Tennessee Guide and Deals

Located in the former main post office of Nashville, the Frist Center is an architectural feast of classicism and Art Deco style containing more than 24,000 square feet of gallery space. The non-profit museum hosts an ever-changing array of exhibits that pop in and out of its halls each 10-12 weeks, so commitmentphobes and the easily bored will always have something new and fresh to run their eyeballs across. Fashionistas frustrated by their failure to institute Really Formal Fridays at the office will want to flee to the Frist Center's current Golden Age of Couture exhibition (June 18–September 12, 2010), with its collection high-glamour vintage wares, while fans of ornate glass sculptures can check out the Chihuly at the Frist exhibition (May 9–January 2, 2011).

Just a quick drive from Fall Creek Falls State Park and its eponymous 256-foot waterfall, Mountain Glen RV Park and Campground occupies a lightly forested area of the northern Sequatchie Valley. Its serene location draws recreation seekers and their pets from the surrounding cities of Chattanooga, Nashville, and Knoxville, who flock to the campground's mild climate and fully equipped Pikesville facility. Families take advantage of the 42 pull-through RV sites, each outfitted with 50-amp electrical, water, and sewer hookups. Long weekends can be spent enjoying the outdoors by fishing in the catch-and-release pond and hiking out to one of the nearby attractions. Guests often take the edge off of roughing it by using the grounds' indoor showers, laundry facility, and cozy game room. Between games of horseshoes or corn toss, campers can log onto free WiFi to check in on the coworkers and garage-squatting dragons they went camping to escape.

Inspired by cosmologist Carl Sagan's historic discovery that everything looks totally awesome under strobing blacklights and smoke machines, cosmic bowling turns an ordinary bowling ball into a glittering planet hurtling through a vast and unknowable universe before exploding into a supernova of scattered neon pins. Your Groupon lets you choose one of FunQuest’s two late-night cosmic options, depending on which night you roll. On Friday nights after 10 p.m., you and a partner get two hours of bowling, a large pizza, and two pitchers of soda for dipping—because hungry bowlers leave happy pins, and when pins are happy, an angel slaps a kitten. On Saturday nights after 9 p.m., you and your friend get three hours to bowl, a large pizza, and one pitcher of soda. Shoe rental is included on both days.

The Renaissance Center's Gaslight Dinner Theatre, located on the basement level of the Renaissance Center, has been bringing together mouthwatering theatrical productions and first-rate dining for nine years, especially during the steak tartare's triumphant 2003 performance as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables. A ticket ($35) to the Gaslight Dinner Theatre scores you access to the sprawling and savory dinner buffet, which opens at 6:30 p.m. and includes a drink and dessert, as well as intimate seating for the night's performance at 7:30 p.m. All Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions boast a cast of professional actors culled from regional auditions and international hang-gliding tournaments.

Though Executive Cleaners has three locations where patrons can drop off their dirty duds for dry cleaning, the company’s staffers also make laundry day even more convenient by traveling to clients’ homes and picking clothes up themselves. All customers need to do is leave their unwashed textiles at their door, and Executive Cleaners' team will whisk them away to one of its locations, where the staff will carefully inspect, clean, and press the items before dropping them back off. To ensure immaculate threads, Executive Cleaners encourages clients to leave a note with special instructions and even use the provided spot marker to point out stains or start games of tic-tac-toe. In addition to dry cleaning and laundry services, Executive Cleaners keeps entire ensembles in pristine condition with alterations, shoe repairs, wedding-gown preservation, and leather repairs.

Sporting two distinct nine-hole layouts built more than 20 years apart, Ravenwood Country Club's 18-hole golf course boasts 6,264 yards of splendid fairways running alongside the stately grounds' cerulean ponds and misting fountains. The lengthier of the two, the front nine eases rusty swings and slow-to-wake irons into the round with a relatively open, gently undulating layout before clubbers must contend with the dramatic elevation changes, larger greens, and omnipresent water hazards that await in the course's second act. Before duffers return through the majestic double doors of the clubhouse, they must traverse the climactic 18th hole, a 385-yard par 4 with a stream stationed squarely in the landing zone of aggressive drives and local spacecraft.

Along with its picturesque par 72, Ravenwood Country Club encompasses a recently refurbished outdoor swimming pool and eight tennis courts flanked by covered spectator areas. Guests weary from days looping the course, lapping the pool, or combing the tennis courts for edible neon fuzz can retire to the club's dining facilities, which host everything from quiet dinner dates to lavish events and celebrations.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Length of 6,264 yards from the farthest tees
• Course rating of 71.0 from the farthest tees
• Slope rating of 125 from the farthest tees
• Four tee options
• Link to scorecard