8 Best Sights in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

If you spent a quarter century traveling the world to collect Christmas ornaments and decorations, you'd have what you'll find in this four-store village. This is the go-to shopping destination for anything and everything that concerns the happy holiday, including personalized ornaments, novelty and designer lights, and a sleigh-load of ideas from looking at the dozens of designer-decorated trees. If you shop until you drop, you can cross the street to spend the night at the Inn at Christmas Place, where—you guessed it—the hotel maintains its Christmas sights and sounds all year long.

More than three million visitors a year walk through the gates of Dollywood, Tennessee's most popular attraction. The 150-acre theme park includes roller coasters, thrill rides, a steam locomotive, and live concerts at the Back Porch Theater. A $37-million expansion, Wildwood Grove, includes two new coasters: Dragonflier, a suspended family coaster, and Big Bear Mountain, which debuted in 2023 as the park's longest coaster. There are also craft displays, lots of mountain music, and a replica of Dolly's "Tennessee Mountain Home."

Wheelchairs and electric convenience vehicles are available to rent—reserve online 48 hours in advance.

More than a dozen waterslides and thrill rides make up this expansion of Dollywood, including the corkscrew tunnels of the Mountain Scream slide and the 1,500-foot Downbound Float Trip lazy river. There's also the Mountain Waves pool and Little Creek Falls kids' area.

Each year, millions of visitors to Pigeon Forge happily "park their cares and ride with the bears," taking advantage of the hop-on, hop-off privileges on the city's fleet of more than 40 trolley buses that travel designated routes about every 15 to 30 minutes. Day passes are $3, while individual trips are $1.

A 200-foot Ferris wheel, a giant state-of-the-art arcade, and a flying-horse carousel anchor this 22-acre complex. There's also a high-ropes course, bumper cars, and Alcatraz East, a museum devoted to crime and criminals. The complex is home to two Margaritaville hotels, an Ole Smoky Moonshine tasting barn, and more than two dozen shops. Don't miss the multimillion-dollar "mini-Bellagio" dancing water fountain that comes to life for 20 minutes at the top of every hour.

One of the most photographed structures in the country, this 185-year-old workhorse mill still grinds the flour and meal used for cooking at the nearby Old Mill Restaurant and the Old Mill Pottery House Cafe & Grille. Join millions of visitors who have purchased sacks of stone-ground products to take home as a special memory from the Smokies—not only a wide variety of flours and mixes (pancake, fish batter, etc.), but also jams, jellies, honeys, specialty foods, retro candies, and nostalgic crafts. Most of all, take time to listen to the sound of the 1830s mill grinding the grain. You might even want to try recording the sound with your smartphone as a unique no-cost souvenir.

Costing $25 million for construction—and filled with artifacts valued at more than $4.5 million—this half-scale replica of the Titanic is designed to give you an idea of what it may have felt like to be a passenger aboard the sinking ship on that fateful night during her maiden voyage. You'll have the opportunity to climb the grand staircase, touch an iceberg, and try to stand on sloped decks.

In an upside-down world, this is the sort of wacky, interactive learning museum that will help make sense of life's lingering questions like: What does it feel like to be shaken by an earthquake? Can you really move an object with nothing but brain power? How do you design a roller coaster? Schedule at least two hours to move through the activities and exhibits, or longer if you really want to dig into learning.