If you're ever looking for an island get away, but you can only get as far as the Smoky Mountains, you have to visit the Margaritaville Island Inn! We had so much fun there these past few days. From the minute you walk in the front doors, you can actually smell the tropics. The hotel was pretty recently renovated and the decorations are really bright and beautiful!
The staff were all so sweet and extremely accommodating. When they found out it was my mom's birthday, they made sure to make her feel very special! There are plenty of places to sit and relax, with a fireplace inside as well as a fire pit outside by the pool. They also had a cute little kids area that the girls enjoyed.
All the details around the hotel are really thought out. The carpets in the halls look like water, the girls liked to pretend they were swimming to our room each time. Click through to see the room and some of the details.
Activities:
Bike Rides: Guests of the hotel have free access to the hotels bikes. You are not allowed to ride them around the Island, but there are plenty of trails and sidewalks to adventure on.
Indoor/outdoor Pool: The indoor pool and outdoor pool are both heated. The indoor pool does have a hot tub, but the outdoor pool allows you to watch the wheel at the Island and listen to the live music playing.
The Island is so close you can literally see it and walk to it from the hotel. Here are a few things you can do at the Island.
The Great Smoky Mountain Wheel is probably the hardest attraction to miss at the Island. At night it lights up the sky with beautiful colors. For ages 12 and up the cost is $14 and for children 3-11 the cost is $9.
Bills Fresh Lemonade stand is a place I love to stop by for some fresh made lemonade, especially on a hot day. The cost is $5, but is really is made fresh right in front of you and tastes sooooo good.
There is a small train that takes kids and parents around the Island. The ride is over quickly, but it's a fun way to ride around and the kids really enjoyed waving to people from the train.
During our visit to the Island we discovered an interesting dessert. It's an ice cream dessert in the form of spaghetti. You can find it at...
It was really fun to watch them make it! The dessert feeds around 3-4 people and is made up of whip cream underneath, vanilla bean ice cream as the spaghetti, strawberry sauce as the marinara (with options of chocolate as well) and a Ferrero Rocher in place of a meatball. There are two shortbread cookies as the garlic bread. The dessert costs around $8. It was really cool to watch and definitely an interesting concept! I am more of a chocolate dessert lover, but it was a fun experience!
One of the most relaxing things to do at the Island is to sit in one of the many rocking chairs and watch The Island Show Fountain. The fountains play music and light up every thirty minutes. This show is really neat at night when you can really see all the lights! The fountains were being worked on while we were there, but they were filling it back up on our last night, so I assume the show is back in business! And of course there are lots of shops and places to eat!
Gatlinburg: Always a classic, Gatlinburg is full of fun things to do. It's about a 10-15 minute drive from the hotel, but that could change quickly depending on traffic.
We like to stop by the taffy stores and watch them make candy. They usually give out some free samples too. The flavor we tried was moonshine apple pie.
The donut friar is always a sweet treat when we go to Gatlinburg.
There are so many more things to do in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, these are just a tiny few of them. We had such a fun stay at the Margaritaville Island Inn. The month of May seems like a perfect time to go and visit because the crowds were smaller and the prices were a lot lower than usual. We had our fun in Margaritaville, searching for my lost shaker of salt, but for now it's back to reality :)
Here's the hotel website if you want more info: Margaritaville Island Inn
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