Hubby had surgery scheduled. Thank goodness for good insurance. Minus not the best out patient coverage. Cheep doctor co-pays had me fooled.
So I thought, we're gonna make the best out of this and take advantage of a good sign-on bonus. IHG won. 80,000 points later...here we are. A long weekend in Knoxville booked via the point breaks list.
Total of 15,000 points spent. (Possible chance of getting 11,000 points back via the Accelerate program...waiting on confirmation on that.)
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| My targeted offers |
We picked the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Oak Ridge from the point breaks list.
http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/oak-ridge/okrit/hoteldetail
We were really impressed with the cleanliness of this hotel and the staff. We stayed in some Holiday Inn Suites in Alaska and this was just as nice,if not even nicer.
Thanks to our platinum elite status, we got a free suite upgrade. (And early check in...an amazing thing after driving all night and getting there at 10:30 am) If you really wanted to, you could share this room with two other people and get even BETTER value for the 5,000 points a night. Maybe even book half the night on their points and half on yours.
The hotel was just over 20 minutes from Knoxville and and hour and a half from Gatlinburg.
Knoxville had a fair amount of things to do, but if Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge comes up on the list next time,I would recommend them over Knoxville. Unless the Holiday Inn that sits in downtown Knoxville was on the list. It was surprisingly huge. And has two room suites.
There is also Candlewood Suites that goes for 10,000 points a night that is a little closer to downtown Knoxville than our hotel was.
Gatlinburg and PF are both more "tourist friendly" in my opinion.
In general, there is more to do and see.
They're also a lot closer to the mountains.
Our Knoxville Highlights?
Babalu Tacos and Tapas
Who knew a marble quarry would be so cool?
The end verdict was that we got a great trip for an amazing value. I think I'm obsessed with vacationing based of the point breaks list!! That does means you can't plan a trip to far in advance,but I think despite that, it's most definitely worth it. Especially I we get 11,000 points back from this trip.
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