Aug
17
We’ve spent the last several days just a bit over the mountain from our home. We’re staying in Sevierville, Tennessee at the Days Inn Apple Valley. Truth be told, we are close enough to Pigeon Forge that a well thrown walnut would probably land WELL within the city limits. Of course, Pigeon Forge is just a little ways (5 minutes or so) from Gatlinburg. It’s been a good stay and I think every time we come to the Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville area we see so many ways that they have just done it right. It reminds us why we’ve been here 4 times since our oldest son was born.
What do I mean by “they have done it right”? Read on…
For starters, let’s face it, there are probably more attractions within a few square miles here than you can hope to see in a few days. Myrtle Beach has seen similar development and variety of attractions in the southeast, but really there aren’t too many places that have such a wide range of activities for the whole family. But, that’s not quite what I mean. There are good sidewalks and crosswalks through Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg. They know people (tourists) are going to spend a lot of time on foot and an effort has been made to make it somewhat pedestrian friendly with sidewalks on both sides of the main thoroughfare.
What’s even more fantastic really is the excellent trolley system which, this visit we have not taken advantage of. There are frequent trolley stops extending all the way up into Sevierville. It’s possible to catch a trolley not 100 feet from our hotel, ride that to their central station, switch to head to the Gatlinburg welcome center and then connect on to the station at the Aquarium in Gatlinburg. The only reason we haven’t used it this time is we would have had yet another trolley to take us to the Arts and Crafts Community and seeing that the traffic wasn’t as bad as last time, we headed out in the car.
We see so many things here that are really good ideas for attracting and bringing back tourists that we would love to see other places take lessons from what good things they’ve done. Traffic lights on the main thoroughfare are numbered. This makes dealing with the tourist maps easier. It’s easy to spot the numbers on the traffic lights, (easier than finding the street name signs) and it’s pretty clear which number will come next. There are good informational signs pointing the way to certain areas and attractions and although they have the natural benefit of one main thoroughfare leading from Sevierville to Gatlinburg, it’s well thought out in the way they make use of it and present it to visitors.
I’m also impressed by how well they have really worked to brand and market their cultural heritage. Coming from the other side of the Blue Ridge in Weaverville, North Carolina I see many ways that our area has failed to take as much advantage of making a strong branding identity out of the craft and folk heritage that is ours. When it comes down to it there are many things that our area of the mountains shares with Gatlinburg, but it’s largely absent on the local cable access channels, it’s just not as big a focus for Asheville tourism. Perhaps it was more of a focus 30 years ago, but I feel as though some of the local mountain heritage roots of Asheville has been played down somewhat in recent years.
Anyway, I suppose I should mention the place that we’re staying. We’re at the Days Inn Apple Valley and we’re really here for two reasons. One, we found a good room rate through priceline and saw several good reviews and 2) they have a pool. Our oldest son had his heart set on a summer getaway to a hotel with pool that we had visited in Maggie Valley before, but really the POOL was the big thing he wanted. The pricing in Maggie Valley was in the range of $110 a night if I recall correctly and the pricing here at the Days Inn was less than half that for a well reviewed spot. So…. that’s why we’re here.
It’s clean and well kept. I imagine a hotel in this area that’s NOT clean would have a tough time because there are so MANY different places to stay around here. In fact, I suspect that’s the main reason we got a good rate, there are so many rooms, they really have to compete on price. We’ve seen places advertising rates of $28 and up (places that at least from the street are looking nice and well kept.) Maggie Valley on the other hand has a limited number of hotels and I guess there is not as much pressure to draw people in. They have more of a captive audience I guess you could say.
Anyway, the pool here is between 3-5 feet all the way around. That’s fine for the boys right now as the only jumping in is a little feet first plunge. The hotel has been fairly quiet and has free wifi. I asked at the desk for the username/password for the wireless (terms and condition page on your first connect.) I probably could have guessed the combination – it’s really just a formality. Our room was a double queen with microwave and refrigerator. Big tv of course, ironing board, hair dryer and coffee maker. Really it was nothing outstanding that I would really remember I think. Which is the other challenge to a hotel in such a high competition area. It was a good clean room, everyone seemed friendly. My wife and children took advantage of the breakfast offered which they seemed to enjoy. The beds and pillows have been fairly comfortable (four pillows on each bed is kind of nice.) On the criticism side…. the towels are a bit rough (I joked about ex foliating while you dry) and the bathroom is a touch small although I think other suites have different options.
Would we make a point to come back to this particular place. I doubt it, there really are so many places to choose from we’d probably try another hotel just to see if we had found a place we’d make a point to revisit. We stayed once at the Greystone Lodge next to the Aquarium and for that convenience might return there again. But there’s a Fairfield Inn and Suites in Pigeon Forge (and I think one in Gatlinburg too.) There’s the National Parks Resort Lodge and then, the Pigeon River Inn, the Mountain Melodies Inn all here in a short stretch in Pigeon Forge just to name a few that we’ve walked past.
As for attractions, we visited the Arts and Crafts Community (Alewine Pottery in particular). Our oldest had fun I believe casting his own bowl which we should receive after it’s dried, glazed and fired in about 6-8 weeks. (Not bad for $25.) We toured several spots in the nearby area and then returned to the pool on the first full day we were here. We’ve also visited Tanger Outlet Mall. There are some good deals to be had, but we really need to make a plan before coming for Christmas or back to school shopping otherwise you could spend days wandering from store to store there. We also visited Wonder Works which I thought our oldest would like (it’s the big upside down house.) But, the best we could do was visit the gift shop area and look around the lobby, we had given the choice of that or mini golf on our last full day. It turns out we didn’t make either, but had a pretty full day anyway.
As for eating, we tended to keep on the simple and cheap side. One of the highlights though was Buddy’s Bar-B-Que. (They have great sauces.) We didn’t remember the Apple Barn being so close to the main thoroughfare or we may have eaten there. We wound up walking out there the last evening (our hotel is at the intersection you turn to go out there.) I was remembering it being a ways out, but it’s really an 8th of a mile or less just around the curve from the traffic light.
Anyway it’s been a good trip, we’ll be heading out tomorrow and as usual I’ll have this post scheduled to go out after we’ve left town. This post has been enough to remind me though that I need to revisit our page structure here and really get to work fleshing out information on these areas we’ve already visited with more information.