Well not this april but next april my husband and I are going back down to the smokey mountains for our five year anniversary. I am very excited about going back down there and I'm already receiving brochures in the mail from different places .... when we went down on our honeymoon we did what we thought was everything there was to do! This time we won't do as much of the "silly" stuff like a dinosaur museum simply because tickets into anything cost around 25.00$ a piece ... does anyone live in that general area and know any "off the beaten path" attractions? We will go into gatlinburg as well and we also want to find a huge flea market that we stumbled into .. on our honeymoon it rained so bad that gatlinburg flooded and we had to drive to higher land .. lol .. so we are going a little earlier this year to avoid the rainy season!

Well, It depends on what you like doing. There's plenty of places to spend money. Dollywood is a fun a.park if you've never been there. Ripley's Aquarium is also a lot of fun. There's also lots of shopping. Tanger Outlet is one of my favorite places. My favorite things to do in the Smokey's are free. Do you all like to hike? There's lots of places to hike. Most of the trails are very well marked & it usually lists how difficult it is. The Chimneys is my fav. hike, but is somewhat strenous. The view at the top is definately worth it. Cades Cove is also a beautiful place to visit & it's free. You could probably spend most of the day there. It's basically a huge loop you can either drive around or bike or ride horses. If you go to Cades Cove, you would be better off going through the week b/c it's much less crowded. There are several trails off the main road that you can hike (some have waterfalls at the end).
Of course, I have to tell you my favorite place to eat, Applewood. It's on an apple orchard and even has a winery with apple wine (delicious!). The apple fritters are to die for!!
If you have any specific questions, just let me know. Have fun!!

I don't know how adventerous you are but we went white water rafting. It was kinda expensive I wanna say about 50.00 a person...but it was awesome and something that we have never done. I would rather spend a little more money on that than a museum.

well money shouldnt be a problem hopefully .. we plan on simply taking all of next years income tax return for a good time again ... we are going to do the aquarium again because we thought it was so neat the first time .. and last time we did not go to dollywood because we were running out of money .. little did we know that my mother in law had called and complained to the chamber of commerce because we lost 1000.00$ on a cabin that we could not get to because the roads were flooded and so they gave us two free tickets for dollywood .. we only knew this on our way back home after reading some voice messages .. so we ARE going this time ... I have read about cades cove but never been there .. we did drive through the smokey mountain national pakr and climbed to the highest peak and that was awesome ... white water rafting does not sound like something I would do .. my hubby? yes. me? no. We will have to try applewoods .. I remember we took the trolley to the apple place but did not eat there ... all these suggestions are great ... I am so excited about going its unreal!

When we went there on our anniversary some years ago, we loved the Arts and Crafts Community. It was a stretch of road outside of town with fabulous artesian's shops! We loved it so much that when the 80-year old father of a friend of ours, who lives in England, got married, we ordered a hand-crafted item from there and had it shipped.... we were THAT impressed with the craftsmanship! The merchant even called me to confirm the type of shipping because the initial cost was going to be over $100. I thought that was SO above and beyond service!!!

http://www.artsandcraftscommunity.com/

thanks for the link that place looks so great!

I totally agree about the Applewood restaurant!! Their food is sooo good! They only bad thing is that I got so full I couldn't eat the dessert that came with my meal!! The restaurant is only one place of many shops & things in that area. There is one BIG parking lot & then there is the restaurant, a winery, an ice cream shop, a candy store, & a store called 'The Apple Barn' , which I absolutly LOVE. It smells SO good in there!! They sell souveniers that are mostly apple related. They also have a little bakery that sells fried apple pies, apple cinnamon donuts (my fav), apple stack cake, carmel topped apple pies, apple dumplings-well, you get the idea, they're all apple themed desserts!! ----I also think the Dixie Stampeed is a fantastic place to go for dinner & a show. I'm sure they have a web site (probably dixiestampeed.com?) where you could go & look at it. ----I'd say too, to not miss Cades Cove. It's fun to ride bikes there, or go hiking & to take a picnic lunch (just watch out for bears!) You can also drive through it, if you're not into hiking or biking a lot, but I agree that the traffic can be heavy on the weekends. One more restaurant that's good is the Old Mill. They have country cooking there. They may also have a web site. ---Oh, here's one more thing you may like. There is an indoor parachuting place on the main street in Pigeon Forge! ---If you stop to fill your gas tank, or to eat while you're in Pigeon Forge, a lot of places have brochure holders close to the door. You can find a lot of brochures for places there & there are usually some handy coupons you can use too. I hope you have a wonderful trip!!!!