Teens in Dec-Stay Downtown or not?

I%26#39;m taking my 15 y.o. and his friend to Gatlinburg in December for a long weekend. I think I%26#39;ve narrowed it down to 2 hotels. The Glenstone Lodge %26amp; Holiday Inn. (VERY open to suggestions!!) They will of course want to be near the action, lights, and people. I know the Glenstone and Holiday Inn are on the Trolley Line. Can they just hop the trolley and cruize around? Or do I need to plan on driving them? Does a trolley go to Dollywood from Gatlinburg? That would be nice and easy! I%26#39;m very open to suggestions on where the teens would have the best time.

Thanks!!

Teens in Dec-Stay Downtown or not?

Oh my gosh, unless you have already stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort (I assume this is the Holiday Inn you are referring too) please read the reviews of it on this site. It%26#39;s HORRIBLE. The nastiest and worst hotel I%26#39;ve ever stayed in. Please do yourself a favor and don%26#39;t stay there. I%26#39;ve never stayed at Glenstone Lodge, but I think it does have better reviews.

You can view the trolley routes by color here:

www.ci.gatlinburg.tn.us/transit/routes.htm

Unless they are leaving Gatlinburg, they can easily walk to most everywhere they want to go. Yes, there is a trolley that goes from Gatlinburg to Dollywood, but in order to go completely from your particular motel to Dollywood will probably require a trolley change or some walking and some waiting.

One more thing, the page I referred you to says to check winter schedule for the trolleys (can%26#39;t find it right off) so there may be a bit of difference in trolley times and routing for the winter.

Teens in Dec-Stay Downtown or not?

Ok, I%26#39;m ditching the Holdiay Inn Sunspree (righto, bad reviews!!) and I%26#39;m now thinking maybe LeConte View?

I just found the link for the winter trolley schedule.

www.ci.gatlinburg.tn.us/transit/schedules.htm

I wouldn%26#39;t even worry with the trolley unless ya get too tired to walk back to the motel or if you have a lot of packages to carry.

Someone else will have to chime in about recommending a place to stay. My wife and I always stay in Sevierville at the Comfort Inn Apple Valley (we%26#39;ll be there in just a couple of weeks!) and we just drive into Gatlinburg and pay to park for the day. We spread our time out pretty much equally among Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville.

We did stay at Creekside Inn of the Smokies in Gatlinburg on our honeymoon back in June of 2001. It%26#39;s up that big hill going out of Gatlinburg towards the Arts %26amp; Crafts Community. It has private balconies over the creek, similiar to Best Western Zoder%26#39;s Inn, another Gatlinburg motel with rave reviews on this site. Creekside Inn of the Smokies is a mom and pop type motel, not a chain, and it%26#39;s old. Very much 70s looking inside and out, but it was clean and the staff was friendly.

You may want to read about Best Western Zoder%26#39;s Inn, the only drawback for you being that it isn%26#39;t in the ';middle'; of town but rather on the way out of town towards Pigeon Forge.

Hi,You may want to consider the Clarion,they are on the end of town closest to the park but lots of restaurants and calhouns village with a few shops.The pool is indoor although you have to take a short jaunt outside to reach.We stayed at leconte view a couple of years ago---it was awful,but we were in the old and I do mean old section.They did have a newer section that is supposed to be much nicer.The Hampton inn is nice also.

We just stayed at Johnson%26#39;s Inn which is up Baskins Creek Rd (light #6)about 100 yds. VERY convenient to the Parkway and pretty reasonable rates. You never get stuck in parkway traffic since it is at the begining of town.

Another good value is the Gillette Motel up Airport Rd at Light #8. Basic but very clean rooms, quick walk to the parkway.

Trolly also stops a few places on Airport Rd.

good luck

Hey lovegb,we have considered johnsons inn but weren%26#39;t sure about it.Are the rooms clean and quiet?It doesn%26#39;t have to be fancy just comfortable and modern.

bigblue, we stayed at johnsons in oct and again week before last. In oct we had a regular room with 2 dbl beds, nothing fancy but clean with a frig %26amp; coffee maker. It was in their south building, had a balcony that looked over the parking lot.

Week before last, it was just the wife and I, we had one of their deluxe rooms

in the main building, very nice, extra large room, gas fireplace, frig, microwave, ice maker (nice not having to go out to the ice machine), wet bar, king bed, love seat sleeper, large jacuzzi, the fireplace was 2 sided, one side to the jacuzzi and the other to the sitting area, shower, 2 vanities, 2 closets, balcony. The Deluxe room seemed newer than the regular room.

We have stayed at most of the older motels on the strip, and we will choose the Johnson%26#39;s Deluxe room over them for the price. They charge more on the weekends, I think the highest price was $115 which I thought was a good deal for the amenities and location.

They have a cont breakfast that was pretty normal, but nice, room was clean. The staff was nice, in fact we had to leave a day early in Oct due to a family problem and they gave me credit towards my stay in Nov.

The location is wonderful, walk across the street to the rear entrance of the Village and you are on the parkway in a few minutes.

I don%26#39;t think we drove down the parkway at all since it is located at the end of town which was nice.

good luck