Lodging

wilderness hotel ice skating and other winter activities in the smoky mountains

Get a Little Wild With Your Smoky Mountain Christmas

Christmas at a Water Park? Wilderness at the Smokies offers a plethora of holiday happenings Many years ago, a young Hoosier in the wilds of Northern Indiana, I knew how to ice skate pretty well. I was never graceful at it, in fact, I was a plow horse on the ice. But I could get around, play a little hockey

Drury Plaza hotel vs indigo hotel

Two New Hotels Have Opened in the Smokies

The Drury Plaza Hotel in Pigeon Forge and Hotel Indigo in Gatlinburg offer visitors new hotel options A long time ago, when the world and I were young, I visited the Smokies in a very different way than I do now. Back then, I was still a young Hoosier. And a Smoky Mountain vacation is a Hoosier rite of passage.

a perfect day in gatlinburg

The Perfect Day in Gatlinburg 

Planning your way to Smoky Mountain perfection In the Smoky Mountains, perfection, if you’ll forgive a bit of poetic license, is like the Little Pigeon River. It’s fed by a series of prongs and tributaries and streams from all sorts of sources. Finding perfection is to follow the path of your passions until the reach the main waters flowing throw

7 Tips for Best Places To Stay in the Smoky Mountains

Where Is the Best Place To Stay in the Smoky Mountains? Recently, some out-of-town guests visited me near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They stayed in a nice cabin overlooking the Gatlinburg SkyBridge. I wondered where I would stay for my vacation if I was not local. For example, would I want to stay in a popular destination to

treetop skywalk at night at anakeesta

5 Romantic Date, Valentine’s Day Ideas in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg

A local offers 5 romantic date ideas for Valentine’s Day in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg Romance is in the eye of the beholder, or maybe more accurately the eye of the beholder’s partner. I have performed a grand romantic gesture or two in my life. For instance, proposing to my now-wife in Paris (France, not Kentucky or Tennessee) comes to mind.

the lobby at the margaritaville gatlinburg

These are the 10 Best Hotels in Gatlinburg, Ranked by a Local

A local talks about his favorite hotels in Gatlinburg Not surprisingly, there are a lot of great options for staying in Gatlinburg. My favorites are along the River Road where the hotels face the river and back into the side of the mountain. They’re close to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies and an easy walk over to downtown Gatlinburg. We like

the ancient lore village

The Real-life Hobbit Village in the Smoky Mountains You Must Visit

This immersive hobbit-inspired village will make you feel like you’re living in a Tolkien novel In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell. Nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat. It

Each of the cabins on our list have been hand-picked by our staff and are available for rent on VRBO (photo courtesy of VRBO)

Best Mountain View Cabins in Pigeon Forge: Top 9 Ranked

Renting a cabin is one of the absolute best ways to enjoy the Smokies. Sure, there are a lot of things that make the area a tourist hot spot — from the amusement parks and abundance of mini golf to the dinner shows and pancake houses. But the one thing that makes the area truly unique is the one thing

Is DreamMore Worth It? An Honest Review of Dollywood’s Resort

An local’s review of DreamMore, Dollywood’s first Resort When I was in my early 20s, spending more than $1 on a cheeseburger was a splurge. Today, I barely bat an eye when dining at a nice restaurant, ordering a quality steak, and heck, let’s go ahead and order a glass of wine too while we’re at it. So when it