Bristol / Kingsport KOA

The Great Outdoors

If you are looking to get some real fresh air away from the city, you can head to Cherokee National Forest to spend some time hiking its backcountry trails and taking photos, if that's your thing. It's also a good destination for white-water kayaking or a relaxing canoe trip on any of the park's numerous waterways. Your campervan rental is a good way to explore the park from the motorways that dissect and pass through the forest.Summer in Kingsport can get pretty hot; if that happens, you can head for nearby Boone Lake for a swim. The lake is formed from a reservoir and is ideal for fishing; anglers can try for largemouth and smallmouth black bass, catfish, and crappie, just to name a few resident species.Slightly north, you can check out Warriors' Path State Park which has an award-winning nature education program and a mountain bike trail system that is a designated National Recreational Trail. If traveling on foot is your preference, the park has an abundance of hiking trails. It also has a human-made pool and a renowned golf course for those who enjoy a cultivated outdoor experience.

Exploring The Area

This is the time when you will want to find out first-hand what this area is really like and sampling the local cuisine is always the best place to start. Head for Chattanooga, and you will have a vast selection of restaurants to choose from where you can sample true Appalachian food. One of the local restaurants offers brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, and occasionally offers a Chef's Table dining experience that outdoes the already incredible menu. It consists of a ten-course meal that is limited to a small number of guests; the food is plated at the table rather than being brought out on plates in order to make the meal an interactive experience.Still feeling a little adventurous? Cross the Tennessee-Virginia state border, and you may find yourself in Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech, one of Virginia's largest universities. Visitors are encouraged to take a walking tour of the campus and stop in at the institution's Moss Arts Center. From here you can take a walking tour of the city's architecture and arrive in its historic downtown core, where you can window shop as you please.If you are interested in history, you should consider spending some time in Knoxville, which was an important locale during the Civil War. Residents had no established consensus regarding the secession issue and were bitterly divided. The town was occupied by both Confederate and Union forces who alternated having the city under their control on a regular basis. Knoxville was also host to the 1982 World's Fair which helped their economy and put them on the map as a tourist destination.Of course, a vacation of this magnitude begins by choosing to book an RV in Sullivan County, and there is a wide enough selection of RV makes and models to guarantee finding the one that suits your needs perfectly. If home-cooked meals are your thing, Kingsport has discount grocers, several large supermarkets, and smaller outlets that sell alternative food items for preparing Asian and other dishes. Need to gas up? There are a large number of gas stations available, some commercial entities and others locally owned.