If you love the outdoors, then you’ll fall in love with this place. Settled 20 minutes outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park sits Under Canvas.
Under Canvas is a company that is all about reconnecting with nature and preserving the earth’s natural resources. With little to no internet connection, you have no choice but to embrace to outdoors. They have multiple campsites across the U.S. at different natural parks— so there may be one near you.
The campsite is full of luxury tents to give you the ultimate glamping (glamorous camping) experience. The site offers three different tent options:
Safari- ($) Sleeps two people and you have to use the communal bathroom.
Duluxe- ($$) Sleeps two people, private bathroom, and a private deck.
Star Gazer- ($$$) Sleeps two people, private bathroom, private deck, and sky viewing window above bed.
Suite- ($$$$) Sleeps four people and has a bedroom wing inside the tent.
We chose the Safari tent because it was the most affordable and had everything we needed. Inside the tent you are greeted with a large king bed, two bedside tables, two fans, a wood fire stove, and two chairs in the corner. The tents do not lock but they have two layers of zippers to keep bugs out.
When you need to wash up, there are communal bathrooms, showers, with complimentary towels, organic soap, and shampoo.
After a long day of hiking, there is a restaurant waiting for you in the middle of the camp. They have complimentary water, hot chocolate, and tea available all day and a small variety of delicious and healthy options (I highly recommend the chicken bowl). On the weekends, they have live music at night that you can enjoy while you eat your dinner.
Under Canvas Great Smoky Mountains really encourages you to connect with other campers and this is the reason why most of their activities are set up communal style. On the campsite you have the option to play cornhole, volleyball (unfortunately this has been taken away do to COVID), and sit around the campfire to make complimentary s’mores.
One night, while making s’mores, we had a great conversation with a couple from Wisconsin (while keeping our distance of course). We exchanged our favorite travel stories and they told us they were doing a road trip throughout the East Coast of the USA. How cool is that?
Tip: The humidity is very (extremely) bad here since there are so many streams around. For my natural curly-haired girls, your curls won’t last more than a few hours before they frizz up. I suggest wearing them in a protective style or keeping them in a bun until you are ready to take pictures.
Since the internet connection is pretty much non-existent, the camp staff are super helpful with giving you directions and letting you know what to do around the area.
I recommend staying here for two nights if you can, but you will still get the full experience with one day.
Tip: Download Google Maps offline that way you won’t take a million wrong turns trying to leave the campsite like we did (not a proud moment lol).
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