Great Smoky Mtns. National Park Hotels

The only accommodations actually in the park, besides camping, are at LeConte Lodge. Outside the park, you have a gargantuan selection of hotels of every ilk. On the Tennessee side, in Gatlinburg you'll see a street sign that says "2,000 Hotel Rooms" and points up the hill, and that's just in one section of town. On the North Carolina side, lodging is more low-key, but you can choose from old mountain inns, B&Bs, and motels in the small towns of Bryson City, Waynesville, and Robbinsville. A seemingly ever-expanding number of hotel towers are connected to the giant Harrah's casino in Cherokee, soon to have more than 1,000 rooms. About 50 mi away, in and around Asheville, you can choose from among one of the largest collections of B&Bs in the Southeast, along with hip urban hotels and classic mountain resorts.