Tennessee Mountain Tours

Why go: A local guide does the driving, the narrating and the parking, so you get Cades Cove, the distillery circuit and the high overlooks without ever fighting the Parkway yourself.

About Tennessee Mountain Tours

Tennessee Mountain Tours is a small, locally run tour company that carries visitors into the Great Smoky Mountains and around the tasting rooms of Sevier County in climate controlled buses and vans. The guides come from families who have been in these mountains for generations, and the narration leans on it: who built which cabin in the cove, how Appalachian distilling actually worked, and where the bears tend to turn up in a given month.

The lineup covers a lot of ground. The Moonshine & Wine Tour works a circuit of up to eight distilleries and wineries. The Cades Cove Heritage Tour runs the 11 mile loop road with live narration and a video presentation. Sights of the Smokies stretches past a hundred miles of park and foothills road and is reserved for groups of ten or more. Two seasonal runs round out the calendar: a fall foliage tour timed to peak color, and a Winterfest Lights Tour built around the Shadrack’s Christmas Wonderland show.

Departures go out in a passenger van or a bus depending on the tour and the size of the party, which is what lets the routes use backroads a full coach would struggle with.

Purchase Advance Tickets

We partner with GetYourGuide to offer tickets for Tennessee Mountain Tours. A few advantages that GetYourGuide offer:

• Competitive Pricing. Compare against buying direct before you book.
• Cancellation Policy. Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund for most destinations.
• Reserve Now and Pay Later. Keep your travel plans flexible, book your spot and pay nothing today.
• Multiple Venues. No need to go from website to website buying tickets. Just get them from GetYourGuide.

When you click on our links to GetYourGuide, we receive a small commission when you buy a ticket. This helps us keep My Smoky Mountain Guide up and running. Check availability and buy your tickets with our handy widgets now!

Moonshine & Wine Tour

Cades Cove Heritage Tour

Getting to Tennessee Mountain Tours

The company keeps an office on East Wears Valley Road, a short turn off the Parkway at traffic light number three, but that is not where your day begins. Tours stage at the Apple Barn complex on Apple Valley Road, a few minutes north on the Parkway near the Sevierville line, where a large shared lot serves the shops and restaurants. Pull in, park anywhere in the main lot, and give yourself a few extra minutes in peak season, because the complex draws a crowd of its own around breakfast and lunch. The map below points to the departure area rather than the office.

Why Choose Tennessee Mountain Tours

Plenty of operators will sell you a seat on a bus. What this one is really selling is the removal of the three things that go wrong on a Smokies day: the driving, the parking, and not knowing where to look.

• Guides with roots here. Narration comes from local guides rather than a script, and the long Sights of the Smokies route is led by a seventh generation local.
• Park fees are handled. The Cades Cove tour covers parking and the Park It Forward tag, so there is nothing extra owed once you are inside the national park.
• Headsets on the loop. Cades Cove departures hand out headsets, so the guide stays audible from the back row with the windows down.
• No driving between tasting rooms. The moonshine and wine circuit exists so nobody in the group has to sit out the samples in order to drive.
• Bottle discounts at the stops. Long standing relationships with the distilleries and wineries mean guests often get special pricing on anything they want to carry home.
• Climate control in both seasons. Every vehicle in the fleet is climate controlled, which counts for as much in an August afternoon as it does on a December lights run.

Must Do

Five distinct tours run under this name, and two of them exist only for a few weeks a year. Pick by how much of a day you are willing to give up.

• Moonshine & Wine Tour. Four to five hours through as many as eight tasting rooms, among them Tennessee Homemade Wines, Tennessee Shine Co., Old Forge Distillery and Smith Creek Moonshine, wrapping up over cider and apple wine.
• Cades Cove Heritage Tour. Five hours on the loop road with stops that include the John Oliver Cabin and the Missionary Baptist Church, plus a video presentation on the families who farmed the cove before the park took it in.
• Sights of the Smokies. A six hour run covering more than a hundred miles, taking in the Rockefeller Memorial at Newfound Gap, Elkmont and historic Daisy Town, Metcalf Bottoms, Townsend and the Foothills Parkway. Booked by email, and only for groups of ten or more.
• Trees of Many Colors Fall Tour. Roughly 80 miles of high elevation overlooks at peak color with an hour in Townsend for lunch and shopping, running early October into early November.
• Winterfest Lights Tour. Two to two and a half hours of Pigeon Forge and Sevierville holiday displays, including entry to the Shadrack’s synchronized light show without waiting in the general admission line.

What to Expect

Most of what there is to know comes down to timing, identification, and what a ticket does and does not cover.

• The tasting tour is 21 and older. Every participant must be 21 with a valid photo ID carried on the tour, not left in the car, and the operator lists that tour as unsuitable for pregnant travelers.
• Check in outside, with the driver. Nobody takes check ins inside the shops. Find the branded van or bus in the lot and speak to the driver, who parks near the creamery and the restrooms.
• Block out most of a half day. The scenic and tasting routes run four to six hours end to end and can stretch longer when traffic or a slow group intervenes, so avoid stacking anything tight behind one.
• Meals are not included. The longer routes build in a lunch stop at a local restaurant, but the meal itself sits outside the ticket.
• Wildlife is never promised. Guides time the routes around seasonal feeding patterns, and the company states plainly that no legitimate guide can guarantee a bear.
• Restroom breaks are built in. The long routes stop where facilities exist, including a half hour at the Rockefeller Memorial on Newfound Gap Road.
• Reserve ahead and cancel a day out. Seats are booked rather than walked up to, and tickets bought through GetYourGuide can be cancelled up to 24 hours before departure for a full refund.
• Arrange your ride afterward. The company asks guests on the tasting circuit to have transportation sorted for after the tour ends.

Nearby in Pigeon Forge

• Tennessee Bible Museum. A neighboring East Wears Valley Road collection of rare and historic Bibles, easy to pair with a tour that starts a few doors down.
• Red Skelton Tribute Theater. A one man show that brings the comedian’s best known radio and television characters back to a stage.
• Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster. A gravity run track down the mountainside where riders control their own speed the whole way.
• Smoky Mountain Escape Games. Themed rooms sized for small groups working a puzzle against a countdown clock.

Explore More

My Smoky Mountain Guide Pigeon Forge is a great resource for finding things to do and places to eat.

• Pigeon Forge Food & Beverage Guide. Restaurants, dinner shows, breweries, distilleries, and eateries throughout Pigeon Forge, from sit-down meals to grab-and-go stops.
• Pigeon Forge Outdoor Adventure. Mountain coasters, UTV rentals, rafting, helicopter tours, and other ways to experience the Smokies from outdoors.
• Pigeon Forge Attractions. Museums, escape rooms, mini-golf, arcades, and other family-friendly stops across the city.
• Pigeon Forge Entertainment. Dinner shows, live music, comedy, magic, and theater experiences throughout Pigeon Forge.