An Appalachian high, and a Tennessee one, and a shopping one and many more.

Everyone has heard of the area’s arguably most favorite citizen, Dolly Parton, but one of the travel spots that I would argue has literally the most all purpose options is the Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gaitlinburg, Tennessee area. There are opportunities for couples, for singles, for families, for kids, for weekends or extended stays with your friend(s). What does this look like? Glad you asked. A multitude of everything. I’ll start and highlight a bit on the “adult” side (more specifically) and the we can blend some of the other different opportunities in as we talk. 

The Apple Barn and Cider Mill Store is a great all purpose shopping, eatery, winery, and more experience. A working orchard, you can start a tour of wineries here, and their wines are good. One of the leading fruit wineries in the country we have taken several bottles home on multiple trips. Meals, snacks and other food are available too. Need a midday food stop? This would be a great option. I’m going to say almost all of the different elements of the entire facility are made with the apple background in mind. I mentioned the wine tour briefly earlier talking about the Apple Barn complex but there are as many as five more for you to consider. The agri-touring of the wine industry in this area is a great touring experiencing to take advantage of if that’s your thing and here’s the kicker, everything (not just the wines) are reasonably priced too.

If you need a shopping spree, you’re in a great place. High end, specialty, niche, and normal big box needs are all possibilities in this area. You can spend a day in the shopping community very, very easily.

The variety of outdoor based options can blow your mind. Rafting, golfing, mountain biking, hiking, zip lining, skiing, fly fishing and more are available. If you are an outdoors oriented person, family or couple this may be a great place for you to consider also.

There are parks and vacation “spot” kindof attractions as well. Dollywood features the mountain culture, rides, food, entertainment and shows. It’s a full day (or more) experience that will have a resort feel to it. In addition to the theme aspects, there are water park activities as well so if you go in the summer, you will have a great opportunity to cool off and enjoy the day.

There are festivals of all kinds in this area too! Like many communities of this nature there is the local annual fair, the farmers market, the concert series, but throw in the holiday events as well and you have a wide range of community event experiences to take part in also.

What you may not be familiar with, is the historical nature of the area. Dotted with museums, artifacts and other pieces of Tennessee’s past, you have the opportunity to explore some of Tennessee’s early frontier history and the American frontier history in this area as well. As one example, Sevierville is named after John Sevier, the first governor. Try this link to get a snapshot of the story of this area.

At another point down our journey together, we’ll dig into the Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Sevierville with a little more depth. Today though, was about giving you a taste. So from a thirty-thousand foot vantage point, you need to consider this gateway in East Tennessee for your next extended vacation, with the “stay” options for resorts to cabins, and the litany of activities in different venues and entertaining different interests, Pigeon Forge, Sevierviile and Gatlinburg have a wide variety of options to offer at a number of different times throughout a year. Let us know if there is anything we can do, we have thoroughly enjoyed our visits there and we are talking about how soon we might can go again.