We took a week long honeymoon in Pigeon Forge, TN that was planned by my husband. When we got engaged we made a deal, I would plan the wedding and he would plan the honeymoon. I loved planning our wedding and he definitely helped a ton but I was the point person. We had exactly six months from the day we got engaged to the day we got married. I could not imagine planning both the wedding and honeymoon at the same time. So he took the reigns and had full control over the honeymoon destination and planning. I didn't even know where we were going until a few weeks before the wedding. That may not have worked for everyone but it was perfect for me. Which is surprising because I am 100% a Type-A personality. But, I could focus on the wedding without feeling like I was neglecting honeymoon plans. We have visited Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg TN twice since we have been married. Even after spending a whole week there we had to go back because there is so much to do and see!
I had actually visited this area several times as a child before we went on our honeymoon, but had not been since I was over the age of (around) 12. So it was a completely different experience as an adult. There were many summers where my grandparents would take my siblings and I along with my cousin on summer vacations and Gatlinburg was a destination we visited more than once. It's a very popular family vacation spot for south-easterners. My husband did not grow up in the southeast so he had never been and did not know what to expect. For those of you, like him, who have never heard about it-let me clue you in.
What is Pigeon Forge TN?
It is a town in eastern Tennessee, nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains, transformed for tourists. It is covered with dinner show venues, interactive museums, mini-golf courses and themed restaurants as well as a beautiful national park. Pigeon Forge is right next door to Gatlinburg, who has many of the same style attractions. Gatlinburg was the original tourist town and as it grew in popularity Pigeon Forge was transformed as well. The best comparison I can make is to Branson, Missouri for anyone who is familiar with that vacation spot. In between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg you find Dollywood, a theme-park started by country music legend Dolly Parton (although some of you may know her as Miley Cyrus' god-mother). You'll find touches of Dolly all throughout both cities.
What did we do?
We drove the 5 hours to Pigeon Forge and arrived around dinner time on the first day of our trip. That evening we checked into our hotel (which my in-laws were gracious enough to book for us as a wedding gift) right in the heart of Pigeon Forge. We stayed in a honeymoon suite-complete with a hot tub, which was really nice after a few days of walking the Gatlinburg strip and the local outlet mall. The difference between the Pigeon Forge area and the Gatlinburg area is the amount of walking you will do. Pigeon Forge is spread out and for the most part you will need to drive between destinations. Gatlinburg is extremely compact, you will park in one of the public lots and then be able to travel on foot between shops and destinations.
Shopping and a Spa Day
We spent our first morning at the Tanger Outlets in Sevierville. This is a sprawling outdoor mall with nearly every store you can imagine. We bought lots of things but honestly other than my husbands sunglasses, I couldn't tell you anything we actually purchased. (It was impulse buying at it's finest, before we started hard core budgeting and setting financial limits.) If you aren't excited about shopping at a normal mall there are plenty of "mom-n-pop" shops around as well. Everyone wants to give you a free sample and you will find some truly unique things. I'm pretty sure we walked out of one store with rattlesnake jerkey....If you're not into mystery jerkey there are fudge shops around every corner. You can find a lot more of these kinds of shops in Gatlinburg, but there are some scattered in Pigeon Forge as well. Another shopping area with some more unique stores is The Island in Pigeon Forge. There are lots of small shops, great restaurant options, and there is also an area that has family friendly fair type rides and an arcade. We did not try out all the rides but we did take a few trips on the Great Smoky Mountain Wheel, the views were breathtaking and our pictures could never do it justice.
We had lunch at Big Daddy's Pizzeria & Arcade, which we now considered one of our favorite restaurants anywhere. There are several of these in the area but not all of them have the arcade section. Our pizza was made fresh in their signature wood fire brick oven. It was so delicious we ate here multiple times on our trip (and it was the only restaurant we repeated on our next trip). After our lunch we had a couples massage session at The Spa at Bear Cove Falls. This was our first experience with professional massages and it was truly amazing. We had an hour massage session and then a 30 minute relaxation session in the hot tub. They also provided a fruit and cheese tray with chilled water. It was incredibly relaxing and gave us a very intimate bonding session to start out the honeymoon, and ultimately start our marriage with. Because of how much walking we did throughout the week (and the aching muscles it created) we both agreed that in the future we would plan spa sessions at the end of our vacation for that reason. That's not something we could have anticipated before the trip but a tip we have tucked away for future use.
Dollywood Adventures
We spent our second day in Dollywood. Although I had visited the area before I had never been to Dollywood and it was a surprising treat. I expected to like it but I didn't expect to love it! I was expecting Dollywood to be closer to a Six Flags experience. I like Six Flags but I'm really only there for the roller-coasters and not the overall experience. The level of detail, theme-ing and cleanliness I saw at Dollywood really is more like a Disney park. Dollywood is more than coasters, although those are great, they also have lots of shows, shops & restaurants. We easily filled our day and didn't feel rushed getting everything done. Pro Tip: If you enter the park after 3:00 pm you can also use your ticket to get in the next day, at no extra cost. Although it didn't work in our schedule I would suggest using this method to get the most out of your ticket. You can spend the evening watching shows, visiting the shops and having dinner in the park and then go back the next day to focus on the rides.
Ripley's Believe It or Not
Who else remembers the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" show? There were so many curious things on there and I have a lot of useless knowledge accumulated because of it. While you can no longer watch the shows (except maybe in re-runs somewhere) you can visit their many attractions. One of the best values is the Ripley's combo ticket. Each ticket includes a visit to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies plus 1-7 other attractions. We bought the Aquarium+2 attractions combo ticket. I am not always a huge fan of Aquariums but I really enjoyed Ripley's, it is both interactive and informative. We were then able to choose two other Ripley's attractions with our ticket. The best thing is...you do not have to use all the tickets in one day! The second attraction we visited was Ripley's Odditorium, it is an interactive museum filled with knick-knacks and artifacts like you would have seen on the Ripley's TV show. For our third attraction we chose Ripley's Davy Crocket Mini Golf, one of two Ripley's courses. All of the Ripley's attractions we visited were in the Gatlinburg area, although I do believe the other mini-golf course we could have chosen was on the Pigeon Forge side. All of these attractions are interactive and kid-friendly. I would suggest them to anyone because it's fun for all ages but, if you have little ones these are great places because they can touch everything (and sometimes it's even encouraged).
Dinner Shows
During this trip we chose to attend the Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud. There was singing, dancing, acrobatics and one of the longest running family feuds in the U.S. The dinner portion is all-you-can-eat and they mean it! My favorite part of the dinner was the "Southern Style Creamy Soup." Lucky for me you can buy the soup packet in the gift shop. Something (somewhat) unique about this dinner show is that it's interactive with the audience. Once you are seated you become either a Hatfield or a McCoy and throughout the show there are opportunities for you to participate in the story. Tickets for these shows sell out fast! This was the only dinner show we attended during our honeymoon, we loved it so much we wanted to see more but we were unable to get tickets for any other shows. My best advice is to either pre-purchase tickets before your trip, or at least buy them as early in the day as possible. If you purchase tickets on-site you are usually given an option to get discounted tickets for other area shows you can use later in your stay. If you are planning to see multiple shows during your trip I suggest taking advantage of that offer.
Who should go?
I truly believe there is something for everyone in Pigeon Forge (and Gatlinburg). I honestly haven't even touched on a fraction of what is available. This is a great vacation for non-planners. You know who you are, the "fly by the seat of your pants", "go with the flow" traveler. Yeah that's not me, but I know you're out there. There are so many shows and museums and activities and shops that you can make no plans and just drive around until you see something you want to do. The only downside of that is some of the popular dinner shows sell out quickly, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to find something else. For all you planners out there you do have the opportunity to pre-book tickets for shows you don't want to miss. For the adventure vacationer, there are many other "action" style attractions such as zip-lining and whitewater rafting. Something else I haven't mentioned is Ober Gatlinburg that has skiing, snowboarding, and ice skating as weather permits. It was out of season during both of our trips so it is still on our future To-Do list. For the nature lover you can spend your trip at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park hiking, backpacking and exploring Cades Cove. Cades Cove Scenic Drive is a favorite activity if my grandparents. The hiking trails are beautiful and there are 11 waterfalls on the property!
Honorable Mentions
There are so many restaurants available we constantly wanted to try something new. Our rule of thumb when on vacation is to eat at places we can't get at home. As I mentioned earlier Big Daddy's Pizzeria has been our only repeat. We did eat at a lot of other really great restaurants though which I'll leave listed below with a rating between 1-5 stars* based on our personal experience.
Bullfish Grill****
Harpoon Harry's****
Loco Burro Fresh Mex Cantina***** (the best Mexican food I've ever had).
Pancake Pantry*****
Paula Deen's Family Kitchen*****(I bought the fried chicken mix).
