We’ve blogged about Chattanooga before, but the city has so much to do that we returned for more fun! As the title of the post suggests, the focus of the trip was animals-we went to the zoo and the aquarium during our weekend trip, but we were also able to check out some other Chattanooga area establishments.

We drove to Chattanooga on Saturday morning, so our first stop after arriving was lunch. We dined at the Brewhaus, which claims to be Chattanooga’s only German-American gastropub. The Brewhaus serves a number of local and regional craft beers along with a nice variety of dishes, which are a mixture of German classics and standard American pub food, sometimes with a German flare. The Brewhaus was a great place to eat lunch, and the craft beers provided the perfect complement to the food. Another great feature of the Brewhaus is its location-right on the bank of the Tennessee River. After we ate, we enjoyed a walk over the pedestrian bridge crossing the river to the other side of Chattanooga.

Our next stop was the Chattanooga Zoo, a delightful way to spend an afternoon. It was a bit chilly out when we went, so we were able to see many of the animals enjoying the cooler weather. The zoo is a modest size, offering plenty of animals, but not so large that the zoo is overwhelming or difficult to see in an afternoon. The zoo is also laid out in a series of three circles, allowing visitors to see the entire zoo without much doubling back or having to wander through the same areas over and over. Some of our highlights were seeing the Red Pandas, the Sand Cats, the Snow Leopards, and the Servals. The Chattanooga Zoo was the perfect way to spend the afternoon, and was great for both children and adults.

We followed up our zoo visit with a stop at DeBarge Winery, which has a tasting room in downtown Chattanooga. The interior of the tasting room was upscale, with a large circular bar around which guests could have tastings. We sampled several of their wines and decided to purchase a white wine afterward, which was interesting since we normally prefer reds. The wine tasting was a nice way to close our day (we have since learned that DeBarge has closed its Chattanooga tasting room, although you can still visit their vineyard).

We opted to spend the night camping at nearby Harrison Bay State Park. Harrison Bay is located about 20 miles north of Chattanooga and resides on a nice lake, which makes for a scenic setting, as well as plenty of fishing and boating opportunities for visitors. Because we were camping in winter, there was only one other person in the campsite, so we virtually had the park to ourselves. It was brisk at night and in the evening, but still fine weather to camp in, and we enjoyed the seclusion that winter camping offered us. We decided to just rest and relax at our campsite rather than do a lot of activities, but Harrison Bay was a great place to spend our night.

The next morning we visited one of Chattanooga’s best-known attractions, the Tennessee Aquarium. Chattanooga’s aquarium consistently wins awards as one of the best aquariums in the country, and it did not disappoint. Unlike other aquariums we have visited that have more flash, the Tennessee Aquarium packs its punch where it matters, the animals in the aquarium. The aquarium is divided into two buildings, the first featuring freshwater exhibits, the second, saltwater. The freshwater exhibit has a number of different ecosystems boasting large numbers of not only fish, but amphibians, mammals, reptiles, and others. The exhibits are made to look like the ecosystems from which the animals come, giving visitors a nice snapshot of what each ecosystem might look like. This gives visitors the opportunity to see plenty of animals, but also to learn where the animals can be found, what different ecosystems are like, and the relationships that exist between the animals and their natural world.

The saltwater exhibits include displays on some of the different creatures in the ocean, but the focus is a large tank with larger fish, sea turtles, and sharks. Visitors are able to walk to different places around the tank, finding new animals or different perspectives of ones already spotted. Tickets to the Tennessee Aquarium are not cheap, but they are worth every penny. The Tennessee Aquarium is certainly in our list of top five attractions in the South.

This adventure to Chattanooga was as pleasant, fun, and rewarding as the last. Chattanooga is one of our favorite destinations in the South, and we recommend visiting and seeing some, or all, of these sites for yourself.