Great Smoky Mountains/Tennessee

[estrellita]

We are leaving in just over a week for our first vacation (kid free!) in over 2 years to Tennessee! Looking for any tips or suggestions anyone has! Here is our rough itinerary:

Sat
-Fly into Chattanooga
-Lunch (any recs?)
-Lookout Mountain
-Rock City
-Is there anything just over the Alabama border to visit? I want to check another state off if possible, but would like to actually "visit" something and not just drive over the border and back, haha.
-Driving to Pigeon Forge (where we're staying - hotel is already booked)

Sun/Mon - not too particular on what day we do things, depends on what's open
-Cades Cove Loop
-Some of the shorter/easier waterfall hikes in the national park
-Olde Smokey distillery
-Possibly an Alpine coaster (recs?)
-Lunch/dinner (recs? Breakfast is provided at the hotel so we'll probably just eat that)

Tue
-Some of the things above if we missed them
-Driving back to Chattanooga, so anything we can see on the way
-Lunch wherever we are at that time
-Spending the night in Chattanooga, likely dinner in Chattanooga

Wed - flying back early

So we're mostly looking for food recs, favorite shorter/easier hikes (don't mind a little longer, but nothing crazy), things to see and do in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, and if there's anything we could see right over the AL border.

TIA!

[2boys2danes]

I hope you have an awesome time! I live in Memphis but we go to Gatlinburg several times a year. This may sound strange but you might want to consider staying in Gatlinburg vs Pigeon Forge. They are only about 7 miles apart but PF is all flat and literally hotel, hotel, hotel, restaurants, outlet malls, rinse and repeat. Its fun and all but the pretty mountainy scenic place to me is definitely Gatlinburg. You can park your car at the hotel and walk the strip and to restaurants. We like Ol Red which is Blake Shelton's bar/restaurant for decent food and live music. There are some good restaurants in Gatlinburg for sure - Peddlar Steak House, Calhouns, Park Grill. I'm Hilton Diamond because I used to have to travel a ton for work so we always use points and stay at the Hilton Garden Inn so we can walk places. My husband and I did the Redneck Comedy Tour and that was hilarious.

Also, in Chatt we loved Rembrandt's for dessert -- I used to have to travel there all the time and if you stay downtown its very walkable and Rembrandt's used to have the best coffee shot/desserts -- not sure how they are now but my youth memories are strong of always going there when in town. 

[woot16]

I went to college at UT and my in laws live in Chatt. Lots of great food options in Chatt - taco mamacita is great if you like Mexican. But we've been to several places in the downtown area and have been happy. I wouldn't waste time driving to the Alabama border it doesn't really have anything close. GA is close but again not much to do right near Chattanooga. Also agree stay in gatlinburg over pigeon forge

[estrellita]

We do have the hotel booked already but I think we're still within the cancelation policy if I remember right. I don't think there was much in Gatlinburg that was within the price we wanted to pay (without it being lower quality) but I could look again! We don't mind driving back to PF afterward or parking somewhere and wandering around. I did notice PF seemed pretty touristy and we'll likely skip a lot of that stuff (like Ripley's, Margaritaville, etc).

I will definitely look into those restaurants! Thanks!

[gardengal]

Personally, for lunch while in GSMNP, I’d bring a picnic. We took a long time doing Cades Cove Loop & doing some of the hikes in it. I’d also plan on early mornings. We went last year & parking areas were full by 8am on the most popular hikes (Laurel Falls definitely was a bit of a crush)

[estrellita]

Apr 21, 2022 11:42:24 GMT -5 gardengal said:

Personally, for lunch while in GSMNP, I’d bring a picnic. We took a long time doing Cades Cove Loop & doing some of the hikes in it. I’d also plan on early mornings. We went last year & parking areas were full by 8am on the most popular hikes (Laurel Falls definitely was a bit of a crush)

I was thinking this too so we wouldn't have to waste time going back to town. I'm planning on bringing a small cooler to put sandwiches or something in and/or see if we can find something that doesn't need to stay cold.

Early mornings should be OK, since it's just us. We can get ready much faster! Hopefully we can get going by 730 or so!

[daisyduck]

Apr 21, 2022 17:27:52 GMT -5 estrellita said:

Apr 21, 2022 11:42:24 GMT -5 gardengal said:

Personally, for lunch while in GSMNP, I’d bring a picnic. We took a long time doing Cades Cove Loop & doing some of the hikes in it. I’d also plan on early mornings. We went last year & parking areas were full by 8am on the most popular hikes (Laurel Falls definitely was a bit of a crush)

I was thinking this too so we wouldn't have to waste time going back to town. I'm planning on bringing a small cooler to put sandwiches or something in and/or see if we can find something that doesn't need to stay cold.

Early mornings should be OK, since it's just us. We can get ready much faster! Hopefully we can get going by 730 or so!

We eat peanut butter sandwiches on trips like this so we don't have to keep anything cold. They are pretty filling too. When we are going to make sandwiches on a trail, we get the individual serving size cups of PB so we aren't carrying around a big jar.

[gardengal]

Apr 21, 2022 17:27:52 GMT -5 estrellita said:

Apr 21, 2022 11:42:24 GMT -5 gardengal said:

Personally, for lunch while in GSMNP, I’d bring a picnic. We took a long time doing Cades Cove Loop & doing some of the hikes in it. I’d also plan on early mornings. We went last year & parking areas were full by 8am on the most popular hikes (Laurel Falls definitely was a bit of a crush)

I was thinking this too so we wouldn't have to waste time going back to town. I'm planning on bringing a small cooler to put sandwiches or something in and/or see if we can find something that doesn't need to stay cold.

Early mornings should be OK, since it's just us. We can get ready much faster! Hopefully we can get going by 730 or so!

If I remember correctly, the cades cove visitors center has a picnic area. We do sandwiches but also cheese/cracker/fruit, leftover pizza if we got that as take out, pasta salad (from the deli of a grocery, you can pick up day/night before), etc

[estrellita]

Apr 21, 2022 17:53:59 GMT -5 daisyduck said:

Apr 21, 2022 17:27:52 GMT -5 estrellita said:

I was thinking this too so we wouldn't have to waste time going back to town. I'm planning on bringing a small cooler to put sandwiches or something in and/or see if we can find something that doesn't need to stay cold.

Early mornings should be OK, since it's just us. We can get ready much faster! Hopefully we can get going by 730 or so!

We eat peanut butter sandwiches on trips like this so we don't have to keep anything cold. They are pretty filling too. When we are going to make sandwiches on a trail, we get the individual serving size cups of PB so we aren't carrying around a big jar.

Ooh I bet the hotel would have those individual PB and jelly containers.. and bread! 🤣

[estrellita]

Anyone know if we should bring bug spray? Not sure how bad mosquitos and ticks (and others) are this time of year in that area.