfect to start. And um, we do have some new friends to say hi to from Los Angeles and Nashville. Isn't that exciting? Nashville. Nashville! Nashville now. He's saying that because we went, we've been to Nashville, but we have not been to Los Angeles and it's on our list, right? Is it? Yes. LA is on our list, yeah. My friend lives there. Oh. Yeah. So on this week's episode, we are going to talk about fun places to stay, unique places to stay that aren't necessarily a regular hotel, which there's nothing wrong with regular hotels. Not there's nothing. No. But sometimes we get opportunities to stay somewhere really creative. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Woo! So, do you think we should start with the most recent crazy hotel experience that we did? We stayed in a couple of unique places this last spring break trip that we went to. We went to Atlanta, Chattanooga, and the Blue Ridge Mountains, and we went glamping. Oh, wait. Do you know what glamping means? What's that word?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Um, um, like glamping, hiking and camping.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yes, it's it's two words combined. One word is camping. Do you remember what the other one was? Sleeping. Um wait, stay wait, um camping.

unknown 2:38

Glamorous.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Glamorous camping. Glamorous camping. So if you've been camping in a tent or perhaps a camper, this is not this. What's glamorous camping? Glamorous camping is when you're essentially you're close to nature because you're in nature, but you have all of your, not all of your amenities, but you have nice amenities like indoor bathrooms and pretty fancy beds to sleep in. And in our case, we were in a globe dome yurt thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

And and and me and Natha's bag was like a it was a bean bag that turned into a like a mattress, kinda.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

It was wild. It you had to unzip it was a big old beanbag chair, and you unzipped it, and then it just came out into a mattress thing. It was a queen mattress.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

I know this is weird to ask, but the toilet was so cool.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Apparently, when you're glamorous camping, when you're glamping, you get the toilets that squirt water on your bottom. They're called a bidet. And this is the first time And it also tries your bot. It's the first time that some of us have experienced this. So, I mean, if that wasn't glamorous camping, I don't know what was. Do you know any campsites with bidets?

unknown 3:55

No.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Oh, and then you can also warm up the seat.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

You can warm up the seat. It was amazing. So, glamorous camping. We stayed at Glamp Blue Ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia. And it is, it looks like a snow globe, but it doesn't really snow there. So it looks like a snow globe and the view, do you remember what the view looks like?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Oh my god, yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

But the waterfall was actually kind of like there was a waterfall casually outside. Nash, what did you like about so we've been regular camping? What is the biggest difference between regular camping and glamping?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Okay, yeah, so regular camping, yes, which is like tent or for us mostly tent.

unknown 4:37

Tent trailer.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

We don't have a camper, but yes. Yeah, tent, trailer, camper, whatever you want to call it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's like normal camping.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Where do you sleep?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

And you also like play tag with your friends at night, which is actually really fun.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

It's a good tip.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

You sleep in a you sleep on a mattress in a cold, cold tent. Are we calling that a mattress?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

It's like a camping pad. A sleeping bag. Yeah. I wouldn't it's not a mattress per se. We we give them a pad, it's like this big, about about a half an inch or an inch, and then a sleeping bag, which is toasty. And it's usually yeah, it's usually cold when we go camping. So that's camping, and then if it rains, what happens to your tent?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Your tent gets so um. Do you get wet when you're glamorous camping? No, it's like a giant white dome with a giant view and giant curtains that cover the view, and they're very fancy. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

And there's a kitchen. That's a big difference between camping and glamping.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

There's a literal kitchen. And there's a very fancy and comfortable bed. And you also get a bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Oh, just what else is the difference between camping and claiming?

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So, uh, why because it makes us feel like we're at home. Also, and also it was also like a playground kind of area. Man. It was like a it was like a literal tree house. A literal tree house.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

But what was it made of? It wasn't made of wood like a tree house like like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

It wasn't made of it was made out of like rope.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

It was stretchy, springy, it wasn't cord. And and it was actually like it was like a trampoline. I could do a flip if it wasn't so ho. What did they call that? A tree net?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Okay, I can't remember. If I remember, I'll link it in the comments um down below. It is in the description of the comments. Yeah, it's um, it's like a tree net, and what was so wonderful about it, I will let you guys know which dome we stayed in. We stayed in the terracotta dome at Glant Blue Ridge. And Nick the Dad and me could just look over the deck and we saw the kids playing in this tree net and the and the fire pit area and the hammocks.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

My friend is hearing this, Milo. There was also a dome named Milo. There was? Yes, there was a dome named M I L O.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Well, that's cute. He's famous. You know what else was great about that that dome, too? The reason one of the big reasons why we booked that one is because you could just walk a short distance and there were trails upon trails upon trails that you could just you didn't have to drive, you could just start walking. How many miles did we walk? Do you remember? I think three. Three miles, and was it flat?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Whoops.

unknown 7:30

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

When they say moderate, they mean moderate. Oh, and we also had it walking uphill, uphill, uphill, uphill, uphill, uphill.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Downhill, and then just flat.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

A lot of uphill. Before we got to the dome, we did stay in a log cabin, which was in which was a cool experience, right? It was a cabin made of logs. It's always kind of a cozy vibe. They have hot tubs usually there and great woodsy views. So log cabin's a yes on our list if we ever get the chance to stay in.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Yeah. Yeah. I'll uh wait, can we look at that? Would you ever stay in a dome again? But the only downside about that log cabin, I hate to say whoever owns it, I the bed was very good. Was very uncomfortable. And it was broken. It was broken. Yeah. We didn't love that. Now, at least the good part about it is that the town was nice.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

The town was so cute. Blue Ridge is so cute. So definitely go to Blue Ridge and glamp if you want to. Um, adult tip, stay during the week if you can. The rates were higher on the weekends, and I'm frugal because we travel a lot. So, hot tip, dome during the weekdays for the cheaper rates. Okay, now the second place that was really unique that we stayed at was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga and Nash, what was that like? What kind of place was that?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Okay. So that hotel was very, very cool.

unknown 9:03

That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

It was a hotel that was in an old train station. There we go. There was also a literal train hotel where you can stay inside of a train. Mm-hmm. I did only two people. I didn't expect it, but there were actually a lot of kids there.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

There were a lot of kids there. Maybe because it was spring break. Also, they were running a really good special. Again, adult tips. Get in there, it's called the um Hotel Chalet. Get on their mailing list, such great specials. Um, so many kids there. Wasn't it wasn't chaos, it was actually really nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

And also the reason why they built that hotel is because it was like a broken train station, so it was all scary. Like real scary. Did you see pictures of it?

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Vintage pictures of that place?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah. They had them hanging on the walls, right? And then they by the way, there was like a little area that they built. Wasn't it called like Choo Choo Chaida? Yes. And it was like a whole area with like food to eat and like it was like a whole place. And there's also a pool if you want to go swimming, because it usually gets really hot in doing go.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

And it was also heated too, which I didn't expect. They heated it in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Oh, um, and also at night. And also at night, the views are very nice. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

So, as Nash said, this train hotel was called the Hotel Chalet. Really beautiful design, which I love. I really care about the design of hotels and the amenities. The hotel itself was the train station, and then there are trains parked in the train yard outside that you can also rent. And I think you could rent the whole thing for like a wedding or something. It would be so beautiful. But like Nash said, there's a pool. Um, the vintage train cars are a huge plus. There's a restaurant, which we talked about last episode called Elsie's Daughter on the property, and then it's a very short walk, hop, skip, and a jump to food, things to do. Even outside the train station, there are restaurants and bars and comedy we saw. So it's like it's a really good area to stay in if you want somewhere in Chattanooga that you don't necessarily need to go far to have fun, right? Yeah. And it had a coffee, little coffee bar inside that served Nash's favorite food.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

And a cinnamon roll.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

And a cinnamon roll. And cookies. And most importantly, coffee. So less important for actually, we have something coming up that's a little wild. Nash and I are going to London. Nash, where are we going? To London. We're not going to London. But and beyond. So where where are we going? We're going uh taking our first international trip. Is it our first? Besides Canada. Yeah, besides Canada. Taking our first international trip, and why are we doing that?

SPEAKER_01 11:57

We are going here to walk.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yay! Nash and I are going flying to London to then take a train to the Cotswolds to walk the Cotswolds Way, which is a 100-mile walk through ancient towns and villages and farms and who knows what else, because we've never been there. We are going to walk most of it. Time prohibits us from walking the entire thing, but we're still gonna walk about 70 miles.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah, and we're gonna stay in a hotel there.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

We're staying in many hotels there, so we'll talk about that. But when we go back to London, if we're talking about unique places to stay, we are going to stay on a yacht.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

You weren't supposed to mention that.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Do we know what a yacht is? So Otis just found out. But that's okay. Otis is going to St. Notre Treehouse, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah, it's like a really fancy boat.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

A really fancy boat. That's kind of like a floating hotel. But it's a but it's a boat. Yeah, a book.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

A floating hotel. Can you imagine? Uh, what a good day for Snap. Bom bum bum.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

So we will definitely report back on that one when we go next month. So, another upcoming save that we have that's going to be very creative is where Otis and Nick the Dad are going. Where are you going to stay?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Um, when they're uh going to where were you going? We're going to London. London. And they're not packing me.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Do you want to walk a hundred miles?

SPEAKER_01 13:38

No, but they're not packing me.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

The hesitation answered the question, did it not? So, but I'm super jealous of your tree house. What kind of treehouse is it?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

So it's it's yeah, it's like it's housey. And it's not like an it's not like a tree, it's like an actual tree house.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

It's like an actual tree house. Wow. Are you gonna be like glamping in a tree? That sounds fun.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

It does sound fun. So we're big fans of staying in places that are still in nature. So uh a yacht that's on water, a house that's on a tree, and train in a station's not nature, but a dome that is in nature. So we're gonna check all that out. Okay, so another creative place that you can stay if you're not hotel people. We've mentioned this before. We have a whole podcast on our road trip podcast in the be way in the beginning when we started, but we slept in a camper. We slept in an RV. It wasn't even a camper, it was a van. Yeah, and that was for It was a camper van.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

And that was mentioned in our first episode.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

So It was the Yellowstone episode. So go back and listen to our Yellowstone episode, but we stayed in a camper van for almost two weeks. So how does that differ from glamping and from regular camping?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Better. That's different.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

It's different. How would you rate them, do you think, Otis?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

They're kind of close actually.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Oh, yeah. It's not yeah. Like regular camping, tent camping and a camper van. That's pretty close, right? What was so cool about the camper van?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Me and I stuck to sleep like literally in the room. Yes! Okay, mom, stop, stop giving me mamma. I wanna go in the camper van.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

It was fun, right? So the camper van had a pop-up tent that we pushed up and packed down every time we moved it, obviously, or else bad things would happen. So yeah, the camper van was fun. I'm happy to hear that you'd want to do it again. And it and they had a bathroom in there as well, which was nice, and a baby kitchen. So it's not super different from glamping, but definitely different enough.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

A lot more claustrophobic. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Mostly this year have stayed in some pretty cool places, so there are definitely some alternatives to hotels that are still affordable. Um, and then we have a lot more coming up. So we'll keep you posted on the yacht, on the tree house, and when we go to Denver, which is later this summer, we are looking at a grain mill. Do you know what a grain mill is? No.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

We're going to Denver?

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Yeah, you didn't know that? Yeah, you did. For a concert? We're going to Red Rocks? Yeah, Colorado. Colorado, yeah. Colorado. We might say in a grain mill, which is where you mill grain.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Wait, wait, like we're gonna stay like in the mill?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yes, we won't get grinded. Ground?

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Oh, I thought we were gonna stay in the areas where they grind all the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

In the mill.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Oh, in the silo?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Silo. That's the word I was looking for.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, we're gonna stay in the silo.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Anyway, we will keep you posted on our super fun, interesting stays, and if you just get a little creative, you can find some pretty cool stuff, right? Yep. Yep. Yep. So whoa, guess what time it is? Truth and trash! Time for truth or trash. Okay, it's time for truth or trash. I'm going to give you three trivia questions, and you have to decide if I'm telling the truth or if I'm talking trash. Are you ready? Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Now it is time for truth or trash.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

I have three truth or trash here, and they are about fun, interesting, unique places to stay. Okay, so you can tell me if they are true or if I'm talking trash. One, truth or trash. You can stay overnight in a giant potato in Idaho. True. True? What do you think, Nish?

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Trash. That's not a home.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

It's true, it's true. There's a real Airbnb called the Idaho Potato Hotel. It's a massive potato-shaped structure turned into a tiny home.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Would you do it?

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Thumbs up, one, two, three, a thumbs down. One, oh, you gotta wait! One, two, three. Big potato fans over here. Good job. Number two. There's a hotel where you sleep inside a clear bubble in the middle of the forest. Truth.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Well, if you're counting the dome, yes. True.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Truth or trash, we've already done this.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

True. Yes!

SPEAKER_00 18:07

It's like a clear bubble in the middle of the forest. That was an easy one. I didn't really challenge y'all, but it is clipping in a clear bubble in the forest.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Nice. Knuckles.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Truth or trash number three. You can book a stay on a spaceship hotel that actually flies into space. Trash.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

I'm gonna s okay, mom's look. Okay, so you can stay. You can actually be flying. So you can stay overnight in a rocket ship.

unknown 18:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

I'm gonna say it's true.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Ooh, okay. It's trash. I'm sorry. Space tourism exists, but there are no Airbnb style overnight space hotels yet. And definitely not something you can casually book. Do you want a bonus one? Yes. Truth or trash. There's a hotel where giraffes can stick their heads through a window while you eat breakfast. Truth.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

That's actually kind of cool if it's true.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

What do you think, Nash? Okay. That's trash. True! Giraffe Manor in Kenya is famous for this exact experience. Breakfast with giraffes. Can we do it, Mom? This is on a bucket list. It's like in Africa.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

So back to the bucket list episode. If you haven't heard it in here now, this is on a bucket.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

This is on my real bucket list. You heard it here first. Otis just added breakfast with giraffes to his bucket list. Now it is time for the Otis show. Otis, would you kindly give us a would you rather, please?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Would you rather stay overnight in a trash can or in a green lake week? Okay. That has moss and dead fish.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Ew. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Overnight. Okay, so and no boat.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Oh. Ew. Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 20:06

We're like in the Yes, in.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

A both of those.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

You can you can choose if you had. I can stay over and I in a trash can. But your clothes in the middle. And do you like the s would you like the smell? True.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

I think I would prefer the smell of fish over the smell of nope, nope trash. I think mmm, I think.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Yeah, the pig.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

I think trash can, but I hate every minute of this.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

I'm gonna I'm gonna go in um trash can.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Trash can. Alright, let's get three trash cans. Go to bed.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 20:40

No high fives.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

I missed you.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Zero high fives. I missed you. Okay, parents. Okay, kids. Don't forget we have started our YouTube channel. It is called Pack the Kids, and we will link it down below in the comments. Everywhere we go, we always link down below in the comments so that you can book trips. If you and if you are going on a trip, don't forget to pack the kids. So bam! Thanks for packing the kids and coming along. If you had fun, kindly leave us a review, send us an email, or just tell a friend. We'll be back with more places, more laughs, and probably more discussions about food. Am I right?

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah. Yeah, a lot more.