Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Opryland Hotel

Monday, 14th November 2005 by Alex

This is the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Now I think I’ve got this right when I say that the Opryland is the third largest non-casino hotel in the world. Regardless, it’s enormous, with 5 restaurants, 6 eateries, 14 retail stores and 2,881 guest rooms built to accomodate visitors to the world famous Grand Ole Opry, a Saturday night country music radio show, broadcast from the 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House which is located just next door.

In our thumbnail you can see the absolutely enormous, climate-controlled glass atria which cover 9 acres of lush indoor gardens, a rotating restaurant, a 44-foot waterfall, and a 400 metre long river… complete with tour boats. The hotel also has its own golf course, and used to have a themepark too, which was closed in 1997 to make way for a 1.2 million square foot shopping mall, Opry Mills. Take note that it costs $10 to park your car at the hotel, but parking at Opry Mills is free…

General Jackson Showboat

Just to the west of the shopping mall you can also see the General Jackson Showboat, a paddle boat which takes tours of the area. You can see the bright red paddles quite clearly, but feel free to compare with this photo if you’re unconvinced :-)

Finally, for information junkies, here’s some links. The official Gaylord Opryland site, the Wikipedia page about the hotel, the Grand Ole Opry Wikipedia page, a tour of the interior of the Hotel, and an article on the DuPont site about the construction of the atria.

Thanks to David Hanak, Danielle, Kevin and Brandon.

6 Responses to 'Opryland Hotel'

  1. 1. MAW says:

    I stayed at the Opryland for a conference a few years ago. It’s so big I called it the Biosphere.

  2. 2. William Bishjoff says:

    Does Opryland Hotel have wheel chairs or carts for crippled elderly people to get around the hotel. How do you arrange for it?

  3. 3. Erica says:

    Opryland actually is down 2 rooms (2,879) and from what I understand its the largest non casino hotel.

    As for wheelchairs/scooters, yeah, they have them, they are first come first serve, they DO NOT reserve them, if you have one, definately bring it.

  4. 4. Stephanie says:

    Erica is right, it is the LARGEST non-casino hotel in the world.

    :::Waves at Erica:::

    Definately bring your own wheelchair or scooter if you have one…the wheelchair/scooter is first come, first served.

  5. 5. Elizabeth says:

    A complete information about the Opryland Hotel in a minute could not have been provided to you other than this way, anything and everything that you wanted to know about this four starred hotel had already been provided to you through this short but complete review which tells all about this hotel.

    Elizabeth: News Channel
    Voice of USA New York City Hotel Department

  6. 6. vegas pete says:

    Sounds like the sort of place where you should request a room near the elevator!

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