Our Tiny House Hotel Vacation Experience

A few years ago, Country Living Magazine featured a Tiny House Hotel in Chattanooga, TN. I tore out the page for one of those “one day we will try this experience,” never thinking we would make the trip anytime soon. Not long after that, my husband surprised me with an early Mother’s Day trip, and we got to stay at this same Tiny House Hotel.

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated by the hotel for writing this review or being contacted by them in any way.  I am writing this post to share some of our adventures and the fun we had staying in a tiny house.

Being an interior designer, I am interested in all things design-related in some form or fashion.  The tiny house trend is no exception.  I never plan to live in less than 400 square feet of space.  But would I love to build one – yes!  I want to enjoy the challenge of putting all of the small puzzle pieces of a tiny home together and making it function well.

Geeky thing to do, I know.

My husband surprised me with this trip, and we booked our stay at Live A Little Tiny Hotel outside of Chattanooga, across the Georgia border in Rising Fawn. We chose the smallest of the cottages, not because we wanted to try that one out, but because it was the only one available for two nights in a row that we also had the time off.

The Wandering Gypsy cottage was a whooping 168 square feet!

And it was so charming and efficient.

This small cottage was built from as many recycled materials as possible to save money. They also travel with it to trade shows to showcase what can be built in a small space.

The Wandering Gypsy was full of rustic charm and quirky fixtures.  Like the galvanized bucket as the sink and a wine barrel for the shower.

These quarters were tight!  The ceiling of the loft was barely 2 feet above your head.

The next few pictures show what it is like to fit a 6-foot-4-inch man like my husband in this tiny house!

I am sharing these images with his permission, of course. Even though it was a cramped space for him, my husband loved every minute of staying in this house and wants to build one like it someday, with some modifications, of course!

Adjusting to sleeping in a loft was our biggest challenge.

The loft was very uncomfortable for me the first night.   The loft was hot!   I am a bit claustrophobic, and sleeping with my head at the back of the loft made me feel like I couldn’t breathe.  During the night, I decided to crawl out of bed and go downstairs.  But once I turned around and was back at the opening to the loft and stairs, I realized that the air was cooler and I didn’t feel so closed in.  I decided to sleep backwards in bed instead.  My husband woke up the next morning and asked why he was looking at my feet. I told him he needed to try it the next night to experience the difference.

The next night, he agreed that he slept better facing towards the opening, where the air was circulating and open. Thus, we both learned a lesson about sleeping in a loft.

The Old Blue Chair cottage and the Shangri-Little cottage.

The views were spectacular!  We were just a few miles from the famous Rock City and Lookout Mountain.  You could see three states where our tiny house sat – Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.

While there, we decided to visit Rock City and Ruby Falls and ride the Duck Boats in Chattanooga. We also visited the Moon Pie store. I had no idea that Moon Pies were made in Chattanooga. We had a good time doing the tourist thing for a few days.

Back to the tiny house experience, though.  It was small, and I would not include some things in my build.  That said, though, we are already talking about returning to stay in one of the “bigger” tiny houses on the property.  Or maybe even the hobbit-style house they are building soon.  Staying in a small house hotel was a fun and quirky adventure, and I’m so glad we decided to experience a new kind of vacation.

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