The square is really cute and has shops and restaurants all along the perimeter. It has a stage…read moreand hosts lots of different types of events.

Love the vibe here at Market Square. Clean and vibrant with a variety of stores and restaurants. If…read moreyou are there when the farmers market is happening it's a plus. Large outdoor market with a huge variety of goods. The park nearby has an assortment of art pieces and is a great area to walk around. It's a block from Gay Street where Mast General Store and Tennessee theater are situated. A beautiful, clean touristy spot

Promenade Garage is a relatively small multiple level garage directly behind Gay Street in downtown…read moreKnoxville. Most of it is open air and not enclosed. But, this garage is very convenient if you are planning to visit any of the businesses in this area -- particularly Mast General, Maple Hall, Kilwins, etc. You can walk directly from the garage to several of these businesses. Most of the time, it is sparsely used and there are a lot of open spaces. One reason may be that you are charged to park here. This is a rarity in downtown (yes, we are lucky in Knoxville). As of this review, I think it is $5 (plus a 99 cent service fee). They use an automatic license plate reader to charge you. You have to sign up on https://app.metropolis.io/sign-in and register your car and license plate. A warning - I visited this garage last night and was concerned when I didn't receive the usual email confirming my visit. I remembered (thankfully) that I was issued a new blue TN license plate and their system probably had my old plate. So, be vigilant and make sure they have your information. My understanding is you can get a ticket if you don't pay. Fortunately, I have never had that happen. Anyway, if are setup in the system, it works pretty well. They know when you enter and exit - and you get an email or text confirming the charge. If you have an EV, one great thing about Promenade is they have a lot of free EV chargers (I think its 4 or 5). There's nearly always one open for use. So, you can get a free charge while hanging out downtown. Unless you are nearly out of charge, you might not get $5 worth. But, it's a nice perk and makes the garage a better value.

I don't know how much it costs to pay for parking on the street, but this is a covered parking…read moreplace, and it also has a covered walkway to Gay Street. It was raining today, so both features were important. We've parked here before for festivals downtown, and for the Tennessee auditorium. Today was a salon day at Aveda, something that comes up once a month or every 2 months. Aveda is just past the Regal Theaters, easily accessible from the garage. And if you go to the movies, your ticket will be validated for a lower fee. We paid $4 for 3HRs and 33Min. today.

This specific location is a pretty decent size but definitely under whelming for selection of…read moreitems. They recently made a change and it is much harder to find things and some items that they were plentiful....they downsized. One example being electronics/phone cases which I was very fond of and always found great deals so maybe I'm just being a little biased. Other than that staff is overall pretty friendly and selection of what you do have a pretty decent. There's a lot of glassware here as well as women's clothing. Watch out for the mini ramps ,hills and multi story levels they have as you can easily twist an ankle . Shout out to the older crowd Parking spaces are pretty good but you can find yourself having to park parallel on the left side of the building. It is easy to get lost or not find this place as it is off one of the side streets of Kingston Pike and Parkside Drive but no fret, once you're there you'll know it. Staff is over all friendly and more than willing to help you locate exactly where things are as some sections are literally smaller than your body. Go shop break a leg and help someone out today.

The Sunsphere is an amazing architectural wonder and remnant from the 1982 World's Fair in…read moreKnoxville. My visit to the Sunsphere made my day. The 342' steel structure was designed by Don Shell and completed in 1982. The glass on the 75' sphere is coated with gold dust. During the World's Fair, a small restaurant operated at the top and visitors could visit the observation deck for $2. We were passing through Knoxville and my daughter wanted to visit. Today, visitors can pay to go up to the observation deck of the giant structure. ($10 for adults). You can buy tickets on line or at the Sunsphere. When we arrived, the Sphere was closed until 1:30, so we did not go up in it. But we enjoyed walking around and taking photos. There is parking a block south and the walk through the park is lovely. There is a drop off circle near the Sunshpere as well. Let's are not allowed in the structure.

Knoxville wanted to do something truly special for the 1982 World's Fair. The result was the…read moreSunsphere. The theme for the fair was "Energy turns the world" and Knoxville showcased solar energy by creating a replica of the Sun. I was fortunate enough to visit the Sunsphere during their "free local days" and all you need to show is your license to prove you're local to Knoxville. More free local days will be announced throughout the coming year, so stay tuned. Definitely recommend elevating your view of our little city by visiting the Sunsphere. Know Before You Go: ~ $10 tickets per adult and also annual passes can be bought in person. $40 for an individual annual pass or $120 for a family pass. Both passes are good for a calendar year. ~24 kt. gold panels are actually glass layered with gold dust. ~The Sunsphere observation deck was re-opened on February 22, 2022. The floor offers a 360-degree view of the Great Smoky Mountains, World's Fair Park, the Tennessee River, and the UT Campus. ~There is a small gift shop offering everything from Sunsphere Christmas ornaments, tee shirts, Sunsphere coffee tumblers, stickers, postcards, and more.

I generally love libraries. It's quiet, stocked, the employees are so nice, and it really is here…read more However, I came to the library for a specific purpose and that was to use a study room to record a speech for one of my classes. It was clean, had comfortable chairs, an outlet, and a whiteboard. The only thing that ruined this was the fact that it isn't enclosed at the top so the large study group next door would have been able to hear everything I said just like I was very aware that they're using all their smoothie and coffee trips and Kroger runs for their class. I ended up only writing my speech and filming in my car in the parking lot. It wasn't even private enough for me to be able to take a quiz or efficiently study. I thought being that it was so close to a college that it would have been a typical study room and be quiet with privacy.

One lump of coal to this group, closed BOTH days the one before Christmas and before New Year plus…read morethe actually paid holidays, come on man ! To make it even worse employees were working on site interestingly but those who pay their salaries with tax dollars were not.

I saw this somewhere about it being an Amish store but when you think Amish store you think…read moresomewhat affordable but their prices are a little extreme. An example of this is a jar of marinated mushrooms was either $10 or $15. A sticker just a basic sticker that's about 2 inches is a dollar , old Christmas candy from 2 1/2 months ago was $6.50 for about something you would get if it wasn't a holiday three dollars at Walmart but since it's Christmas it should've been discounted. About five dollars for a tiny container of maybe 2 ounces of gummy bears.

So a couple of weeks ago I went to JB's to try the strawberries they are always advertising. They…read morelooked really good. So I went and picked out a pint of berries and 2 heirloom tomatoes of average size. It was $14! Everything there was overpriced. When I commented on this on their Facebook page, they blocked me.