A Kid-Friendly Weekend Getaway in Sevierville, Tennessee
Family time is important to my husband and me. Spending quality time with our children is one way we can get to know them better, show them how much we love them, and bond our hearts together.
But life is so busy that spending time together doesn't always come easily! The daily necessities of life take up so much of our time that time spent together often consists of folding laundry together on mom and dad's bed. And while there's most definitely a place for that kind of time spent together, it's also good to have focused, set-aside time together where we're not distracted by the next item on our to-do list.
A weekend getaway is a fantastic way for us to spend distraction-free time doing nothing other than making memories as a family.
Since we live only a few hours from the Smoky Mountains, a convenient place for us to take a weekend getaway is in the friendly town of Sevierville, Tennessee.
Located in eastern Tennessee, Sevierville is in a centralized location to much of the eastern United States. Its location, combined with the wide variety of family-oriented activities it offers, makes it a perfect destination for a family weekend getaway.
Watch the video for a speed version of our own kid-friendly weekend getaway in Sevierville, then read all the details below.
(Full disclosure: This trip was sponsored by the city of Sevierville. Our accommodations and attraction tickets were provided to facilitate this post.)
This video shows our weekend in a nutshell:
FULL TRIP DETAILS:
Thursday P.M.
Arrive at our destination.
Since Sevierville is only a few hours away from us, it's easy for us just to hop on up there after my husband gets off work. Staying over on Thursday night maximizes the time we get to spend enjoying our weekend. Being there on Friday morning gives us HOURS more time to spend enjoying the day instead of spending travel time that day.
We stayed at the Oak Haven Resort, which offers cabins suitable for various family sizes. I prefer staying in a cabin when we travel as a family for several reasons:
- We don't all fit in one hotel room.
- A cabin has a kitchen, which means I can bring healthy food instead of eating out at every meal.
- A cabin is much more kid-friendly than a hotel, with plenty of things to keep the children occupied even if we're not out on the town.
Our cabin at Oak Haven Resort
The view from our cabin
What kinds of things does Oak Haven Resort offer? A lot!
The cabin was equipped with a game room downstairs which included arcade games, a pool table, Foosball, ping pong, and a hot tub on the porch. One small touch that was greatly appreciated by the smallest of our crew was a set of Mega Blocks. Since our 2 year old is not old enough to play ping pong or Foosball, and since the 4 year old wasn't all that interested, they were perfectly content to play with Mega Blocks any time we were staying at the cabin.
Resort guests also have access to a playground, a basketball court, a swimming pool, a lake with catch-and-release fishing privileges, and several walking trails.
We arrived into town about 5 pm on Thursday, stopped at Chipotle for a quick supper, and spent the rest of the evening enjoying our cabin before bed.
Friday, 8:30 AM
We had a busy day planned, so we ate out at Flapjack's Pancake Cabin for breakfast. The food there is so good! We definitely plan on making a trip here for breakfast any time we are in Sevierville.
Waiting for our yummy omelets and pancakes
Friday, 10:00 AM
After breakfast we headed over to Rainforest Adventures. I'd heard a lot about it on previous trips to Sevierville, but we had never had the chance to take the kids.
Being the homeschooled nerds they are, they were telling me all sorts of interesting things about the animals that I didn't even know. My least favorite part was the snakes, and I scooted past them as quickly as I could. I didn't want to even look at them! The kids didn't seem to have a problem with them, though. They were posing for pictures in front of them just so they could watch me squirm.
There was also a petting zoo out back where the kids fed goats, donkeys, and sheep.
Feeding a baby goat at the petting zoo
Friday, 12 PM
After we finished at Rainforest Adventures we went to Sevier Air Trampoline Park and Ninja Warrior Course. Friday morning was an amazing time to go! The Sevierville schools were already in session, so my homeschooled kids basically had the whole place to themselves! Since it was so empty, the staff went ahead and gave everyone unlimited arm bands, which meant we didn't have to worry about leaving right after our hour time slot was up.
I was really impressed with the park. There were lots of activities to keep everyone busy. Our whole family was able to jump and enjoy the activities together.
Enjoying one of the many activities at Sevier Air Trampoline Park and Ninja Warrior Course| Photo credit: Chad Branton
Friday, 1 PM
Next it was time to feed the hungry crew! We ate lunch at Five Oaks Farm Kitchen. It's a little on the pricey side, so plan your budget accordingly if you have a large family to feed, but the southern fare was delicious, and the portions were huge!
Enjoying a fluffy southern biscuit at Five Oaks Farm Kitchen
Friday, 3 PM
The plan at this point was to spend the rest of the day at Nascar Speed Park, which the kids had greatly been looking forward to, but it had begun to rain while we were inside the restaurant, and the little ones were starting to get tired anyway.
But we're flexible!
We headed back to the cabin instead, where we all took a nap, then we took advantage of the game room and hot tub for the rest of the evening.
I popped some hamburger patties into the oven for an easy supper, and we all just relaxed and hung out together until bedtime.
Relaxing at the cabin
Saturday, 10 AM
Option A: One fun way to spend your weekend in Sevierville is to get a day pass to Wilderness at the Smokies Wild WaterDome indoor water park. Since it's open year round, this is a great way to have some family fun regardless of the weather.
Option B: (What we did)
Since we hadn't taken the kids to the Nascar Speedpark the day before, we spent most of the morning there. There are go-kart tracks for just about every age (the only one who didn't ride was our 2 year old.)
Her first ever go-kart ride
They also have a whole bunch of kiddie rides. The oldest 2 kids drove go-karts all day, and the younger 2 went back and forth between driving go-karts and riding rides.
Enjoying one of the kiddie rides
As it got closer to lunch time, the heat was beginning to get to us, so we headed back to the cabin to get some lunch and cool off.
After lunch, we headed outside to explore the nature trails at the resort.
(Our original plan for this day was to spend some time hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but the kids (and adults) really didn't want to skip going to the Nascar Speedpark. However, we did also want to get in some nature time, so we opted to explore the nature trails at Oak Haven Resort instead.
After a stop by the playground and basketball court, the little ones were sufficiently worn out, so we headed back to the cabin for a nap.
Little ones enjoying the playground
Daddy and the boys enjoying basketball
While the little ones were resting, I put some dinner in the crock pot and enjoyed putting my feet up to read while it cooked.
Saturday, 6 PM
We had planned to spend the evening enjoying a Smokies baseball game together, but it had begun to rain while the kids were taking their naps.
We waited until the last minute, but it was still pretty wet outside when it was time to leave for the game, so we opted to stay in out of the rain.
We spent more time enjoying the game room at the cabin. Finally the weather dried up, so we decided to take advantage of the unlimited arm bands we still had from the Nascar Speedpark.
It was getting dark and late by this time, but it was vacation, so why not?!
The kids enjoyed several more rides before we finally headed back.
Night time ride at Nascar Speedpark
Waiting for one last ride on the Scrambler at Nascar Speedpark
Everyone was sighing those “happy, tired, satisfied” sighs.
Check out from Oak Haven Resort was not until 11:00 the next day, which meant we could still sleep in before we headed for home.
It had been a wonderful, much-needed time away to relax and enjoy each other's company.
Many thanks to visitsevierville.com for planning a perfect itinerary for our family. Click here to check out the Visit Sevierville website for ideas on planning your own kid-friendly weekend getaway to Sevierville, Tennessee.
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