Question: What is bigger, more artificial (and as much fun) as Dolly Parton's "you know whats"?

Answer: Pigeon Forge.

Our hotel room at the Inn at Christmas Place

It's not often I am left gobsmacked, but Pigeon Forge in the Smoky Mountains did just that today.

Our very own Christmas tree

On most of the road maps in America, Pigeon Forge is so small it doesn't even appear. But for millions of Americans each year this is a tourist mecca. Up until 30 years ago, this place was just a small poor country town in Tennessee's beautiful Smokey Mountains, famous for being where Dolly Parton was born and raised. Then Dolly decided to help create some employment opportunities for the locals and built a modest theme park "DollyWood".

Over the years, Dollywood has grown and so has Pigeon Forge and the place is now like Las Vegas for families - all themed hotels, water parks, arcade centres, go-karts and mini-golf and family friendly restaurants.

The view from our room at Pigeon Forge

Our hotel is a case in point. The Inn at Christmas Place has to be seen to be believed - every day is Christmas here. It has the most beautiful Christmas decorations every where in the hotel, from the front desk to the pool. Our room even has its own Christmas tree complete with lights. At 6pm every evening, they put on free delicious apple cider for the adults, there are free freshly baked cookies at 8pm for the children, and at 9pm the gigantic cuckoo clock in the living room does a Christmas glockenspiel.  Santa comes three nights a week to sing carols, and you can even post a letter to Santa in the mail box down near the restaurant and he will reply each year at Christmas. 


Dollywood (note the size of a "regular" coke!)

However, this place is no tacky kitsch hotel: The Inn at Christmas Place has consistently been listed as one of the top ten hotels in the entire USA by Trip Advisor for the past few years - the service, rooms and facilities are all outstanding. And in case you are wondering, the price is reasonable too for such a touristy destination - $130 a night for a suite with two queen beds including a cooked to order hot breakfast each day.

The real reason we came to Pigeon Forge however was to visit DollyWood. When we were planning this trip several months ago, we gave Logan the choice of visiting Disneyland or here. DollyWood won. Want to know why? It has America's largest collection of bald eagles held in captivity as part of a conservation and breeding program. This year alone, DollyWood was responsible for releasing 140 bald eagle chicks back into the wild. In the 1970s, it was estimated that there were less than 400 breeding pairs of bald eagles left in the Lower 48 States. Today, there are more than 12,000 (mainly thanks to the outlawing of DDT and better habitat protection).

Can you see us?

The bald eagles are only a side attraction at DollyWood - it is one of the most popular theme parks in the US. We arrived there this afternoon at 3pm to spend a few hours before it closed at 7pm (the ticket is valid for two days) and had a great time on some of the less scary rides. Mostly we planned which rides we need to build the courage up to ride tomorrow! The place is huge, so I expect it will be a big day of theme park fun...


Even Logan was amazed at the decorations!