Places of Interest
Smoky Mountains
Home to the largest national park in the U.S.A. covering over 500,000 acres of one of the most ancient mountain areas on Earth, this is the last of the Southern Appalachian forests and home to a tremendous diversity of wild life with breathtaking views, countless streams, waterfalls, and flowering plants and shrubs.
The Cherokee described these mountains as shaconage, meaning "blue, like smoke". The bluish mist which clings to the mountainsides and fills the valleys, gives the park it’s name, The Land of the Blue Mist, and remains amongst its most distinctive features. The Smokies teem with a wondrous diversity of life with over 10,000 species of plants and animals documented to date. The national park is home to white-tailed deer, elk, river otters, racoons, turkeys, and the largest number of black bears, estimated at in excess of 1,500, in the Eastern States. The most popular sights include Clingmans Dome, the sheer rock pinnacles of Chimney Tops, the 100 ft Ramsey Cascades waterfall, the spectacular Mongo Falls, Abrams Falls, Rainbow Falls, and the scenic and historical sites at Cataloochee Valley, Cades Cove, and Oconaluftee.
The Smokies offer a unique experience for visitors with over 800 miles of trails for hiking and exploration and incredible photography opportunities. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has about 2,115 miles of streams within its boundaries, and protects one of the last wild trout habitats in the Eastern United States. The park offers a wide variety of angling experiences from remote, headwater trout streams to large, cool water smallmouth bass streams. Most streams remain at or near their carrying capacity of fish and offer a great opportunity to catch these species throughout the year. About 550 miles of the park's hiking trails are specifically designated as being open to horses, and there are four commercial stables located in the park where horses can be rented by the hour.
The Smokies are beautiful throughout the year but are particularly awe-inspiring in the Autumn with the changes in the colours of the foliage of the vast variety of trees. It is not surprising that the Great Smoky Mountain National Parkis the most visited National Park in the U.S.A. with the preference for accommodation being luxury log cabin rentals
Pigeon Forge
Renowned for it’s southern hospitality and visited by more than 11 million Americans each year for it’s Attractions (more than 40 located on Pigeon Forge’s Parkway including water rides and a an indoor skydiving simulator), dinner theatres with Broadway-style shows, all styles of music, high-energy dancing, magical illusions, and wholesome family entertainment, and Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Theme Park and Splash Country, Pigeon Forge is known as the All-American Getaway. Dollywood presents some of the south's largest festivals such as Bluegrassand BBQ, National Gospel & Harvest Celebration, and the Smoky Mountain Christmas Festival. With more than 16 city-sponsored special Pigeon Forge events throughout the year, the action never really stops in Pigeon Forge!
Within easy reach of Pigeon Forge are a variety of outdoor activities including fishing, sailing, golf, water-skiing, jet-skiing, trekking, hiking, helicopter tours, whitewater rafting, mountain tours, ATV riding over 7,000 acres of mountain trails, and horseback riding.
Pigeon Forge offers superb discount shopping with over 300 outlet and speciality shops. There are six outlet malls, in addition to stores and shops at Walden’s Landing and Mill Squarewhich provide opportunities for the visitor to acquire unique collectibles, fine art, oil & watercolour paintings, pottery, and glassware.
There are numerous restaurants catering for all palates including a wide choice of cuisine including home-town Southern menus, steakhouses, barbecues, seafood, Italian, Mexican, Japanese and Chinese. Many American standards are also here, such as Ruby Tuesday’s, Taco Bell, TGI Friday’s, Wendy’s, Ponderosa, Subway, KFC, and Cracker Barrel.
With the backdrop of the beautiful Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge is an incredible location for an unforgetable vacation particularly if your accommodation falls into the luxury log cabin rentals category.
Gatlinburg
Gatlinburg, a beautiful mountain resort community reminiscent of the Austrian Tyrol and Switzerland, is just five miles from Pigeon Forge, is the principal gateway to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and offers over 100 restaurants with a choice of cuisine to suit your palate, over 450 shops, Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, live concerts at Sweet Fanny Adams Theater or the Back to the 50's Rock-n-Roll Theater, nightlife, and the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort and Amusement Park offering winter skiing and snowboarding, year-round indoor ice skating, and the world's largest tram - a 120-passenger Alpine tram conveying people from downtown Gatlinburg to the top of Mount Harrison.
Gatlinburg in the home to special events throughout the year including Springfest from March to June; Ribfest, an outdoor street barbecue with live blues; Flowerfest from April to June; the 4th July Midnight Parade; the Smoky Mountain Harvest Festival from September to October; Winterfest Celebration from November to February: Fantasy of Lights Christmas Parade; New Year's Eve Ball Drop & Firework Show.
The Gatlinburg area offers a tremendous variety of activities including golfing, horseback riding, fishing, bicycling, wildlife watching, skiing, snow boarding, hiking, white-water rafting, walking, sightseeing, or just enjoying Southern hospitality and some of the most fantastic scenery in the U.S.A. or anywhere else in the world.
Sevierville
Located within a few minutes drive from Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Sevierville is most famous for being the birthplace of her favourite daughter, Dolly Parton, whose statue, sculpted by local artist Jim Grey, is erected outside the courthouse.
Getting around in Sevierville is easy as the Sevierville trolleys operate from 8:30am to midnight early March through October and run daily 10am to 10pm, November and December with a fare of 50 cents each time you board. Trolley stops are located at the Sevier County Courthouse, River Place Shopping Center, Sevierville Municipal Complex, Wal-Mart, Governor's Crossing, Tanger Five Oaks Factory Outlet Center , and the Apple Barn.
Sevierville is famous for shopping - two of the largest outlet malls in the area are located in Sevierville with over 120 high-end, name brand outlets. There are also a variety of galleries, antique malls, boutiques, specialty stores, flea markets, outdoor stores and more mega-stores. For the sportsman and outdoorsman, then look no further than the huge Bass Pro Outdoor World and the Orvis Company Store.
Sevierville has a wide variety of nationally known chain and franchise restaurants, and also offers authentic mountain cooking – providing an opportunity to enjoy a meal with locally grown produce and prepared in authentic mountain ways at many of Sevierville’s restaurants.
Nashville
Nashville, a vibrant city of music, culture and history, of haute cuisine, pro sports, outstanding natural beauty and pure Southern charm, is renowned worldwide for being the home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry, and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Music is the heart and soul of Nashville with honky tonks, such as Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and Robert’s Western World, lining Lower Broadway to the banks of the Cumberland River, live music from lunch until after midnight, the 16 block entertainment area known as The District with a huge Hard Rock Café, the line-dancing Wildhorse Saloon, and blues clubs. RCA Studios was once the second home of many music legends led by Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton, and where over 35,000 songs were recorded including such classics as “It’s now or never”and “I’ll always love you”
Dubbed as the Athens of the South for it’s elegance and style with pre-civil war mansions preserved for posterity, art galleries, exhibition centres, and beautiful buildings, Nashville also boasts of 9 malls, 10 golf courses, the Gaylord Entertainment Center, all manner and style of restaurants offering a wide choice of cuisine, and an exciting nightlife.
Nashville, with it’s charm, style, history, culture, facilities, and amenities, caters to all tastes and should not be missed.
Memphis
Memphis, famous throughout the world as the home of Elvis Presley and as the birthplace of the blues, now lays claim to Graceland being the second most visited house in the U.S.A after the White House in Washington, D.C.
After Graceland, no trip to Memphis is complete without visiting Sun Studios, birthplace of "Birthplace of Rock N' Roll" that launched the careers of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Howlin' Wolf, Carl Perkins, and many others; the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, a 17,000 square-foot museum celebrating American soul music with more than 2,000 interactive exhibits, films, videos, photographs, stage costumes, instruments, and other items of memorabilia; Memphis Botanic Garden encompasses over 96 acres of sweeping vistas, lakes and woodlands, display gardens and the renowned Japanese Garden of Tranquility; and spending time on the famous riverboat, the Memphis Queen on an unforgettable trip on the Mississippi River.
Memphis nightlife has a reputation of being beyond compare with the best food, drink, music and dancing you'll find.
Chattanooga
Chattanooga, a beautiful city with a vibrant waterfront on the Tennessee River, provides the opportunity to partake in some unique experiences including views from Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls -a thundering 145-foot waterfall is located deep within Lookout Mountain, The Lost Sea - America's Largest Underground Lake,the Chattanooga Sunday Market featuring new musical entertainment every week and where you can savour food from local restaurants and find fantastic buys of handcrafted works by local and regional artisans.
Chattanooga, located in Southeast Tennessee near the border of Georgia at the junction of four interstate highways, has received national recognition for the renaissance of its beautiful downtown and redevelopment of its riverfront with 5 miles of constructed river walks starting downtown and meandering through the historic art district.
Chattanooga, with many fine dining restaurants, offers a wide selection of dining options from Italian cuisine to Hawaiian, seafood, Asian, barbeques, Cuban, Creole, Tex-Mex, Greek, and southern-style cooking.
With its scenic beauty, moderate climate, wealth of activities and sports including hang gliding, white-water rafting, mountain biking, fishing, skate boarding, golf, hiking, sky diving, mountain climbing, and caving expeditions, and it’s proximity to a host of attractions, nature parks and historic sites, Chattanooga is a city that should definitely be visited.
Lynchburg
Lynchburg, Tennessee, a quiet little village nestled in the hills of southern Tennessee about 75 miles south of Nashville, has an 18th Century courthouse in the middle of an old town square surrounded by quaint shops. It has only one traffic light and less than 400 residents, but is visited by over quarter of a million people each year who come specifically to take a tour round the Jack Daniel’s Distillery.
Whilst Lynchburg’s claim to fame is that the Jack Daniels Distillery, the oldest distillery in the U.S.A., is located at the edge of town, Moore County, home to Lynchburg, is a “dry” county which means that no alchoholic drinks can be served in the county – there are 48 warehouses on a hill on the outskirts of Lynchburg with a reputed 200 million litres of Jack Daniel's Sour Mash Whiskey stored in barrels. Only tourists from outside Moore Countyare allowed by law to purchase special collector bottles of Sour Mash Whiskey from the Distillery!!!!!
Life moves at a slow pace in Lynchburg and Moore County, and a drive around Moore County will leave you with memories of magnificent rolling hills, horse and cattle farms, beautiful old homes and churches.