Please, do yourself a favor and do NOT consider this shack of a hotel. The owner was pleasant and kind, however, after staying in the hotel one night, my party and I felt very taken advantage of. The hotel was exceedingly over-priced. At nearly $150.00 a night, this "cabin" was highly overrated, and the advertising was purposefully false and misleading. For example, the entire room was not more than 12 X 12, but, when I asked prior to our arrival if the rooms were small, I was informed they were “cozy”. If you define cozy as an 18-inch separation between the bed and Jacuzzi, then you will be in heaven. I call it cramped. This was the only walkway in the entire room, save the entrance, which only led straight to the bathroom. Now, while the presence of a jacuzzi was enjoyable, it made loud, screeching noises when turned on, which made watching the orange-toned TV or relaxing virtually impossible. Two walls of the cabin were lined with gold speckled wall mirrors, which were cheesy and shady, rather than romantic. The linens appeared to come from a 1950's garage sale and the bathroom was something out of the 1960s. The entire place had the ambiance of a side-of-the-road, seedy love-motel. The bathroom, partly due to age, appeared dirty and unsanitary. Instead of complimentary and sanitary bathroom amenities, there were two refillable tubes (vials) of liquid. Each had a handmade sticky-label on it that stated "shampoo" and "conditioner". The bonus was the tube that included a piece of the previous guest's hair stuck to the label. Neat bathroom tricks included being able to distinguish the different shades of brown stains on the floor tile through the thin toilet paper. The room was advertised as having a couch and chair but, in reality, the couch was a wicker 2-seater that one sits on a porch and the chair was a white plastic patio chair. In order to access the closet, one had to move the "couch" either into the jacuzzi or on top of the bed. The small refrigerator would not hold a typical carryout dinner container. On the other side of the room (the foot of the bed), access to the masking tape-decorated porch door was limited due to a second interior plastic chair being placed and jammed between the bed and the door. I was willing to stay one night only and simply because we arrived so late. However, after 3-4 hours of sleep, I was so angered by feeling duped that we left first thing. I should mention we were the third party in line to complain. Apparently, this hotel is being sold in a month so hopefully the new owners will fix it up. It may be better just to bulldoze the area and start anew.
Avoid like the plague...

I love this quaine, old style motel. Built around 1930, it has maintained the charm of the early motels. With only a dozen rooms, it's a quiet retreat at the base of Racoon Mountain, just to the west of Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain. The rooms are small, and have the original knotty pine wood paneling inside. Many of the rooms have jacuzzi's or hot tubs in addition to the walk-in showers. In the spring and fall you can leave the doors open, and a wonderful mountain breeze wafts through the screen doors- one of which leads out to a deck, the other to the carport where your car's trunk is just a few feet from the door. There's a pool outside in the summer, and the room rates are excellent. If you want to get away from the cookie-cutter, shoddy rooms of the city motels and hotels and just relax for a time, this is THE place to stay in the Chattanooga area. With two gazebos and beautiful flowers everywhere, the tanquility can't be beat! And it's within a few miles and an easy drive to the major scenic attractions of Chattanooga- and there are a lot of them! I've been to the Alpine Lodge three times in the last four years, and plan on staying there for another week this year and for many years to come.

On the web, the Alpine Lodge seems so much better than it is. It is described as quaint, lovely, a comfortable resort-like getaway. We booked a room for two nights (at $140 per night) based on this description. For that price, we were supposed to have a hottub and fireplace in the room, a private carport, a balcony overlooking Racoon Mountain, and breakfast on a double-decker bus. Before we even entered the room, we knew that we had made an over-priced mistake. The place was run down, and it seemed as if we were the only guests in the entire lodge. I saw no double-decker bus on the premises, and we were offered no breakfast. Yes, we did have a hottub in the tiny-but-very-clean room (this was wonderful) and we also had a private carport, but the "fireplace" was a gas one (and not a realistic one at that--more like a gas heater with artificial logs, with no mantle), and our small back deck overlooked both a huge gas tank (for the "fireplace," I suppose) and two roads with a view of other folks' trailers and homes. We stayed for just 1 of our 2 nights. We would have remained for a second night because we really did enjoy the hottub and the bed, if the price was fair (which would have been about half of what we paid). The hottub was terrific, the room and tub were very clean, and the bed was very comfy. The Alpine Lodge is about 5-8 miles from the major downtown attractions. We could have gotten a luxury room right across from the Chattanooga Aquarium , including 2 tickets, for less.