Visit Pigeon Forge: Things to Do in the Smoky Mountains

Dolly Parton’s theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills, with roller coasters, a steam train, craft demonstrations and seasonal festivals.

A half-scale replica of the ship with a grand staircase, artefacts and the stories of passengers and crew.

Shops, restaurants and the Great Smoky Mountain Wheel around a fountain show on the Parkway.

A mountain coaster where you control your own speed on a track winding through the woods above Pigeon Forge.

Pigeon Forge’s dinner theatres mix country music, comedy and southern food in one evening out.

Dollywood is the anchor, with more than 30 performances a day, a craft village and a set of coasters that use the hillside rather than flatten it. Dollywood's Splash Country opens alongside it for the summer. Off the theme park, the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster runs over a mile of gravity-fed track you brake yourself, and go-kart tracks and Outdoor Gravity Park fill the gaps between the big attractions.

The Titanic Museum is a half-scale replica of the ship's bow, with real artifacts, boarding passes for actual passengers and a copy of the grand staircase. WonderWorks packs over 100 hands-on science exhibits into 35,000 square feet behind an upside-down facade. Both are the standard answer when rain closes in on the mountains, which it does often.

Breakfast is the meal Pigeon Forge takes most seriously. Pancake houses run the length of the Parkway and most open early enough for a Dollywood rope drop. The Old Mill sits beside a working 1830s grist mill and serves cornbread from grain milled on site, and Mama's Farmhouse puts family-style Southern plates on shared tables. Margaritaville and the restaurants at The Island cover the later, louder end.

Dinner shows are a Pigeon Forge institution. The Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud plays the old family feud for laughs over a Southern spread, Dolly Parton's Stampede puts horses in the arena, and the Comedy Barn runs a clean family stand-up bill. Nights that do not involve a show usually end at The Island, where the fountain runs to music and the Great Smoky Mountain Wheel stays lit.

Pigeon Forge is essentially one road, and this is it. Five miles of US-441 carry most of the town's hotels, restaurants, attractions and neon, numbered by traffic light from 0 at the north end to 10 near Gatlinburg. Staying on the Parkway puts you closest to everything and on the trolley line. It also puts you in the traffic, which is the trade-off.

Teaster Lane runs parallel to the Parkway on the eastern side, from Traffic Light 2 down to Dollywood Lane, and locals use it to avoid the queues. The Island entertainment complex and the LeConte Center both sit along it, along with the 1,500-space free municipal lot. Hotels here are a short walk or trolley hop from the Parkway without being on it.

The stretch around Traffic Light 8 where Dollywood Lane leaves the Parkway. Dollywood, Splash Country, the DreamMore Resort and Dolly Parton's Stampede are all within a couple of minutes, and the blue trolley route connects them. Middle Creek Road behind it climbs into cabin country while keeping the theme park gates close.

Wears Valley Road leaves the Parkway at Traffic Light 3 and heads west into the hills, and the character changes within a mile. Cabins, craft shops, small diners and trailheads replace the neon, and the road eventually reaches Townsend on the quiet side of the national park. The trolley serves it, though most visitors here drive.

We recommend: Dollywood, The Island and one park day

We recommend: two nights on the Parkway

We recommend: family attractions within a mile of each other

We recommend: Cades Cove, Gatlinburg and Wears Valley

Seven miles south along the Parkway, Gatlinburg is the gateway town for the national park. It is walkable in a way Pigeon Forge is not, with the Space Needle, Ripley's Aquarium and a chairlift all on the main strip. The Fun Time Trolley runs as far as the Gatlinburg Welcome Center for $1.

Sugarlands Visitor Center is about 20 minutes from Pigeon Forge and marks the main entrance to the most visited national park in the country. Newfound Gap Road, the Laurel Falls trail and Clingmans Dome all start from this side. Entry is free, though vehicles need a parking tag for stops over 15 minutes.

A broad valley ringed by mountains, reached by an 11-mile one-way loop road past 19th-century cabins, churches and a working grist mill. It takes roughly 90 minutes to reach from Pigeon Forge and another two to four hours to drive the loop. Deer and black bears are common in the early morning.

The next town north, ten minutes up the Parkway and served by the trolley. Dolly Parton grew up here and there is a statue of her outside the courthouse. Sevierville also has the Tennessee Museum of Aviation, outlet shopping and hotel rates below what the strip charges.

Head west from Traffic Light 3 and the neon stops within a mile. Wears Valley Road runs past cabins, craft workshops and trailheads before reaching Townsend, the quiet entrance to the park. Locals call it the peaceful side of the Smokies, and the Cades Cove entrance is closer from here.

About 35 miles northwest, 45 minutes by car, and the reason most visitors fly into McGhee Tyson. Tennessee's third-largest city has the Market Square dining scene, the 1982 World's Fair Sunsphere and Neyland Stadium, which holds over 100,000 people on a football Saturday.