Cabins vs Hotels – Where To Stay in The Smoky Mountains

Choosing your home base for your Smoky Mountain vacation

There can be a lot of planning that goes into your Smoky Mountain vacation, and the choices are so vast that it can quickly be overwhelming.

Cost. Location. Occupancy. Comfort. These are just a few of the dozens of factors that go into where you decide to stay.

But the first question that should be asked and answered as you narrow down your possibilities is do you want to stay in a traditional hotel/motel/resort or do prefer a cabin/private rental. The choice you make here can weigh heavily on the entirety of a vacation. Choose poorly and you’ve put a good dent in your budget. You can lock yourself into someplace that is maybe not up to the standards you’d prefer for your family. Choose poorly and you’ll find yourself adding unwanted hours in the car on a winding remote mountain road. Or with a pool that leaves you asking the front desk if there’s a nearby cow pond from which they import the water.

Choose wisely and you have a place that enhances your vacation experience and gives your family fond memories for years to come.

The Case for a Cabin

Renting cabins in the Smokies is a tradition that predates the Airbnb or Vrbo experience. We were doing private rentals before private rentals were cool. For me, the biggest plus to a cabin or private rental is size. While there are certainly small and intimate cabins in the Smokies, I typically target cabins for large groups of friends or family. First, we can share the cost. And second we can relax and enjoy each other’s company. And for me, that’s the key part.

When you rent a cabin in the Smokies, the cabin is a massive part of the experience. Sure, you’ll still want to get out into the mountains. You’ll want to get into Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg or Sevierville. But the cabin experience – when done correctly – is about getting away, relaxing.

Hopefully, you’ve chosen a place that gives you a good view of nature, a place with mountains and woods and streams and all of the things that make Smokies great. A place where you can grill on the patio and spend half the night catching up. A place where you can relax in the hot tub – hopefully a fully sanitized hot tub – and let the care of the world melt away.

The best places for this kind of experience are in the mountains above Gatlinburg and places like Wears Valley and/or Townsend. There are plenty of cabins and rentals all over the Smokies, just make sure you use Google Earth appropriately and are sure that your cabin isn’t located where your view is the dumpsters behind some strip mall.

The Case Against a Cabin

It’s really just the case against any private rental. It’s the fine print. The little rules and regulations you didn’t read closely enough when you locked in that great rate. So, now you’re stuck with a place that charges you more to put the air conditioning below 74 or the heat above 66. A place where the appliances cost extra. The grill – which was featured prominently in the photo – comes with a padlock.

The Smokies is a tourist destination and most of these places were bought specifically to rent. Therefore, you are not as likely to need to worry about the renter’s 20-year-old son still living in the basement. Or getting unexpected “drop-ins” from overprotective owners… though there is some of that, too.

Also, I would be remiss in saying you do run more risk of invasions of privacy – that sort of thing. I’m at a point in my life that I don’t really worry about someone secretly filming me in the shower. But you do have to be a little more careful about such things with a private rental.

The Case for a Hotel

In most cases with a hotel, you know what you’re getting going in without having to hire a lawyer to read the fine print. Sure, if you’re bargain hunting – like I do – you run the risk of getting something that’s past its prime. But if you’re willing to pay something closer to the median rate, you’re probably getting something worthwhile. Also, things like maid service, room service and someone at the front desk to help if there is a problem are good things.

Also, when I’m on vacation in the mountains, I want to be in the middle of it. As a local, I get the scenic beauty all the time. If I’m spending money for a hotel stay, I want to be on the strip in Gatlinburg. I can walk to the Pancake Pantry for breakfast – or on the Parkway in Pigeon Forge where I can watch the neon lights glowing out my window.

I want to stay in the Dollywood Resorts and get treated to a nice bus ride to the park. Also, I want the little bits of vacation pampering that only a good hotel provides. And, in general terms, there’s so much competition for the hotel business in the area that you can get pretty good rates.

The Case Against a Hotel

Those good rates? You gotta be careful. A couple of summers ago, we booked a hotel for the boys’ birthday. Got an insanely good deal on the presidential suite floor with a great view of the strip. The room itself was fine. Acceptably clean with a nice kitchen and a lot of space. It was a little beaten up in places, and the fixes were apparent. But overall, for the money? Couldn’t complain.

However, while the room was fine, the rest of the hotel was not. The fourth-floor patio overlooking the strip was off limits thanks to a sign that had fallen and not been addressed for quite some time. There was a collection of non-operating appliances – fridges, air conditioners – outside in the hall next to the “presidential suite.” The parking lot was full of trash, and I’d have rather soaked my feet in the toilet than gone swimming in the cloudy pool-water.

Ultimately, I got what I paid for. The kids – for the most part – saw the positives. As a result, they had a great time. But I spent a good portion of the getaway trying to remember if our tetanus shots were up to date.

I suppose you could have this experience in a cabin as well if you’re not careful. But the mountains are home to many privately owned hotels, some with major chain franchises and some without. The quality of those family-run establishments can vary widely. My recommendation is to look at the Google reviews. I toss out the highest scores and lowest scores – the highest scores I fear are planted and the lowest scores tend to be people who wouldn’t be satisfied in Buckingham Palace.

The verdict?

Unless we have a big family group that makes multiple hotel rooms an extravagant cost, I’m going hotels. I like to be down in the thick of it and want to get a lot of things done. That is, I am not yet to the point that I like to spend much of my vacation time relaxing. I prefer going, doing, and experiencing.

The only time I’ll really relax on vacation is at the beach where sitting next to the ocean and occasionally getting in it is the whole point of the thing. If I’m in a place like Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, there’s do much to do to sit by the pool and tan, especially when the pool is located next to the parking lot and has the shimmer of petroleum.

Where do you stay when you are in the Smokies? Do you prefer a cabin or a hotel? Let us know in the comments!