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Escape to the charming mountain town of Gatlinburg, TN for a weekend filled with breathtaking views, outdoor adventures, and down-home Southern hospitality. From exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to a vast amount of thrilling activities, there’s something for everyone in this picturesque getaway destination. So pack your bags and join me as I talk about our weekend getaway in Gatlinburg, TN and how you can create a fun-filled weekend of your own.
Trip Date: March 2023
Locations: Gatlinburg, TN & Smoky Mountains National Park
Other details: We did this as a group trip with 6 people total
ITINERARY
DAY 1 – TRAVEL DAY & CHECK IN
We flew into Knoxville, TN (McGhee Tyson Airport) and arrived around 12pm. Then we got our rental car and headed straight to Gatlinburg. The drive from the Knoxville airport to Gatlinburg is about 1 hour and 15 minutes, but can change depending on traffic. Click here for affordable rental car options!
We ended up arriving to Gatlinburg around 2pm and it was too early to check in our cabin rental, so we headed to Smoky Mountain Brewing for a bite to eat and some beers. Smoky Mountain Brewing was on the main road in downtown Gatlinburg and had a variety of foods such as pizza, wings, burgers, etc. They also had a selection of about 10 of their own beers on tap with flights available. We found this place to be affordable and tasty. Parking can also be tough/costly in downtown Gatlinburg, but they offered free parking for customers here.
After eating, we headed to our cabin rental for check in. We rented a Stony Brook Lodging cabin and I have to say, I was extremely impressed!! Our cabin had beautiful views, a hot tub and was clean/well kept. I would highly recommend checking this rental out. It was called “Just Perfect” – and it surely was just perfect. Click here for the direct booking link: Just Perfect Cabin Booking Link
After we got settled in, we did a small grocery shopping trip so we could have some snacks and meals at the cabin throughout the trip.
Side note: If you are planning on drinking in Gatlinburg, I highly recommend finding somewhere within walking distance of the downtown area. Uber/Lyft was available in the town in 2023, but the apps could never find drivers, so it was essentially non-existent. Our cabin was 1.2 miles from downtown and involved climbing a pretty steep hill, which we were good with, but may not be ideal for everyone. We did however find a taxi service for night time, but it was pretty expensive ($30) for a mile drive.
Check out more hotel and VRBO options below:
DAY 2 – GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
After taking in our beautiful views at the cabin for a bit in the morning, we headed to Great Smoky Mountains National Park around 10am. One thing to note is that there is no entrance fee for the park, but there are parking fees instead. As of 2023, it’s $5 daily for a vehicle, $15 for week, or $40 for an annual parking pass.
We entered the park on Newfound Gap Rd and had intentions of driving to Clingmans Dome hoping it would be open (Drive is approx 45 minutes.) Unfortunately it wasn’t quite open yet – it is generally closed from December-March based on snow/weather conditions and we were visiting in March. Clingmans Dome is the highest point in the park and Tennessee at 6,643 feet. There is an observation tower on the summit of Clingmans Dome (it’s a steep half mile walk to the top) and on clear days views can expand over 100 miles. Unfortunately, air pollution limits views to less than 20 miles often though. Since we weren’t able to drive all the way to Clingmans Dome, we parked and explored Newfound Gap instead, which was right by the entrance/road to Clingmans Dome,
Newfound Gap had a pretty large parking lot and some pretty view points of the Smoky Mountains right off the parking lot. The Appalachian Trail also goes past this stop. We decided to hop on the Appalachian Trail for an about 1 mile (heading north) before running into snow/ice and then turned around and headed back. On the way to Newfound Gap and on the way back to Gatlinburg, there were several outlooks along Newfound Gap Rd that we stopped at as well.
We ended up getting back to Gatlinburg around 3-4pm and headed to Sugarlands Distilling Company for a drink. We came back and did a tour another day, but they had a semi-outdoor bar in the back that had a variety of tasty cocktails using their distilled products.
After Sugarlands, our group split up – some went to the Gatlinburg SkyPark, which had a SkyLift (chairlift), SkyBridge, SkyWalk and SkyDeck. See photos below for that experience! For the others that aren’t huge fans of chairlifts/heights (me being one lol), we went mini golfing at Gatlin’s Smoky Mountain Fun instead. It was a neat mini golf course built into the side of the mountain. There are a lot of mini golf options in Gatlinburg though (Ex. Hillbilly Golf) – we just chose this one because it was convenient for us.
After our activities, we headed back to our cabin for the night.
DAY 3 – DOWNTOWN GATLINBURG
This day we spent most of our day downtown doing tastings and walking around. There are so many different places to taste moonshine, sweet wine and ciders. Most tastings cost $5 and get you 5-10 samples – the moonshine can catch up to you quickly so proceed with caution 😉 As I said before, there are a lot of places, but here are some of the most popular ones:
-Sugarlands Distilling Company
-Ole Smoky Moonshine
-Tennessee Shine Company
-Gatlinburg Winery
-Gatlinburg Wine Cellar
-Bootleggers Homemade Wine
-Little Bear Winery
-Ole Smoky Barrelhouse (whiskey)
-Tennessee Cider Company
It also happened to be St. Patrick’s Day when we were there, so we had to celebrate at the Irish bar in town called Shamrock’s Pub! One thing that surprised me was the lack of night life in Gatlinburg. For all the alcohol and tastings they have in the town, almost everywhere closed by 10pm. I personally didn’t love Shamrock’s, but it was one of the only places open later so we made a few appearances there haha.
Another activity you can do downtown is Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum or aquarium. See below to purchase tickets in advance.
Check out these other Gatlinburg tours as well – there are so many options!
DAY 4 – ANAKEESTA & MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN COASTER
In the early afternoon, we drove to the Moonshine Mountain Coaster, which was about 5-10 minutes from our cabin/downtown. As of 2023, tickets were $17/adult. We waited in line for about 30 minutes before getting on the self-controlled coaster and everyone in the group had their own coaster/cart. If you haven’t done a mountain coaster before, I’d recommend as a family-friendly activity!
https://www.moonshinemountaincoaster.com
After the coaster, we headed to Sugarlands Distillery for our scheduled “Blended Cocktails Tour.” This tour was a 30-minute distillery tour and included two hand-crafted cocktails for just $12/person. This was the only official tour we did in Gatlinburg, but we enjoyed it.
After Sugarlands, we headed to Anakeesta – which was one of my favorite parts of the trip!! Tickets were around $40/adult and included the following:
-Unlimited Chondola and Ridge Rambler rides (aka chairlift and shuttle rides)
-Anavista Observation Tower
-Treetop Skywalk
-Vista Gardens
-TreeVenture Challenge Course
-Treehouse Adventure Play Area
-BearVenture Challenge Course
Click here to purchase your tickets to Anakeesta!
DAY 5 – TRAVEL DAY
Our last day was pretty uneventful. We woke up and headed right to the Knoxville Airport to make our journey home! If you enjoyed reading this blog, check out my other blogs at the link here. 🙂
This blog post may contain affiliate links, which are at no cost to you. It just helps support me so I can continue to put out free content for you like this! Thank you for your support!