Long Weekend in Gatlinburg

There are so many things to do that it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few. Just walking down the main street in Gatlinburg is great fun. There is always some new/different store to go though or some arcade or attraction to go have a fun time in.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is also a great place to visit; you can go on Scenic Drives, Hike one of the many trails, Picnic, Swim, Fish or Bicycle, just to name some of the activities.

One thing we enjoyed was visiting the Smoky Mountain Deer Farm & Exotic Petting Zoo, where you can walk among, pet and feed hand-tamed deer. You can also see zebra, camels, reindeer, kangaroos, wallabies, prairie dogs, miniature goats, exotic cattle, miniature horses, and donkeys. We had a great time here, especially feeding the reindeer apples.

Quick Tips:

Parking in Gatlinburg can be a problem, street parking fills up fast, and depending on the time of year and what is going on in Gatlinburg the parking lots fill up fast too. There was a convention going on the weekend we where there and the parking lots filled up by mid morning. Another thing to consider is traffic, we arrived in Gatlinburg on a Thursday night and traffic was light, but by Friday night traffic was at a stand still and it did not seem to let up till Sunday evening. If you can try and visit during the week, there is much less traffic and the crowds are not nearly as bad. You might also want to plan to visit the more popular restaurants and attractions during the week also, we tried to go to one restaurant for breakfast Saturday morning and found a line at least 100 feet long waiting to get in, but went back Monday morning at the same time and did not have to wait at all.

Best Way To Get Around:

We stayed in Gatlinburg itself and where able to walk just about anyplace in the downtown area. I would really recommend staying in Gatlinburg if you are going to be doing a lot of things in the downtown area. It’s really nice to be able to just walk out of your hotel and stroll though the downtown area.

You will need a car if you want to go to any of the out laying areas or you can take one of Gatlinburg's trolleys. For only 25 cents per ride, you can choose from several routes that will take you to most any downtown location, for a additional charge, you can transfer to outlying areas like Dollywood, the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community and National Park sites like Sugarlands Visitor Center and Elkmont Campground.

If you’re not staying in Gatlinburg you will find limited free parking spots along some of the side streets like River Road, but these spots fill up fast so get there early. Some of the businesses such as restaurants also provide limited amounts of free parking for their customers. There are also several pay parking lots located throughout the city, they can also fill up fast.

Like most hotels the River Terrace has several types of rooms to choose from. You can choose from accommodations that include spacious rooms and suites with two queen beds or one king bed, and some with whirlpools or gas burning fireplaces. Rooms are available with balconies overlooking the river as well as mountain views. We stayed in a mountain view room. It was a very typical hotel room with two queen beds, TV, and a small table with two chairs. It also had a nice balcony that looked out over Gatlinburg.

The River Terrace is made up of five or six different buildings. All of the buildings from the outside are in very good shape, looking freshly painted and well-maintained. The main entrance to the hotel is over a small covered bridge. The lobby is very nice with a fireplace, and they also had hot-spiced apple cider for the guest to enjoy around the fire.

The building we were staying in was in the back up on a hill. The driveway going up to the building was very steep, and even though we had no trouble getting up and down it, I would not want to try it if it was snowy or icy out. They have plenty of parking, so that is not a problem. We were able to park right in front of our room, which made unloading and loading the car real easy.

The room was larger than most hotel rooms that I have stayed in, and was clean. It was starting to show its age though, especially in the bathroom where the flooring needed to be replaced and some of the fixed flooring could us replacing. But overall it fit our needs as we were only using it as a place to sleep for the most part.

Our main reason for choosing the River Terrace was price and location, just up the street about 150 yards from the aquarium and across the street from the Mountain Mall. This placed it pretty much in the middle of Gatlinburg, enabling us to walk to a lot of the attractions and not have to worry about having to drive and find a parking space. They also have two outdoor pools on-site, but due to the time of the year we decided not to use them. There is also a small self-serve laundry on-site.

We decided to eat breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House on a Friday morning. Even though the streets in Gatlinburg where pretty deserted, the Log Cabin Pancake House was very busy. After a short wait we took a table in the smoking section right in front of a huge fireplace. The restaurant is housed in a very unique log building, with two large stone fireplaces, one on each side of the building.

After being seated we looked over the menu, which had a large array of pancakes, waffles, eggs, and omelet dishes. We both decide on omelets and placed our orders, and what I would guess was less than five minutes we had our food. Each omelet also came with three good-sized pancakes, so it’s pretty hard to leave the place hungry. The food was very good, with the omelets being made exactly as we had ordered them. The pancakes were delicious too.

We went back for lunch on Sunday. They close at 2pm by the way on Sundays. I had their lunch buffet this time. The buffet had a hot and cold section. The cold section was a typical salad bar. Everything on the salad bar looked and tasted very fresh. The hot section was not huge but had a good selection, with three meats (ham, chicken, and a steak in gravy), a couple of vegetables, a couple of potato dishes, and a few other dishes. All in all it was very good.

Make sure you bring cash because they do not except credit cards or checks, but they do have an ATM on-site. I did not see where it was, but I’d bet it had a nice surcharge for using it.

We went to the Hard Rock Café on a Thursday night, and had no problem walking right in. In fact, I’d say over half the restaurant was empty, which was great for us. While we were waiting for our food we could wander around the restaurant, looking at all the cool memorabilia hanging on the walls.

I had the grilled beef fajitas, your traditional roll-your-own fajitas but with a little bit of a different flavor. I thought they were very good and would have them again. My wife had the bacon cheeseburger, which she said was very good also. The pricing for the food seemed reasonable also, especially considering we were in Gatlinburg where all the prices seem to be inflated.

When we passed the Hard Rock Café the next night it had a line out the door, so if you can go during the week (not sure what Monday through Wednesday are like, but Thursday was not very busy), Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights looked very busy.

We stopped in here on our way out of Gatlinburg for lunch. It is located on Route 66, right next to the Clarion Inn Willow River Hotel.

The restaurant has a road side theme, with old signs hanging all around the restaurant. There was an old Gulf gas station sign hanging on the wall across from our table that had a couple bullet holes in it!!

The menu is your classic American dinner--burgers, salads, chili, and stuff like that. Most of the items have names that go along with the roadside theme. We both had the Roadmaster burger, which is just another name for a bacon cheeseburger. These burgers were huge and there was a giant pile of fries to go along with it. You will not leave hungry! All the food was prepared as we ordered and was very good.

I saw them bring out some type of salad to a lady and it was huge. I thought the ladies jaw was going to hit the floor when the waitress put it down in front of her.

The service was very good. They where quick to bring drink refills and anything else we needed. We stopped in at lunch time on a weekday, and there was no wait for a table.

The Smoky Mountain Deer Farm and Exotic Petting Zoo offers a unique experience. You can’t just go anyplace and walk among, pet, and feed over 100 hand-tamed deer. Besides the deer they also have zebra, zonkeys (part zebra, part donkey), camels, reindeer, kangaroos, wallabies, prairie dogs, miniature goats, exotic cattle, miniature horses and donkeys, emu, and a bunch of peacocks that just wonder around the property. Our four-year-old daughter loved it, especially feeding the reindeer pieces of apples. You can feed just about all the animals except for the kangaroos and wallabies. Word of caution: the camels will slobber all over your hand when you are feeding them.

We went twice on the same day (had to go back because the memory card in our digital camera went bad). The first visit was in the morning and the animals were not as active as the second time we visited, which was around 5pm.

You can buy cups of food for to feed to the animals there. A large cup costs $3.50. We found that one large cup of food was enough for us to go around and feed all the different animals. If you run out you can get a refill at a discounted price.

Since everything except the gift shop is outdoors, you might want to watch the weather when you go. I don’t think it would be nearly as nice to go in the rain.

Besides the petting zoo, they also offer pony rides for the kids and horseback riding for adults.

One other piece of advise: if you are going in with the goats, do not wear very loose clothes. The baby goats tend to try and chew on any loose clothing.