Road Trip to Dollywood

Family tradition

Every year in July, my family embarks on a weeklong vacation to a new, exciting location with a plethora of activities for the kids to enjoy. However, like many of you, our vacation got derailed this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and we were unable to fly anywhere limiting our grandeur plans. So, we opted for a road trip instead. We wanted to experience the same feeling of adventure but within driving distance. As North Carolinians, we’re only a few hours away from the east coast beaches. Although that is a great option, we found the beach rentals were selling out fast. We searched inland instead and found amid the mountains of Tennessee a scenic beauty — Dollywood. 

Visiting Tennesse

As described on their website, www.Dollywood.com, “Dollywood, named after one of Tennessee’s local celebrities, Dolly Parton, is more than just a world class theme park. It’s the complete getaway for families looking to disconnect from the world’s distractions and reconnect with each other while nestled in the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains. Dollywood’s properties provide ample opportunity to overwrite life’s daily stresses with new family memories.” This grabbed our attention, hook, line, and sinker. We searched the cities surrounding Dollywood including Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and found they offered many other family attractions, restaurants, and kid-friendly activities that would keep us busy for at least a week. So, we packed up the family vehicle and headed west to Dollywood.

Within a 5 ½ hour drive, we arrived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where the Great Smoky Mountains surrounded us on all sides. Dollywood is nestled among these majestic beauties. The Dollywood Resort offers world-class accommodations including resort rooms, family suites, and cabins. Within the resort, you’ll find a restaurant, cafe, indoor and outdoor pools, fitness room, a spa, and free parking on site, as well as free shuttle service to and from the amusement and water parks. During the pandemic, they require all guests and staff to wear a face mask at all times, which helped us feel safe while staying at the resort. We pre-purchased a 3-day pass to the amusement and water parks, which allowed us to reserve which days we would be utilizing the parks. This helps Dollywood set capacity limits low and reduces the number of visitors for the safety of their guests and staff. 

Traveling during COVID

After a very comfortable night’s sleep in the resort, we put on our masks and headed down to the shuttle for a quick, 5-minute drive to Dollywood amusement park. Security and temperature checks were made prior to entering the park each day, which eased our minds knowing they were taking precautions from the start. The theme park spans 150 acres and offers more than 40 world class rides, high energy entertainment, award winning dining and a friendly atmosphere. We spent the entire day at Dollywood amusement park and were able to ride each roller coaster at least two times. The kids were over the moon because there were no lines! We enjoyed the many “cooling off” stations around the park where we were able to take off our masks and relax a bit as well. The restaurants offered southern cooking, Asian options, quick bites like hot dogs and hamburgers, as well as delicious desserts like their famous “Cinnamon Bread”. Following a full day at the theme park, we were able to spend some down time together in the pool at the resort with room-service for a late dinner. It was the perfect start to our vacation. 

The next day, we opted to try the water park, Splash Country. We followed the same safety protocols to enter the water park, and found that there were plenty of spots to place our belongings and towels since capacity to the park is limited. “Splash Country features more than 23 water adventure slides and thrill rides – from the daring drops of Big Bear Plunge, a white water rafting ride, to the twisting turns of the Mountain Scream body slide ride.” There are two interactive children’s playground areas, the Cascades and Little Creek Falls, and plenty of family fun activities for everyone. Just like the theme park, we found that every water ride was easily accessible with little wait times. And, the lazy river was especially nice to sit back and relax on a tube when we needed a break. The variety of food at Splash Country offered salads, burgers, sandwiches, chicken tenders, and more. We especially enjoyed sharing a waffle cone sundae in the middle of the day. Splash Country closes earlier than the theme park, but we had no problem riding every water slide and attraction there more than once! At the end of the day, my children exclaimed, “The water park is our favorite!” A good time was had by all. 

Whitewater rafting

Following two full days of parks, we decided to explore the city of Gatlinburg for our next adventure. Gatlinburg has a variety of outdoor activities including Class-IV whitewater rafting, world-class golf and fishing, and 900 miles of hiking trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Gatlinburg is one of America’s premier outdoor destinations. We opted for a skylift ride to the top of a mountain where we enjoyed a mountain roller coaster, suspended bridge walk, and gorgeous views. After spending a few hours atop of the world, we descended into the city for lunch. There are numerous restaurants lining the streets of downtown Gatlinburg, as well as museums like Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Ripley’s Aquarium, and other activities such as miniature golf, arcades, gem mining, and shopping. You can spend the entire day in Gatlinburg and not see it all, which is what we found out. But, we wanted to return to the resort in time to witness the Fireworks Spectacular show that entertains guests every Friday and Saturday evening. Following the show, resort guests can sit by the campfire and enjoy S’mores while reminiscing about the day’s events. 

Feeding parrots

Another cool city in the area to explore is Pigeon Forge, TN. We spent the next day there starting off with reservations for indoor skydiving. This was a first for our family, and an adventure we’ll never forget. After skydiving, we visited Parrot Mountain and Gardens which is nestled on four acres of beautifully landscaped gardens. There are hundreds of exotic, tropical birds and thousands of flowers, plants and trees. My children were ecstatic to be able to feed the friendly parrots by hand and hold them on their shoulders. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience we’ll never forget with these amazing birds. Next, we hopped on some go-karts in downtown Pigeon Forge and raced each other to the finish lines. Finally, we learned about the famous iceberg accident that took down the Titanic at the Titanic Museum. It is built half-scale to the original ship. Similar to the one in Branson, Missouri, the museum holds 400 pre-discovery artifacts in twenty galleries. There are many other museums and attractions in Pigeon Forge, like dinner theaters, ropes courses, ATV rides, and other amusement parks. We simply ran out of time to do it all. 

For our final full day in the area, we experienced a thrilling, yet safe, whitewater rafting trip on the French Broad River. Our guide, Cory, led us through class II and III rapids with great knowledge of the river. The 2 hour trip was exciting and fun, with our children smiling and laughing the whole way. We loved being able to swim in the river when it was calm, then jump back into the raft to finish the trip. There are also tubing options for those families with younger children. And, on all sides of the river, we witnessed beautiful wildlife and gorgeous mountains. 

As you can see, Dollywood, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge proved to be the adventurous, exciting location we hoped for in our annual vacation within a short drive from home. In fact, we were saddened to leave such a wonderful place, and will be returning in the future as we found there was still so much we want to experience there. 

Have you enjoyed a fun, family road trip to an exciting location this summer? Connect with us on Instagram @MapsCookingKids or on Twitter @MapsCookingKids. Until next time, Agape, be kind, and happy parenting.