Executive South Fork Inn, Whitley City

They saved us from a really bad experience at another Motel After Checking into the Tobe's Motel in Oneida TN we discovered that the room they put us in was disgusting! It was almost 11:00 pm, We were tired and the motel we had stayed in the night before was full. The Executive South Fork was recommended so we gave them a call. We were offered the Night manager's special rate of $69 per night for 3 adults. After convincing Tobe's that they were going to give me my money back. We headed to Whitley City and we were pleasantly surprised at the deal we were getting. It was so much better. Clean, large room with Continental breakfast and just $7 more than the next closest priced motel in the area. We learned that all Hotels/Motels in that area are a bit expensive for what you get but we were lucky enough to get a really good (night manager's) rate at the Executive South Fork Inn in Whitley City. It meant a bit more driving to get to the TN section of Big South Fork National River and Recreation area but for just $15 more than Tobe's we felt like we hit the jackpot. Our First night in the area we stayed at Cumberland Falls SP and for $44 we got a nice room (without a view) in the lodge but for pulling in at 2 am and leaving by 10 am that is all we needed. Our second night we stayed at the Big South Fork Motor Lodge in Stearns KY $62 for 3 adults. It is a nice clean older motel that the owners have fixed up very nice. The beds were not as comfortable as I would like but each guest gets a home made dessert each night so that is a nice treat. The Owners are super nice folks, too bad they were full the night that we really needed them. Everyone warned us to stay away from the Parkland Motel in Whitley City, evidently there have been a couple meth lab busts and it is not so clean - we did not check it out. We did stop in at the Big South Fork Lodge near the west entrance to the recreation area, nice folks but for $69 I would expect much nicer rooms. Next time we visit we will be bringing the pop-up and camping at Bandy Creek Campground. $22 a night is a bargain for such a nice campground with easy access to everything we want to see.