Under Canvas Experience & Review!
Ever heard of Under Canvas? Check out my review of them here and see it for yourselves in one of the 9 National Parks they're in!
Ever heard of Under Canvas? Check out my review of them here and see it for yourselves in one of the 9 National Parks they're in!
Under Canvas was a whole new experience for Joe and I! We've done both tent camping and cabin camping before, but this was an interesting hybrid! Let me explain.
Each of their camps (I'll get to locations at the end) has different types of tents you can choose from. The main difference between them being the option of having your own toilet & shower INSIDE the tent, or, using a shared bathhouse and having just a bed in your tent. Since this was technically our honeymoon, we opted for one of the tents with the private toilet and shower (good choice, I'll say).
The tents were each a decent size, and inside it included a bed, 2 nightstands, 2 chairs in a small seating area near the wood burning stove, a chest / storage compartment, and a coat rack. Then on the other side was simply a sliding door which led to the toilet on one side, the shower on the other, and a sink in between. The shower is a pull string shower (requiring you to hold the chain down in order for water to come out), but Joe rigged it up with one of the logs to make it easier for us (LOL - see below). The showers do have heated water which is powered by a propane tank. They also provide you with 2 lanterns and 2 fans. Your tent does have 2 USB chargers that are enough for a phone or watch, and they are also used to charge both the lantern and fan.
Our stay was 7 nights at the Smoky Mountain location of Under Canvas. A week long trip didn't seem abnormal to us, but we learned quickly that most people only stay here for 1-2 nights on average! We were actually their longest stay all season. This made it fun for both us and the staff though, quickly making friends with them throughout the week!
The staff at Under Canvas I would give above 5 stars if I could - they truly cared about their job and each person at camp. They really made our stay special. A fun fact we learned about Under Canvas as a company is that they actually pay for lodging / housing for their staff, so all the staff we met all week actually live together nearby, how cool!
The food situation is a bit different at each Under Canvas location. For the Smoky Mountain location, they served breakfast and dinner - both of which you pay for separately from your stay. The breakfast hours were 7-9 am and dinner was 5-9 pm. The food was quite pricey for singular items ($12-14 for breakfast, and $14-20 for dinner), BUT the quality and taste made it worth it. Again, I would give the food above 5 stars for sure. We originally were thinking we would just get a lot of our food nearby in Pigeon Forge to save money, but once we tasted the Under Canvas food we quickly threw out that thought. They had tasty, healthy choices with SUCH good flavor. See some pictures of the menu and food below! Since they did not serve lunch, we usually stopped and got subs on the way into the park for the day and ate them along our hikes. :)
Since our stay was quite long, they kindly delivered fresh towels to our tent everyday and replaced everyones firewood stock daily as well. To keep warm, you must use your wood burning stove inside the tent. We were lucky enough to not have too hot OR too cold of weather, but we did keep our stove heated at night. Fact: Even the best fire will only last about 2 hours maximum. On the colder nights, one of us did wake up every 2 hours or so to throw another log on the fire. We actually got used to this and it wasn't an inconvenience at all, but rather a fun learning experience.
Our favorite part of our stay had to be the FREE S'MORES! Yes - free AND unlimited. Joe was averaging about 5 s'mores per night if I'm being honest, but hey, calories don't count on vacation, right? They had individually packed s'more bags and sticks ready to go for all guests daily. The campfires each night were so much fun. We got to eat our s'mores and meet new people. WARNING: Cell phones DO NOT work at Under Canvas locations!! This is intentional and was actually a blessing to spend 7 days away being unplugged. We did get service in parts of the National Park and in the city, but at camp it was a no-go. This made social interaction more prevalent at the fire however, and we made so many new friends!
Another FREE thing at camp was the unlimited coffee, tea, and hot cocoa which is served 24/7. They really do have at least one staff member at the main tent 24 hours a day to assist you. They are happy to get you a coffee (GOOD coffee, that is), or even help start your fire in the tent if you are struggling. This was really nice when we departed on our last day at 5 am with a fresh, hot coffee! :)
Another super fun aspect of Under Canvas which we didn't even know about until arrival is their daily activities. They had something fun for us to do each night (for free)! Examples of activities included were live music, trivia, painting, and a special s'mores bar. They also make sure to display the weather for you since you cannot just open your weather app at camp.
The only "negative" thing I could say about Under Canvas was the price - it IS pricey. For our tent, we paid $428 per night (yikes). We did love our time there and had 0 complaints, however, in comparison to other trips at that price point, it is vastly different. By the end of the trip, we loved it enough we said we would love to visit their other locations, only price would be holding us back.
As promised, I want to mention their other locations. You can find Under Canvas sites at Yellowstone, Mt.Rushmore, Zion, Moab, Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Glacier, Acadia, and of course the Great Smoky Mountains. Our location was about a 15-20 minute drive to the National Park which wasn't bad at all - each location differs slightly in their closeness to the parks. They do have two other locations coming soon which are Joshua Tree and Yosemite. I look forward to trying out one of these locations in the future! I think Mt.Rushmore or Acadia would be next up on my list :)