Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

After checking into our room, following our cruise on the General Jackson Showboat, we walked across the street to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. This hotel is the largest non-casino hotel in the continental U.S. with 2881 guestrooms, 200 of them suites. In fact, it is the largest hotel in the U.S. outside of Las Vegas. The room rates were a bit more than we cared to spend. Even the parking is a bit much, $18.00 per day for self-parking and $25.00 per day for valet parking. Our interest was to visit and walk through the 9 acres of tropical gardens, all under glass and steel. And, the admission to do that was in our price range, FREE.

The three gardens, The Conservatory, The Cascades, and The Delta, contain over 10,000 tropical plants. There are numerous small streams, many waterfalls and several fountains. The Delta even has a 1/4 mile long river upon which one can, for a fee, take a guided boat tour.

This is a view of the glass and steel roof in one of the gardens. Being climate controlled the plants are very “happy” and lush. In some of the following photos you will see some of the many flowers that were in bloom.

Connie told me that this was a variety of African violet—much larger plant and blooms than what Connie has at home. There were many different colors of blooms.


I was quite impressed by all of the different types and colors of orchids. Consequently I took several photos of them.






Here is a view of one of the many waterfalls and streams throughout the gardens.





It maybe difficult for you to see, but Connie is standing directly behind this waterfall. It was rather “neat” to be able to walk behind and be able to see through a waterfall.




We enjoyed the many fish in the streams, most being Koi or goldfish, as I call them. Over time there has been a lot of coins thrown into the streams, as can be seen here.

We spent 2-3 hours walking through the 9 acres of gardens, taking pictures and enjoying the many plants. Our only complaint was that there were no signs or labels to tell us what they were. Some we knew but many left us wondering. We would recommend anyone visiting Nashville to visit the gardens at the Opryland Hotel (or resort as it is now known.)