Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge | Visiting with Kids | Family Vacation Adventuring Together
- Admin
- Apr 29, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: Mar 11
Whether you're headed to the Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge area for a family vacation, honeymoon or just a couple's getaway, when you get to go on vaca you want it to BE A DANG GOOD ONE (right?!) lol.
For us, a dang good vacation means sleeping in, avoiding tourist trap food (ick!) and exploring new things together. And as parents that still seems to hold true in our world even after having a kiddo.
So whatever adventure you're setting off on, here's some things we learned on our trip that are worth knowing before you go!
Skip Ahead Food | Things To Do | Where We Stayed
We Found AMAZING Food...
There is NOTHING worse then LONG FREAKIN' waits in restaurant queues after a long day of exploring, ESPEICALLY if have kiddos. For us, over that 45 minutes with a kiddo in toe is just NOT going to happen unless it's a freaking amazing place.
Even worse still is waiting for your table only for the food to be greasy, tourist-y and expensive as heck. The good news though is for EVERY crappie tourist spot (think subpar burgers, reheated chicken fingers, plat plain pancakes, etc) there is totally AMAZING restaurant waiting to be discovered!
And we did just that! I didn't have time to research food before we went so we relied HEAVILY on google restaurant reviews to find the best spots. When we found an amazing spot, we also asked our server about other great places in the area (thinking great food knows how to find more great food, right?)
But enough talking... let's dive in. Here are our favorite food finds while we were there:
The BEST meal of the whole trip and the drinks were on pointe! We both opted for steak here about 2/3rds through our trip. I will say the parking lot is TERRIBLE. We almost got hit 3x while I was parking... so much so I got out and told Justin "you park, I'm done". But it was worth the frustration! The food was AMAMMMM-AZZZZ-BALLS. Cannot recommend enough!!! Appetizers came quickly, beer cheese was yummy and even our kiddo was happy. win/win/win. (She didn't love all the great food we had and spent a lot of time asking for grilled cheese or chicken nuggets). Service was FAST, professional and very helpful navigating the best eats to try. Steaks were cooked PERFECTLY.
'Yall, I'm NOT a breakfast person. I don't do eggs (weird I know) and I'm not a pancake fan. I do love waffles though so we gave this place a shot due to it's great reviews, the pictures looking terribly yummy and the fact it had a brunch menu too. It also has a BUILD YOUR OWN BLOODY MARY MENU which in our experience is often a sign of a really great meal (even if you don't drink BMs like me). (I know, weird way to judge a place, but with all the time my hubs spent traveling for work he swears by the BM Bar promise). Any ways... OMG. This place was soooo yummy! Try the french toast stick appetizer and ANYTHING with banana foster sauce (which was new to me). The stuffed french toast looked too good not to try so I did on our second visit. I'm pretty sure there is NOTHING you can go wrong with at this place.
So this was our first dinner once we got to the cabin and it was so good we went back on our last day for breakfast before heading out of town. The place is huge and well staffed and everything is scratch made.
I had friend chicken for dinner which was crispy and not greasy and the sides were delicious! Then for breakfast we ordered the CINNAMON ROLL for the table (which is MASSIVE, btw) and then I had biscuits and gravy -- where were actually really good -- and since I can make this meal from scratch at home, I have high standards. It was super rich and creamy. Verry yummy and I couldn't even eat HALF of the HALF portion it was so big and yummy.
Also the breakfast apples were yummy and the icing from the cinnamon roll is def. made from scratch, in house. So, so good.
The ONLY place we waited more then 45 minutes for was at Anakeesta at the Cliff Top restaurant, (there are other options there) which was 2 hours.
So what we did was as soon as we got there (about 5pm), we decided where we wanted to eat. Then went to get on the list. Since they use a text system we actually used the 2 hours to explore all of Anakeesta's kid stuff and observation tower which worked PERFECTLY. We also grabbed a drink at the Tap House window after jumping on the list and was able to sip our cocktails as we explored the whole place. I HIGHLY recommend this method. The wait didn't feel like a wait at all b/c we used the time to do what we planned to do there anyway. Otherwise I would NEVER wait 2hrs for a meal...no matter what the view. Forget it!
Guys we did ice cream a couple places but this place was SO DANG CUTE with all the staff wearing the cutest uniforms and the ice cream tasting like HEAVEN. It's fresh made daily and you can tell it! If you're local to Hamilton Co Indiana, it's even better then Handles. The kiddo had chocolate (big surprise there) but we had the Brown Butter (!!!!!!!) and sat on a family sing looking at the clouds roll in over a sunset mountain sky. Plus the pottery shop next door was a fun place to check out too!
Side Note, Not A Favorite, But A Happy Surprise From the Pirate Dinner Show...
We did the Pirate Dinner Show (similar to the Dixie Stampede) while we were there for the kiddo and I really had LOW expectations of this HIGH TICKET show. I figured the show would be good but the food would be catering style and lacking flavor. I'm happy to share I was wrong. Although it was amazing food it was very similar to what you'd have at MCL. The food was warm and flavorful and not over cooked or living under heat lamps. Although I'd never say go for the food, lol, we did not end up leaving after the show to find dinner as I figured we would. Also the cocktails were expensive as you'd expect ($15/each) BUT my rum-runner was very tasty and Ainz loved the skull cup. Thanks Dolly.
You'll notice we opted to eat in Pigeon Forge a lot. Our cabin was half way between the two towns and although Gatlinburg is arguably more beautiful with better views, the traffic was CRAZY to try to get into town and the number of restaurants seemed far more limited/touristy (ie. Bubba Gump, etc).
Food To SKIP...
Red Rooster Breakfast in Pigeon Forge - SKIP this place. Hard pass... Food was basic dinner food, lots of canned fruit topping waffles and pancakes (a personal pet peeve of mine) and TERRIBLE service! Thank goodness for Nicole (a different area's server) because Kim (our server) basically ignored us the ENTIRE time, EXCEPT to grab the last people's tip off the table.
Smith & Son Corner Kitchen for Lunch in Gatlinburg | Bland and Just "OK" We didn't look at food for our Gatlinburg day until after we did the aquarium and played put-put. Then we walked a it and did the tourist "I'm hungry now and want to sit down, where doesn't have a ridiculous wait" dash. WRONG MOVE. We didn't have a terrible experience. Our server was attentive, which with it being rush time, we greatly appreciated, and the view nice, but the food... ehhhh. I had steak fajitas which were subpar at best. The hubs had a sandwich which he said was "ok" and the kiddo had a grilled cheese. The place looked really cool, so we had high hopes, but I'd try to find some place else if I had the choice.
Places we wanted to eat BUT the wait was too long...
Crockett's Breakfast Camp in Gatlinburg: we tried a couple of days to get in here, but they were so busy they weren't doing a digital wait list. With it being vaca, we decided to have a slow morning in the cabin every day, which means we were looking to eat around 9/10am, when it is VERY busy. For us it wasn't worth getting up early for with a kiddo, BUT if it would have been just he and I we might have tried getting up early on the day we did Gatlinburg to avoid the rush. The food online and reviews look amazing.
Pro Tip: Most of these places either take reservations if you plan a couple of days ahead (hah! as a mom though, who has time for that?) OR what we did, was use their google links to JUMP ON THE WAITING LIST when we'd load up in the car to head towards town to eat. This mean that a 45 minute wait was actually about 15 minutes once we got there, etc.
Things To Do...
I'm not going to lie. We did A LOT on our 4 day trip to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Here's a break down of what we did, that we loved
Day 1: Travel Day
Got into town around 5pm and we were all tired. We opted to keep it simple, by doing dinner and then chilling in the cabin.
Day 2: Gatlinburg Town Day
Breakfast @ The Brick & Spoon
Gatlinburg Town Day: Ripley's Aquarium, Town Put Put
We spent the day in Gatlinburg town, arriving around 11am which put us in the MIDDLE of HEAVY traffic. We opted to park on the edge of town and then walk, this was a SMART idea as the street traffic got heavier the deeper you went into town.
We then went to Ripley's Aquarium which took us about 2 hours. The kiddo loved it and took lots of her own photos. After that we played some put-put, found some lunch and walked around town a bit. We left around 4:30 as we had 6pm Pirate Dinner Show tickets
The pirate show was a lot of fun and a great way to kick off the night with face painting and family entertainment. We were also really surprised at the quality of food, not having high hopes for it prior. The acrobats and diving stunts were fun and the kiddo really loved it all. I don't know if we'd ever go back to that exact show, but it was a fun night and we would look at some of it's sister shows (ie. the Dixie Stampede, etc) if we were to go back.
After the Pirate Show, we were still feeling awesome so we opted to go go-karting in Pigeon Forge at Fast Tracks! The kiddo could drive on the kid course or ride 2nd with an adult as we all took the track together. The elevated and the fast tracks were both fun and out of all the go-kart facilities this one looked the best maintained, which is why we picked it.
Day 3: Jayell Ranch Adventure Day
Breakfast @ The Red Rooster (skip this place!)
This was our heavy spend & big adventure day and we did something everyone wanted to do. The kiddo wanted to zipline, I wanted to ride and the hubs thought doing ATVs would be fun, so we did it all Jayell Ranch Adventure Day:
We stayed busy on the ranch all day and the kiddo also LOVED the baby goats and bunnies in the free petting zoo area. Also the snack shack was actually really good! We had a blast!
Day 4: Smokey Mt Park Day
Went into The Great Smokie Mountains National Park to go play in the shallow rivers and let the kiddo play. We also packed a picknick for lunch and had so much fun! This is something my family always did growing up when we went to Gatlinburg, so it was really important to me that we did it with her too.
Evening at Anakeesta
We were on the fence about visiting Anakeesta, but after meeting some families at the ranch and talking with them, we decided to give it a go! And honestly it really was worth the trip... and that dang chair lift.
I talk a bit more about this earlier in this post here.
We also got tickets to the night time light show -- BUT -- two young bears decided to hang out on the walking path, which made them close it until the area was safe. That meant the line of people got sooooooooooooooooooooo long. When we went to check in it was probably a 2hr+ wait just from all the people AND they path still wasn't declared clear yet SO we had 2hrs of people + waiting on the bears.
So... we opted to skip it as felt like we'd just be doing the light path in a giant blob of people, not able to see much if we stayed in line. Not to mention the wait... and umm.... bears. LOL. We also realized that once the walk was over ALL these people had to then get back down the mountain, so the lines for the chair lifts, trucks and gondalas would be sooooo, sooo long making another long wait.
Instead, we go the kiddo ice cream, sat by a bonfire and then jumped in a super short line to go down the mountain in the chair lift. It actually was still really nice.
Dinner @ The Clifftop Restaurant at Anakeesta Food was good but the bar at the entrance actually has better views, IMHO
Day 5: Travel Day Home
Where We Stayed...
I really can't say ENOUGH about the cabin my husband picked and booked for us to stay in! I was looking at a less expensive option, but I'm so glad he convinced me it was worth a little extra...because it totally was! We stayed in an Airbnb that was in PERFECT location to do Pigeon Forge OR Gatlinburg.
Basically 1/2 way between them our cabin was pretty easy to get to, while not feeling like we were in town. It had plenty of parking for our SUV and the kiddo LOVED the two decks over looking a little stream. While I was napping one afternoon she and daddy even did some exploring down the hill to check it out.
There were other cabins around us so it didn't feel overly remote but we had plenty of privacy and the houses were NOT on top of each other at all.
The beds here were okay and the kitchen was well stocked. We really only made coffee there in the mornings, but it was a fully outfitted kitchen. The kiddo also loved the foosball table which we ended up playing every night before bed.
We also LOVED LOVED LOVED the upstairs loft layout as we slept on the bed across from the upstairs walkway with gorgeous windows and the kiddo slept on the pull out couch across from us. There was PLENTY of room, but she didn't have to be on a different level which, LET'S BE HONEST, would have probably meant her sleeping with me and daddy downstairs.
Hosts were super responsive and the check out was simple - didn't have to do 500 things plus pay a cleaning fee. 10 / 10 and would 100% stay in it again. Check out the Airbnb Here
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