Pigeon Forge, TN

[ajwolfe]

We enjoy vacationing in Pigeon Forge as well. Like others we love Dollywood, Ripley's Aquarium, WonderWorks, Hatfield and McCoy show, the Comedy Barn, the magic show in WonderWorks, Dixie Stampede, and white water rafting. White water rafting is my favorite, so definitely keep it as a must do. However, whatever you do don't waste your money on the Jurassic Jungle Boat ride. My family and I still crack up over that to this day.

OMG - How funny! We did that stupid boat ride too because my boys just had to do it. Worst experience ever I think on a vacation attraction and it was such a waste of money. We still joke about it too.. I guess I had just assumed it would have went out of business by now.

 

[THEDISNEYTHREE]

OMG - How funny! We did that stupid boat ride too because my boys just had to do it. Worst experience ever I think on a vacation attraction and it was such a waste of money. We still joke about it too.. I guess I had just assumed it would have went out of business by now.

Glad to see we are not the only ones who fell for it. We drove by it every day and the kids kept saying they wanted to do it, so the last day we did it. However, as you know it goes down in vacation memory lane.... do you remember when we did that stupid.... so I guess it was worth it for the laughs.

 

[KristinU]

LOL, DS reeeeeally wanted to do the jurassic boat until I read him the reviews on Trip Advisor as we were sitting in traffic. I have never seen anything rated so consistently low!

 

[3boymthr]

We did a lot of hiking in the National Park. My kids like standing on the state line between TN and NC. We also went bike riding on Wednesday morning in Cades Cove. They close the road to car traffic until mid morning so bike riders have the road to themselves. But get there early to allow plenty of time to complete your ride before the cars are allowed in. The bike rental was really inexpensive and they had helmets available. I know they also had horseback riding rentals near there as well.

We went white water rafting with USA Raft. We really enjoyed using them - the guides were great. My kids really enjoyed being able to jump off the rocks into the river. There was a discount through the cabin we rented for one free person so it saved us a bunch. For planning purposes be aware that last year rafting was available only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday so you may have to plan your other activities around it. We did an afternoon trip so the air was nice and warm, and it gave us plenty of time eat a relaxed breakfast and light lunch and still get there on time. It's about an hour drive or a little more from Pigeon Forge depending upon where you are staying (and how much traffic there is in Pigeon Forge) to most of the rafting outfitters.

We mostly ate at our cabin but we did eat breakfast at Log Cabin Pancake house and really enjoyed it. On our way out of Cades Cove the traffic was slow so we bailed from the park early and took route 73 out to route 321. It was lunch time so we stopped in Townsend at the Burger Master Drive in. The place was very casual kind of like a Dairy Queen and the food was relatively inexpensive and pretty good.

 

[NavyDad]

This is a great area to visit but you will only save money if you avoid the tourist traps. I highly recommend you spend about 95% of your time in the National Park. So much stuff to see and do including Cades Cove, the Dome and hiking to see some really cool falls. You can easily spend at least 2 days in Cades Cove: 1 day exploring trails and stuff, the 2nd day just driving through about 1.5 hours before sunset when all the animals come out.

We stay in a cabin and prepare all of our own meals with the exception of 1 or 2 times eating out in a weeks vacation. You can rent some really nice large cabins with a hot tub, game room and pool access for cheaper than you can stay for a week at a Disney Value resort.

Gatlinburg has a really nice downtown area to walk around. If you must do "tourist stuff" the aquarium is pretty awesome and we liked the Titanic exhibit. I believe Ripley's offers some sort of value pack to visit multiple attractions. (They also offer an awesome military discount!)

 

[JaxDad]

Thanks again everybody! This has been very helpful. I'm trying to decide what to do for vacation this summer. I was initially considering a short Bahamas cruise, but since we live in Florida and already spend a lot of time at the beach and pools, I thought it might be better to go to the mountains. Pigeon Forge would be about an 8-hour drive for us. We made a similar road trip to Boone, NC around Christmas in 2013, and the kids really enjoyed the hiking activities and waterfalls. It sounds like Pigeon Forge has lots of similar opportunities, plus if I throw in the rafting and a couple touristy things, it should be a great overall vacation spot.

 

[KristinU]

In case anyone is interested, I updated our travel blog with our recent trip: http://winnieadventures.blogspot.com/2015/04/tn-up-creek-rv-camp-pigeon-forge-and.html

Someone in one of my RV forums is there now and saw several bears in Cades Cove yesterday, I can't wait to go back and see more!