The main reason for our USA trip was to find a venue for our wedding. The first half of the trip is probably not that interesting to many of you as we spent this time visiting wedding venues. 

Day 1

We started our USA trip flying from Heathrow to Atlanta in Georgia. It was a long flight and we arrived in Atlanta around 15:30. The car rental is located away from the main terminal, you need to allow plenty of time as we had to wait for around an hour in line to get a bus to the rental garage. Once on the bus it still took around 30 minutes to arrive at the garage. Luckily enough the process with Alamo (booked through car flexi & Top cash back)

We booked a hotel around 10 miles from the airport, the following day we had an early start so needed a hotel close by. 

We booked the Extended Stay America Select Suites located in Morrow, Atlanta. If I can give some advice, DO NOT stay here. The hotel is terrible. It's run down and it smelt pretty awful, stale and smokey. I wouldn't want to stay here again. 

The only good reasons I  can think of to stay at this hotel is the location. It's a good location for easy access to the freeway and also the All in sports bar & lounge is a short walk away. After traveling all day we was hungry and tired so walked over the road to this place where a live band was playing and they served up some great chicken wings with a nice beer.  

Day 2

We started out  in Cedartown visiting Hightower Falls.

We then headed 30 minutes down the road to  Dallas in Paulding county to view Indigo Falls. It turns out the owners of Indigo Falls were scammers called erik martinez and cristina martinez.  These low life scum was taking money off people knowing the weddings would never take place. 

It was 116 miles to our next hotel in Blairsville so we set out on the journey. 

We'd been driving for around an hour when we saw a bigfoot museum. It's located on 1934 Highway in the Blue Ridge mountains. We decided to stop off for a break and have a look around. It was a great unexpected find and we spend longer than we expected browsing around the museum. Expedition BigFoot: The Sasquatch Museum. 

Our hotel was Best Weston Milton Inn and was a 100% improvement on the previous nights hotel in Atlanta. There was no smell, there was a clean room, the area was nice and the staff were friendly and helpful. The breakfast here was also included and did the job to set us up for the day ahead. 

Day 3

We set out early heading to our first venue Enotah Valley. The venue was lovely and we enjoyed our tour.

The location of Enotah Valley is very close to Vogel State Park so we stopped off for a short time and had a look around, we walked around a very picturesque lake and woodland trail. The park featured a small waterfall called Trahlyta Falls. 

From Vogel State Park we headed to Helton Creek Falls. The road down to the falls was more of a narrow dirt track, it's a good job rented a 4x4 pick up truck. The Helton Falls are a very nice falls although it did involve some hiking to get some good views of the falls and surrounding area.

It would have saved us around an hour and plenty of miles if you could have driven down the same road but down the road there is a river crossing with signs up saying you can not go any further because it is private property and no through road.  We turned around and headed back up the track the way we came.

The next venue was around 50 miles away (Lake Rabun Hotel) in Lakemont. We set out and had plenty of time to kill so along the way we decided to stop off along the way and found Chattahoochee Source Trail it was called Brasstown Bald. We followed the road to the top of the mountain and once we arrived at the top it was extremely quiet with hardly any visitors. Hardly surprising though as the weather was poor and visibility was pretty bad. A low cloud meant we couldn't see very far so we continued onto our hotel. 

Once we arrived at Lake Rabun Hotel we quickly got settled into our room before meeting up with our host and being shown the wedding venue around 10 minutes from the hotel location.

Later in the evening we decided to venture out and find a local bar and restaurant for food. 

The restaurant at Lake Rabun Hotel only opens on certain nights of the week during the off season so we were unlucky and had to find an alternative venue. 

No worries though, 15 minutes up the road in a placed called Clayton we found Coach's Sports Bar and Grille. We wasn't sure about this place to start with, we bypassed the restaurant and headed straight for the bar where we started with some drinks before we got chatting to some locals at the bar and the bar staff. We ordered some food at the bar and had a great night and met some really nice people. 

100% recommend Coach's Bar & Grille. 

Day 4

Another early start as we headed off to Toccoa Falls to see our next venue. Even though we'd arranged for several months before to visit the venue and be given a tour there was nobody available to do this so we were just told to go and explore the venue ourselves. It didn't take long though, a short walk away and there is a great waterfall, Toccoa Falls. As a wedding venue though?

We didn't stay long and headed straight out to our next venue which was 200 miles away in North Carolina. We drove for around before Stopping in Greenville. We spent around 2 hours exploring Falls Park which included Reedy River Falls, Liberty Bridge, Camperdown Mill, Carolina Foothills Garden Club Sanctuary and Vardy Creek. This areas was an unexpected stop but we're glad we did, there was quite a lot to see as we walked through the park. 

We drove for almost 2 hours into North Carolina before we stopped at Crowders Mountain State Park. 

Once at the top of Crowders Mountain State Park we parked up and headed into the visitor center. We were given some advice on different trails we could take varying form 1 mile to 6.2 miles hiking trails. We headed out up the park.  The park was showing signs of fire damage from what looked like a pretty big fire recently. Nature is amazing and walking through the these state parks and enjoying the views from the top is a great way to spend a couple of hours. 

Once we finished our hike we continued our trip as we still had over 100 miles to drive to Winston-Salem, NC to our next hotel. 

Day 5

Our hotel in NC was Best Western Plus Hanes Mall Hotel in Winston-Salem.

It was more than adequate for our needs although parking was a little tight in the truck.

It took around 35 minutes to reach our only destination of the day, Bella Collina Mansion on Belews Lake in Stokesdale. 

Once our venue tour was over we buckled up and settled in as the drive to Gatlinburg, Tennessee took us over 5 hours taking into account stops and some heavy traffic along the way. We stopped several times for some photo's along the way but nothing prepared us for what was waiting for us in Gatlinburg. 

It was quite surreal to come off the mountain roads and arrive in Gatlinburg seeing this place for the first time. It was like something out of a cartoon. Like stepping back in history where time stood still and the streets remained the same. 

That night we had tickets for a wrestling venue in Pigeon Forge but during our drive to Gatlinburg we had the disappointing email saying the night had been cancelled and our tickets were being refunded.

I was more than angry as this part of the trip had been planned for 6 months and the only reason for stopping here was for the wrestling. This was the stop off on route to Nashville. 

However Gatlinburg was a blessing in disguise. 

As the night drew dark and we got tired it was time to head to Pigeon Forge to our hotel. 

The Bella Collina Mansion, NC, was the last venue on our trip so the next few days we purely for us to let our hair down and see more  rather than visit potential wedding venues. 

The short drive from Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge took around 15 minutes. It was dark so it wasn't the easiest to see but even in the dark I can see the dazzling lively town of Pigeon Force buzzing with excitement. It was like arriving in Gatlinburg all over again. Only this time we didn't have any spare time to spend here as our next stop in the morning was Nashville. 

Day 6 - Nashville day 1

We were pretty disappointed to be leaving Pigeon Forge without having had any time to explore. During the daytime we could clearly see just how great this area is and like Gatlinburg we need to come back and visit. 

We set off nice and early. It took just over 4 hours to get to Nashville with stops along the way.  The first thing we did was off load our luggage at the hotel ready for check-in and find a parking space. The hotel staff were extremely friendly and recommended the local library to park our car, a short 10 minutes walk from the hotel but it saved us $50 in parking fees so we was happy to walk. 

We stayed at the Bluegreen Downtown Nashville hotel. A very unusual hotel with very little signage so it wasn't the easiest to find. The location was perfect as it was only a short walk away from all the Honky Tonk action!!

We visited several bars and stopped at the Assembly Food hall in the shopping center to grab a bite to eat and line our stomachs before the alcohol started to flow. 

Day 7 - Nashville day 2

Following the long day of traveling the day before we were refreshed and ready to explore Nashville. We started off heading back downtown to where all the action takes place and from here walked along Broadway towards Centennial Park where we explored the park and enjoyed looking around the The Parthenon. 

From Centennial Park we headed towards the Hospital taking in several of the local landmarks along the way. FirstBank Stadium & Charles Hawkins Field, we walked past the Vanderbilt University and through the grounds of Vanderbilt Hospital. Detoured through Magnolia Lawn towards Music Row. Once we arrived on Music Row we headed back towards downtown. I'm not sure what I expected but the street was very quiet and pretty underwhelming. There were a few buildings with company names on and a few recording studios, the biggest being Sony Music. I think it the RCA studio was closed as it was the weekend as it was very quiet with nobody around. 

It had taken several hours exploring the park walking back and forth and we was ready to relax so we spent the rest of the day chilling out in the bars Downtown Nashville and exploring the riverfront and more of Downtown.

Day 8

Nashville had been a blast, a welcome break letting our hair down and having a drink knowing we didn't have to drive again the next day. It really is party central and the atmosphere in the honky tonk bars can be electric. Theres party buses every few minutes blasting music onboard with drinks flowing. Stag and Hen do's (bachelor and bachelorette parties) Birthday celebrations and everyone having a great time. It comes at a price though as Nashville isn't the cheapest place and easily cost around double the price we paid for a drink in any other bar during our whole trip. Leaving Nashville after just 2 days didn't seem like we had spent enough time here to explore and see more of Nashville. 

Next stop: Memphis. Journey time - 3 Hours

Following some pretty alarming reviews we cancelled our hotel booking in Memphis and found a local AirBnB located in between Crosstown and Evergreen in Memphis.

We needed some food and a beer following that journey, after a brief chat with our host we was given directions on how to get to Downtown Memphis. Boy what a mistake it was walking the 3.3  miles to downtown!

We walked through some pretty run down areas and was stopped multiple times being asked for money. The homeless on the streets were pretty intimidating, we tried to cross over some of the main roads to avoid the groups of people ahead of us but they simple spotted what we was doing and crossed over the road to approach us. This walk should have been a leisurely 3 mile walk and should have taken according to google 85-90 minutes. No leisurely walk for us, we arrived at our bar in just 56 minutes! I'm pretty sure that was one of the best drinks we have both had. 

We stopped off at Bardog Tavern and enjoyed a few beers before heading to Central BBQ, a well recommended BBQ venue that was highly recommended.  We walked up to Beale Street which resembles a mini Nashville. We stopped off at Sullivans to compare the Guinness before heading down to the Ghost River Brewing Co for a final few drinks. 

We was not risking the walk back so we got an uber back to our AirBNB. 

Day 9

After the ordeal of walking in Memphis we got up and headed out to the main attraction of the day. Graceland, Memphis. 

We did a VIP tour of Graceland. You literally have to but tickets months in advance during peak times. 

Get your tickets in advance from Get Your Guide here.

We'll let the pictures in the next gallery and the images in the video below tell a better story of Graceland.

Elvis will always be one of my favorite singers and to visit Graceland and to see the home of the King with everything he had was spectacular. 

When we finished in Graceland we headed to our final destination before departing the USA. We drove through Mississippi to Alabama where we stayed just outside of Birmingham at the SureStay Hotel by Best Western Jasper.

Day 10

The final day we had a 3 hour drive to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. We took a detour into Birmingham, Alabama so we could stop of Hattie B's chicken as the Hattie B's in Nashville had a stupidly long queue (30-40+ minutes) I wasn't prepared to wait in. We waltzed into Hattie B's in Birmingham, we was served in minutes. Sat down and enjoyed the some of the tastiest chicken I've had.