Tennessee's Charming Retirement Village Under An Hour From Knoxville Has Championship Courses And River Views

Tennessee can be a great state for retirement. It has a low cost of living, appealing tax breaks, a mild climate, and diverse landscapes, including the Great Smoky Mountains in the east and the forests and wetlands of the Mississippi River in the west. As more retirees forgo Florida and choose southern states like Tennessee, demand for retirement villages and communities grows; there are already more than 100 of these in the Volunteer State. Tellico Village might be one of Tennessee's prettiest such communities, built on the peninsulas of a lake in the Smoky Mountain foothills.

Tellico Village has the look and feel of a secluded rural escape, but civilization is closer than appearances would suggest. Knoxville, with its shops, restaurants, and historic downtown square, is only 45 minutes away by car, and the scenic riverfront city of Chattanooga is around 90 minutes in the opposite direction. Though, of course, you don't have to travel that far for entertainment. Tellico Village has a range of clubs, from an art guild and a computer club to groups for hiking, fishing, golf, and racket sports.

There are spaces for more informal socializing, too, like a beach pavilion overlooking the lake and a community center with a pool and terrace. From these vantage points, you'll get great views of the lake, which is actually an artificial reservoir on the Little Tennessee River. Keen golfers are also drawn to Tellico Village. The community offers access to three high-quality golf courses, one of which was crowned the state's best private course in 2022, while a robust golfing community makes it easy to find a playing partner or a spare person to fill up a four-ball. You can also play 365 days a year and benefit from the course's amenable "19th hole" facilities.

The three courses at Tellico Village were designed by Ault, Clark & Associates, whose creative signature is found on some of America's best courses. This includes master plan and remodeling work on the Blue Course at Congressional Country Club, ranked among America's top 100 courses, and TPC Las Vegas, a beautifully manicured course set against the desert canyons of Nevada. Although they share design philosophies, each of Tellico Village's courses poses its own challenge. Residents can pay per round or get annual memberships covering all three courses. 

Toqua Golf Club, the oldest of the three, opened in 1987 and underwent significant redevelopment in 2008. A 7,000-yard, forested track that skirts the lake perimeter, it caters to golfers of all levels. The hazards can be quite penal, but first-timers and golfers who can no longer generate the power of their younger years can shorten the course to 4,200 yards with "play it forward" tees. Tanasi Golf Club, which opened about a decade after Toqua, has much broader fairways, which is a boon to golfers prone to duck hooks and big banana slices. Hitting it on the fairway is necessary here, because any golf balls landing firmly on the greens are in danger of running off into the deep greenside bunkers. With its lakefront setting, the water is occasionally in play.

Built in the early 2000s, The Links at Kahite is Tellico Village's newest course, and at almost 7,200 yards, it might be its most challenging. It mixes lakefront views and Smoky Mountain scenery with the testing hallmarks of links golf — dozens of bunkers, thick rough — factors that helped it win the Tennessee Turfgrass Association's award for best private course in 2022.  

Given the location, overlooking a lake on the Little Tennessee River, the Smokies rising in the distance, you're never far from the scenery in Tellico Village. There's a reason that nearby Loudon, 5 miles to the west, is known as Tennessee's 'Lakeway To The Smokies'. You'll get river views from most areas in the Village: the golf courses, the handsome lakeside properties, the Kahite Community Center, and the Family Park and Beach Pavilion on Tugaloo Drive. The best views are found on the river itself. With jetties, piers, more than 600 boat slips and 31 jet ski slips, there's ample opportunity to skim across or bob around on the Little Tennessee's placid waters.

There's also a yacht club set on a peninsula overlooking the lake. You can boat across to this establishment, which is more a space for socializing, wining and dining, than one exclusively for boat lovers or yachting repartee. If you don't have access to a motorboat, Tellico Village has a kayak launch and storage facility, or you can hike along the water's edge. 

On the eastern shore, there's a 30-mile trail network, the East Lakeshore National Recreation Trail at Tellico Lake, winding through the forest and around the Little Tennessee's inlets and coves. Built by a community of Tellico Village and other lakeshore residents, the trail system features nine individual trailheads, all within half-an-hour's drive of Tellico. For more hiking, the atmospheric trails of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in America, are only 40 minutes away by car.