Dollywood fan offers tips on what not to do when visiting the Pigeon Forge theme park I love going to Dollywood. As a kid, I was lucky enough to grow up within an hour of the theme park. Nostalgia and bias aside, even as a now-adult I must admit – Dollywood still holds its own even when compared to some
A local shares his biggest missteps in hope you can learn from his mistakes One of the benefits of being a local to the mountains is it gives you a certain freedom to make a mistake. When I’m vacationing someplace like the beach or Disney, mistakes get magnified because my days are limited. If you get a week a year
Do your best to avoid these common mistakes during your next trip to the Apple Barn With its shops, restaurants, hotels and stores, the Apple Barn Cider Mill & General Store essentially becomes its own little village on weekends, especially in the fall. Parking spaces are a premium commodity. The waits for both of the Apple Barn complex restaurants can
A local breaks down the times to avoid when booking your Smoky Mountain vacation While I generally hold with the belief there are no bad times to visit the Smokies – with the exception of during natural disasters and the like – I will admit there are times that a Smoky Mountain vacation is less optimal than others. When are
An insider’s guide on what not to do when visiting Pigeon Forge, the surrounding area As someone who frequents Pigeon Forge, I know too well that when planning a vacation, in the words of a musical maestro, it’s about knowing when to hold them and knowing when to fold them. When you plan your next trip to the Smokies, I want
A Local Offers Tips on What Not To Do at Gatlinburg’s Most Frequented Steakhouse The dining options in Gatlinburg are vast and varied. You can choose an elevated experience at a place like The Greenbrier, The Peddler or Chesapeake’s. You can eat some of the best (literally) BBQ in the country served on checkered plastic tablecloths while seated at mismatched
A Local Offers Tips on What Not To Do When Hiking in the Smokies There’s something primal about the great, wide places of the world. You feel it standing on a lonely shore, looking out over a great grey ocean. You feel it on the precipice of a canyon or valley, looking across a wide expanse. And you feel it
A local offers his advice on 5 things not to do when booking, attending dinner shows in Pigeon Forge Dinner and a show. Sounds like the perfect night out – or matinee – in Pigeon Forge. Dinner theaters have long been part of the fabric that is Pigeon Forge. But it’s only in recent years that everyone wised up and
A local offers tips on what not to do at Gatlinburg’s popular pancake spot The Pancake Pantry is an iconic Gatlinburg institution. It was born in 1960 when a pair of Hoosiers decided to move to the mountains and open the first pancake palace in East Tennessee. They were quickly able to acquire the building and the land and then
A local offers advice on mistakes to avoid to make the most out of your next trip to Ober Gatlinburg I had given up on Ober Gatlinburg in the autumn a couple of years ago. In the days after Halloween, the park hadn’t transitioned from fall to winter. It was understaffed and underfunded. Then Joe Baker and his partners stepped