Tellico Tennessee?

I don't really know anything about it personally but clicked to see what you were asking out of curiosity. I used to work with a woman who had bought a lot there in the very early stages of development. It was to be their retirement home. Their best friends also bought a lot there and she talked about their dream retirement often. It sounded like a wonderful place and made me jealous to be 25 years younger than them!

Tellico Plains or Tellico Lake? I don't know a lot about either one, but there are two Tellico areas in TN.

Plains is a gorgeous town in southeast TN near the NC line. It is not really near any large town but close enough to drive to Athens. Lots of nature stuff and small town life.

Tellico Lake is an area near Knoxville. It is also a gorgeous area but a bit pricier, especially the closer you get to the lake itself.

East TN is...different. There is a perception in TN that the three parts of the state are very different. IN GENERAL people here are less educated, more conservative, and more religious than other places in TN. They are also very helpful and very friendly, in general.

ahhh Tellico Village.. yeah I've driven through that area many many times, have lived relatively nearby for 40+years..remember before it was even built up. Not sure what you are wanting to know, as someone else mentioned the closest hospital would be Loudon or Lenoir City,but Knoxville is also close and has a variety of hospitals to pick from. You'd be relatively close to Turkey Creek which is a shopping area of Knoxville/Farragut with all the popular stores and resturants and a big movie theater. Loudon itself is a small town, Lenoir City is bigger and then Knoxville is even bigger. Tellico Village is also close to Vonore and then to Madisonville which(which both are small towns, I grew up in Madisonville) and going through these would lead you to Tellico Plains and the Smokey Mountains(including Bald River Falls), in the other direction you wouldn't be too far out of reach of going to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and Cades Cove.

People here are getting better with the race issues, and with acceptance of different sexual orientations, it's something that is changing though moe slowly than bigger areas but the negative opinions tend to be held primarily by older generations or the super religious which I would imagine would be the same anywhere in the bible belt.

You seem to know quite a bit about the area, but your viewpoint that only white Christians are accepted there is different from what I experienced growing up in East TN.  I’m curious as to where you live?

You'd have to kill and torture me before I moved to TN, but I have family there and couple of friends in the Telico Lake area and they seem to enjoy it. It's very bible-y, conservative.

I should have been more clear.  Sorry.  I'm not judging, honest.  For personal reasons, I'll never ever ever live in TN.  Nothing to do with how conservative or bible-y it is.  However, my family and several of my friends live there and they seem to enjoy it very much.  It's just NOT for me.  I've spent a fair amount of time there, and the whole place just feels "wrong" to me.  SaveSave

Tellico Lake is a really pretty place. I vacationed there a long time ago when my mom worked for TVA. We drove through there on our way to Gatlinburg last summer and I can't believe how much the area has grown. East Tennessee is beautiful. Like anything, it's what you make of it. Lots of retirees choose Tennessee. We have lower property taxes than Florida or Texas and no state income tax. We also have all four seasons. That said, I'd suggest visiting all the places on your list in person to see how you feel about them. 

There is an instint that we all have that makes us feel at home or not in a certain place. It’s a little bit like when you meet a new person, you either want to get to know them better or not. A couple of years ago I did a little traveling in Texas. I loved San Antonio, was meh about Austin or Houston. I don’t think you need to live in the place to like or dislike it.

Tellico Village doesn't have great shopping or dining, but Lenoir City is only ten minutes away, and they have... oh, wait, they don't have great shopping or dining, either.

The nearest hospital would be in Lenoir City. There is no hospital in Loudon. Learned that the hard way when my husband started to pass a kidney stone at 4:00 in the morning.

Tellico Village brought liberal voting to the area, which is how Loudon County finally voted to allow liquor stores. Then Tellico Village discovered that it couldn't have a liquor store because it was too small. Nearest liquor stores would be in Loudon. Cheapest liquor is still in Knoxville.

Lots of retirees love Tellico Village -- and Rarity Bay, for the super wealthy -- I find it curious because the residents don't own the land under their homes; they just lease it. How does that work?

Good shopping and dining can be found in west Knoxville/Farragut, which is only 20 minutes away. Downtown Knoxville is magical with *great* shopping and *amazing* dining. We have restaurants from celebrity chef Tim Love and James Beard Award winner Joseph Lenn (among other really nice joints). Downtown Knoxville is about 40 minutes away from Tellico Village. (Less if you drive like me.) Green spaces, Ijams Nature Center, bike trails abound all over this town, not to mention art museums, history museums, the Tennessee Theatre, the Bijou, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and a number of historic homes and buildings -- all of which need and appreciate their volunteers. So there is *plenty* to do in East Tennessee.

There are more retirement communities opening in Knoxville all the time. There's a developer turning the lovely, old Knoxville High School into a retirement community. I would rather retire to Knoxville -- but maybe that's because I've lived near Tellico Village for 20 years. I work in Knoxville, and it would be nice not to have to drive 40 minutes to get home every day.

I'm a non-religious, bleeding heart liberal. Hardly anyone ever demands that I stop thinking for myself. I recall a couple of years ago that 5 or 6 masked neo-Nazis marched down the sidewalk during the annual Gay Pride Parade carrying poorly spelled signs of hate. Everyone just laughed and snorted, "Wrong crowd, y'all!"