Gatlinburg- the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The scenic resort city of Gatlinburg is located in a valley of the Little Pigeon River in Eastern Tennessee. Gatlinburg is widely regarded as the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which is a premier summertime vacation destination of the South. Gatlinburg which is surrounded by the Le Conte, Sugarloaf, and Cove mountains of the Smoky Mountain range is usually inundated with tourists in the summer months as it serves as a popular pit stop for visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Gatlinburg Vacation Rentals

Vacationers who holiday in Gatlinburg tend to use vacation rentals as their preferred mode of accommodation as they usually tend to travel with children or in a large group. In such cases a vacation rental makes perfect sense as it offers you more space, privacy and flexibility than a standard hotel room. Gatlinburg is well equipped to meet this seasonal influx of tourists and it offers a wide array of holiday rentals which take the form of multi-room cabins, chalets, lodges, condos and houses. Most of these accommodations are equipped with modern day conveniences like garages, coffee makers, washer/dryers, spacious kitchens along with a variety of extras like saunas, Jacuzzi’s, private decks with hot tubs, gas grills, home theater systems, Cable or Satellite TV service, DVD players, free Internet service and much more. All these amenities are usually included within the price of your rental and if you are travelling to Gatlinburg in a large group, a vacation rental represents the most reasonable form of accommodation which frees up your resources for the various other attractions that this charming city has to offer.

Getting to Gatlinburg and Travelling Within Gatlinburg.

Most visitors tend to drive to Gatlinburg from various parts of the USA. The US highways US441 and US321 provide direct road access into Gatlinburg but during the busy summer months the traffic on Gatlinburg’s roads is often gridlocked. At this time it is advisable not to join the melee but to park your car at an appropriate spot or in the garage of your vacation rental and make use of the convenient Gatlinburg trolley service which makes over 100 stops around town. You can avail of this service by purchasing an all day trolley pass which costs $2 and allows you unlimited rides on the trolley on the day of validity.

Gatlinburg Attractions

Gatlinburg’s star attraction is The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This hiker’s paradise which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year offers 800 miles of well laid out and marked trails. However the park also offers a plethora of other activities like horseback riding, bicycling, auto touring, fishing, bird watching, white water rafting, car camping and picnicking all of which are popular with the numerous visitors who head to this park every year. Located within the park are several historic buildings which have been carefully preserved to showcase the antecedents of the Park and its surrounding regions.

Aside from the natural wonderland of the Great Smoky Mountain Park, Gatlinburg has a variety of man-made attractions which also find favor with the city’s many visitors and locals alike. Some these attractions are Cooter’s Place which is memorial to the popular television show ‘Duke’s of Hazzard’ that dates back to the late 1970’s, the Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, the Ripley’s Believe it or not Museum, the Davy Crockett Mini Golf Center, The Hollywood Star Cars Museum, the Guinness Book of World Records Museum and the World of Illusions which is an attraction that features several interactive futuristic exhibits.

Gatlinburg’s Cultural attractions