This gateway to the gorgeous natural wonderland of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park aims to be unforgettable…and it is.
Gatlinburg is…how shall we say…a bit different, but if you wanted the same old, same old, then you would have stayed home. Instead, Gatlinburg offers you a whole bag of interesting, with key ingredients like delightfully kitschy attractions, oddball museums, and just a splash of moonshine.
Located in eastern Tennessee, Gatlinburg is the gatekeeper to the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What to do in Gatlinburg is a question easily answered. Most of the town’s visitors are here to put civilization on hold for a few hours or a few days while they hike around the Appalachian Trail, trying to find their own answers to life’s great questions and maybe spotting some cool birds while they’re at it.
When it’s time to take a rest from nature’s glory (or if your new hiking shoes treat you to some blisters), you’ll find plenty of things to do in Gatlinburg. Some of these things seem routine—why not visit a water park? Others are decidedly not routine, and that’s the fun of Gatlinburg. You might not have ever known you wanted to spend a day gawking at the oddities at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, but trust us, you do. Even when you’ve hinged your jaw back into place, it’s going to drop again when you take a gander at the Guinness World Records Museum or the Hollywood Stars Cars Museum. And how can you not swing by Cooter’s Place, a whole museum dedicated to the Dukes of Hazzard?
A few shots of moonshine can make these adventures around town even more interesting (wink, wink). Just make sure you take the trolley after throwing back a few. Come on, where else are you going to find the glories of nature right next to arcades and all the pancakes you can eat? Grab one of our Gatlinburg vacation packages today and enjoy serious nature with a side of irreverent fun.