Smoky Mountain Family Vacation in Sevierville

Going on a spring break trip for a Smoky Mountain family vacation was such a treat this year. Because I was on maternity leave, we were able to get away for a few days. (Normally that would be a challenge because of limited vacation days!) It also was nice to vacation as a family because January and February were consumed with newborn life and releasing The Fringe Hours.

We decided to go to the Smoky Mountains and Sevierville, which is less than 4 hours from Nashville. I have already shared about our visit to Dollywood during the Festival of Nations, so today I wanted to share a bit more about our time in the Smoky Mountains and Sevierville.

It was our first time vacationing in the mountains and I did a lot of research to prepare for our trip. Hopefully this is helpful if you ever plan a Smoky Mountain family vacation. And if it isn’t your thing, hopefully you’ll enjoy the pictures because there are a lot!

Also, you’ll notice Ezra isn’t in many of the pictures. He got a pretty nasty cold/ear infection that set-in on the first day of our trip, so he was asleep most of the time!

Where We Stayed

We vacationed with another family (of 6!) and rented this cabin, which was conveniently located near town. I wish I had taken pictures of it, but you can check it out online. We LOVED that there was a huge loft for all the kids to sleep in (4 full beds) + 3 big master bedrooms.

We ate breakfast there each morning, and did a few other meals at the cabin as well, which helped save on food costs. One night, we did a pizza/movie night (thanks to a Redbox rental) and it was a great end to a busy day. The kids watched a movie in the downstairs game room and the adults hung out upstairs. The cabin had plenty of room and we could have easily had another family there as well.

It also had a big deck and a hot tub, which was nice. We loved this cabin and would definitely book it again if going to the Smokies with another family. It was great.

Our trip was 5 days/4 nights, which was the perfect length of time for a family like ours with young kids. That said, the Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area offers so much to do that we absolutely could have stayed longer. We are already planning to go back in the fall to stay at Wilderness at the Smokies.

What We Did

Before our Smoky Mountain family vacation, my friend and I did some research of what attractions might make sense for our combined families. Vacationing with seven kids 7 and under meant we didn’t want to do anything too strenuous or expensive, and we wanted to have flexibility.

I also chatted with my friend Jamie who recently vacationed in Sevierville. She connected me with the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce and they were an enormous help in sharing what families especially enjoy. They also, for review purposes, provided tickets for some of the attractions we were interested in.

Here are the specific things we enjoyed.

Smoky Mountains: You can’t go to Sevierville and not enjoy the mountains! They are incredible.

As a child, Matthew’s family used to vacation in National Parks often, so he was really excited for us to go through the mountains. With the kids being so little, we decided to do several drives through so we could take in the scenery. The drives offer many spots to pull over and enjoy the breath-taking views.

It was also fun to have the kids stand in two states.

We did one short drive and one long drive (Cade’s Cove). We didn’t quite realize how long it would take us to get to Cade’s Cove or all that there was to see and experience. (It is an 11 mile loop, but it is about 25 miles from the entrances to the park). Next time we go, I think we will plan to spend a half day exploring.

NASCAR Speedpark: This was by far our favorite activity we did on the trip. Seriously, if you have kids, you must put this on your list of places to go. It was FABULOUS.

The park has 8 different car tracks, an assortment of amusement rides (small roller coaster, tilt-a-whirl, etc.) + a huge arcade.

The car tracks vary in height requirements, but even our kids as young as Adeline could enjoy them.

Also, this seems like a small thing, but I appreciated it so much. The benches throughout the park have big umbrellas over them to keep you shaded. This was so nice, especially when I had to nurse Ezra.

The kids also LOVED the arcade. Matthew won the jackpot on one of the games – 1,000 tickets, so the kids scored stuffed animals, which was amazing! 🙂

They also have a small cafe at the Speedpark. Everything on the menu was affordable and it was convenient to eat right there. We spent about 4 hours at the Speedpark.

The Nascar Speedpark boasts on its website that it is the best deal in the Smokies and I agree. Our families had an absolute blast.

Rainforest Adventures Zoo: This is a small indoor zoo that is so sweet and perfect for little kids.

We were really impressed by the cleanliness of the facility and the diversity of animals. The zoo has giant Pythons, cobras, beautiful tree frogs and many birds, Rainforest Adventures also has several furrier animals like ring-tailed lemurs and small cats.

Rainforest Adventures also has a small outdoor area with chickens, goats, emus and more. You could feed the goats for 25 cents, and Elias thought this was awesome. Adeline wanted no part of it though – ha!

We went here on our last day, before heading out of town. It was the perfect thing to do in the morning, before lunch, as it wasn’t super big or busy.  It was a great way to do “one more thing” before leaving. It took about 60-90 minutes to go through.

Pancakes: One of the things you will notice in driving through the Smokies is that there are A LOT of Pancake places. We had breakfast at Flapjacks one morning and everything was delicious. My kids loved their bear pancakes.

I also appreciated that, as far as restaurants go, it was very affordable. Many attractions don’t open until 10, so going get pancakes before doing an activity was perfect.

Ripley’s Aquarium: It rained one day of our visit, making it the perfect excuse to do an indoor attraction like the aquarium.

The aquarium is near Sevierville in Gatlinburg and the kids really enjoyed the entire experience. The penguins were a hit, of course, as was the incredible shark exhibit.

The aquarium is known for its shark exhibit and it does not disappoint. The kids loved the sharks swimming over their heads.

It took us about 2-2.5 hours to do the whole aquarium. This was one of the pricier activities that we did, although we did find coupons in the local shops that made it a bit cheaper.

What We Didn’t Do

We really wanted to visit Parrot Mountain, but couldn’t make it work with our other activities and the weather. It has hundreds of birds and thousands of tropical plants. It looks amazing, and we have it at the top of our list for our next visit.

We also considered seeing a show or doing mini golf one night, but ultimately decided to do the pizza/movie night instead. In a place like Sevierville, it can be tempting to overdo it because the area offers so many activities. But having some down time was good, especially for our little ones.

The Smokies offers so many fun things for families to enjoy. I’m hoping our Smoky Mountain family vacation inspires you to visit The Smokies and Sevierville.

 

Have you ever gone on a Smoky Mountain family vacation?

Disclosure: Thank you to the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce for providing tickets to NASCAR Speedpark and Rainforest Adventures Zoo and a gift card to Flapjacks. All thoughts are my own.