During our trip to Gatlinburg, we visited Ober Gatlinburg; which I have to say that I had mixed feelings about. Actually, I came very close to reneging at the last minute and not going at all. Only pleading from my husband finally induced me to climb aboard the tramway and once on there, I quivered and quaked and clung to the center pole waiting to either drop to my death or for the ride to end quickly, whichever came first. You access Ober Gatlinburg by taking an aerial tramway up a mountain. I’m not sure how high up you are since I refused to look down but it was high enough for my fear of heights to kick in full force. If you like stuff like that, I guess it would be pretty cool. If you have any fear of heights at all, I would recommend either not going or keeping your eyes closed the entire time. I found out later that you can actually drive up the mountain to Ober Gatlinburg instead of taking the sky tram, but since we were with a tour group on a tour bus, that really wasn’t an option for us.
Once we were actually off the tram, I had a great time. They have an ice skating rink and you can rent skates and skate as long as you want. There are also several little craft booths set up that were really nice to browse through. There is also a little mini amusement type park that would be really good for little kids. Teens probably wouldn’t be so impressed with it. The go-karts were pretty cool, though; even for the younger teens.
When we visited the price was about $9.50 per adult for a round trip ticked on the tram. The prices for the activities once you get to the top are separate and vary for each activity. For instance, I think the rides were about $2.50 each and on some of them I think you could just buy tickets and then each ride required one or two tickets each. They also have an option for a wrist-band that will get you unlimited rides. If you plan to do a lot of the rides, that’s probably the better deal. It goes for about $20 bucks.
All in all, I had a good time and would recommend it. I actually completely forgot about the tram until it was time to go back down again.
