Where To Stay Near Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Where To Stay Near Great Smoky Mountains National Park – Home » Blog » Hotel Gatlinburg » 4 perks of staying at our Gatlinburg hotel near Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States. It is full of history, beauty and inspiring views. When you come to the Smokies, it should be on your list to visit. However, it’s no fun sitting in rush hour traffic just trying to get into the park. Fortunately, when you stay at our Gatlinburg hotel near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you’ll be so close that you can walk. Read on to discover more benefits of being so close to the park:

Where To Stay Near Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Gatlinburg Trail is a quiet nature trail that is perfect for walking through the park. From our hotel, the trail will begin at the end of Gatlinburg and travel to the Sugarlands Visitor Center inside the national park. The path is 1.9 kilometers one way and is relatively flat. The trail follows a river, and even gives you the opportunity to cross it on a bridge that is perfect for taking some photos.

Great Smoky Mountains Cabins

If you decide to enter the national park by car, you can reach the Sugarlands Visitor Center in just 5 minutes. Not only that, but you’ll pass the Great Smoky Mountains National Park entrance sign, which is a great photo spot. Or you can stop by Sugarlands Horse Stables to see and ride the horses. You can also drive to the Gatlinburg Beltway, also known as US 441, for scenic views of Gatlinburg in less than 10 minutes. This is one of the best benefits of staying at our Gatlinburg hotel near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you won’t have to fight traffic to get into the park.

You don’t have to walk 2 miles to make it to the Sugarlands Visitor Center if you don’t want to; you won’t even have to bring your car if you don’t want to! The Gatlinburg Trolley is a very affordable method of transportation in the city that allows you to see many of the area’s most popular sights. The tram system has several trams that enter the national park and stop at the visitor center. Once there, you can explore the exhibits at the visitor center, learn about local Appalachian history, and hike the nature trails.

The best thing about our Gatlinburg hotel near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is how easy it is to get back to your hotel to relax. It will only take a few minutes instead of fighting traffic and wasting gas. When you’re back, you can relax with your feet up and watch a movie. Or you can head to the indoor pool and hot tub to relax your tired muscles if you’ve been on a tour of the national park. Finally, you can walk to a nearby restaurant for a delicious meal after working up an appetite.

Before you start your day of exploring, you can head downstairs to enjoy a hot breakfast, to give you the energy you need to get you through the day. Besides the delicious breakfast and great location, there are more reasons why you’ll love our Gatlinburg hotel near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Check out the other amenities we offer and start planning your next vacation to the Smokies! GATLINBURG, TN – Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are sister cities located parallel to each other in East Tennessee, both gateway communities to Great Mountains National Park Smokers, the most crowded in the nation.

The Best Hotels To Book Near Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Both are tourist towns, with tacky and tasteful attractions. Both have many hotels, restaurants, ice cream parlors and more. Traffic in both can be very congested.

Despite many similarities, they are not identical twins. Here’s how to tell them apart as you plan your trip to the nation’s most popular national park:

Gatlinburg, population 3,944, is immediately adjacent to the park, just north of the Sugarlands Visitor Center. It is more compact geographically than Pigeon Forge, squeezed by mountains on three sides.

Its downtown district is more walkable than Pigeon Forge and is generally considered to have better restaurants.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tn 2023: Best Places To Visit

Top attractions include Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, Anakeesta Adventure Park, Gatlinburg SkyLift Park, Hollywood Star Cars Museum, Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum, Ober Gatlinburg Amusement Park and Ski Area, and many others.

Where to Stay: We stayed at the Oak Creek Lodge, 680 River Road, a great location just off the main strip, but within easy walking distance to many attractions and restaurants. Our balcony overlooked the Cliff Branch River, which runs through town; rates start at about $150 per night.

Where to eat: Enjoy fresh fish at the Smoky Mountain Trout House, which offers 10 different trout dishes; other recommended options include the Peddler Steakhouse and Pancake Pantry (or any of the many pancake houses in town).

Don’t miss: The Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community, a collection of shops and galleries along an 8-mile loop east of downtown. Artisan members include carpenters and broom makers, potters, jewelers and more.

Study Finds Cleaner Air In The Smokies (u.s. National Park Service)

Pigeon Forge, population 6,247, is about 8 miles north of Gatlinburg, connected via the Great Smoky Mountains Parkway (US 441), which also winds 33 miles through the park.

The route through Pigeon Forge is wider, more dominated by parking lots and neon signs, and less pedestrian-friendly than Gatlinburg.

Major attractions include the Titanic Museum, built to a half scale of the original ship; Dollywood; East Alcatraz Crime Museum; Pigeon Forge Snow, with indoor snow tubing; Dolly Parton’s Stampede and others.

Where to stay: We spent one night at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort, which opened in 2015 and is owned by Dolly Parton. This is a true resort, with beautiful grounds, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, entertainment, nightly s’mores and more. And next year: Dollywood’s Heartsong Lodge and Resort, on the adjacent grounds. Room rates vary widely, but start at around $200 per night.

A Guide To The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Where to eat: We had two good meals in Pigeon Forge at Local Goat for fried green tomatoes, a pimento cheeseburger, and other South American fare; and the Old Mill, which serves very large four-course home-cooked meals inside a historic mill. Reservations are not accepted at the Old Mill, where wait times are typically an hour or more (we were lucky and seated in about 20 minutes).

Don’t Miss: Dollywood, a fantastic amusement park that was ranked the best in North America by voters in Amusement Today’s annual poll.

Bottom line: I would go for Gatlinburg just because of the proximity to the national park and also appreciate that it was much more pedestrian friendly than Pigeon Forge.

Overnight at LeConte Lodge, the only lodge inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (but first, you have to get there)

Best Place To Stay In The Smoky Mountains

If you purchase a product or register an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. There was a time when this was the border, when the Smoky Mountains were too high and too hard to pass.

But the settlers crossed this huge green wall with the few supplies they could carry to forge a desert existence, finding coves of rich bottoms around which to establish outposts. Eventually these outposts grew into communities, which grew into towns and cities, and something like what we see today was carved out of nature: Gatlinburg at the foot of the Smokies, Pigeon Forge on the river a few miles away, and Knoxville growing up. large on the bluffs of the deep and wide Tennessee River.

No matter which way you go, the Smoky Mountains hold a surprise at the end of the trail. Photo © Jason Frye.

Today the setup is the same, but the inherent risks of frontier life are gone. Instead, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are tourist hotspots, or even tourist traps. (I mean that in the most flattering, fun, and kitschy sense of the term.) Gatlinburg is proudly the gateway to the Smokies, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park runs along the city limits. Not to be outdone, Pigeon Forge is home to Dollywood, an amusement park that’s part rides, part Appalachian culture, and part homage to Dolly Parton’s childhood.

The Real Story: Smoky Mountains National Park Not The Most Dangerous

The two cities are bright points of light connected by a glittering ribbon, a stark contrast to its neighbor, the most visited national park in the United States. About 30 miles west of the park, Knoxville is the nearest city of any size, and it’s as pretty and proper a Southern town as ever. It offers a cosmopolitan respite from the wildness of the Smokies and the rural kitsch of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, while maintaining its own identity as an intellectual and creative urban center that has grown but never forgotten its roots.

For detailed information on lodging, camping, recreation and shopping for your Smoky Mountain vacation, see the “Tennessee Gateways” chapter of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Travel Guide.

On a typical Saturday night, when 40,000 people pack the restaurants and sidewalks of Gatlinburg, you’d never know that only about 4,000 people live here. As unofficial capital

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