A Free, Fun, Convenient, And Scenic Transportation Method Is The Best Way To Explore Gatlinburg

Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is often called the gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but it's also one of America's most budget-friendly destinations. The city provides easy access to Dolly Parton's theme park, which is less than 10 miles away (and here's how much it will cost you to visit Dollywood). When visiting either park, you might use Gatlinburg as a base of operations, bedding down there for the night, though it's worth spending some time in the city during the day, too. What makes it especially easy to get around town and see the sights is the free Gatlinburg Trolley, which operates 365 days a year.

The trolley runs as early as 8:30 a.m. and as late as midnight depending on the season, but it's always in operation from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. It departs every 30 to 35 minutes, barring traffic delays, and it does provide access for disabled people. Look for the color-coded signs around town marking the stops along the Gatlinburg Trolley's four routes: blue, red, purple, and yellow.

If you need to change from one route to another, all of them pass through the Mass Transit Center at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. The aquarium is a worthwhile stop in and of itself, if only for experiences like the Touch-a-Ray Bay or taking a glass-bottom boat ride through the Shark Lagoon. Once you've seen your fill of fish, you can board the trolley for another destination across town. The yellow route, for instance, will take you to the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community, where you can purchase handcrafted goods from the largest independent organization of artisans in the country.

Many of the Gatlinburg Trolley's stops are right in front of local hotels and motels. The red route services a long list of them, including (in order of trolley stop number) the River Terrace Resort, Edgewater Hotel, Riverhouse at the Park, Old Creek Lodge, Bearskin Lodge, Motel 6, Quality Inn Creekside, Holiday Inn Express and Club Vacations Smoky Mountain Resort, Glenstone Lodge, Hampton Inn and Embassy Suites, Sidney James Mountain Lodge, Marshall's Creek Rest Motel, and Howard Johnson. If you're lodging at any one of these places, you can leave your car there and be ideally situated to hop on the free trolley without needing to find (or pay for) parking anywhere else.

Even when you're not spending the night in the city, you can still drive in and leave your car in the free Park and Ride Lot at the Gatlinburg Welcome Center on Banner Road. The Welcome Center also has brochures on Gatlinburg, and it's where you can purchase a parking tag for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You'll need one of those if you plan to drive through places like Cades Cove, where nature's beauty unfolds year-round in the Smokies.

From the Welcome Center, you can then catch a purple route trolley to the Mass Transit Center at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. The aquarium isn't the only major sightseeing destination in Gatlinburg that's located along the trolley routes, however. On the red route in particular, you can see some of Gatlinburg's most popular attractions, several of which are within walking distance of each other.

Stop #21 on the red route lets out right around the corner from the Gatlinburg SkyPark entrance, where you can take a chairlift ride up to North America's longest pedestrian cable bridge, the SkyBridge. The 70-foot Tulip Tower provides scenic views of the SkyBridge with the Great Smoky Mountains in the background. Back down on the Gatlinburg Parkway, you'll find several other noteworthy attractions near the SkyPark entrance, so it's worth exploring this stop more before you get back on the trolley.

Just across the street is Sugarlands Distilling Company, where you can tour a working stillhouse and sample numerous flavors of authentic moonshine. The drink menu includes moonshine cocktails like the Maple Bacon Bloody Mary (a house favorite) and dessert-flavored liqueurs such as Peanut Butter or Mint Chocolate Chip Sippin' Cream. For a 40-proof "brunch in a jar," try the Eggo Waffles and Syrup Sippin' Cream flavor.

If that's not enough moonshine for you, Ole Smoky's "The Holler" is America's most-visited distillery, and it has a stage with live bluegrass music that's just a minute away on foot. Opposite Sugarlands on the Parkway is the eye-catching Ripley's Believe It or Not! building, where oddities like a shrunken head and wooly mammoth leg are on display. Behind Ripley's is the Gatlinburg Space Needle, where you can ride a glass elevator up to the top of a 407-foot observation tower, taking in panoramic, open-air views of the downtown area. With so much to see and do at just one stop, the Gatlinburg Trolley could keep you busy exploring the gateway to the Smokies for days.