You’re no doubt familiar with the Margaritaville brand that includes hotels and resorts around many popular tourist spots in the U.S. If you’re planning a visit to the Smoky Mountains, you might want to consider setting up your home base at Camp Margaritaville RV Resort & Lodge in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It’s one of the area’s newest properties and you can’t get much closer to the entrance of America’s most visited National Park. (You can literally see the park’s entrance sign from one of the lodges third floor balconies .)
In addition to the lodge, Camp Margaritaville also welcomes travelers with RV campers and trailers. There are more than 170 camping spaces that range from “super site” to “standard”. All include free WiFi and cable TV and other amenities. There’s a dog park, two pickleball courts, and a camp store.
The lodge has spacious rooms, some with mountain views, that include a small fridge, microwave, a Keurig coffee maker, and a comfortable setting to kick back and chill out in true Margaritaville style.
According to the official website, family rooms are available that include a bed for the adults and a special tented area for kids – in keeping with the whole camping theme.
Downstairs there’s an incredible game room that has multiple pool tables, shuffleboard, video game stations, a duckpin bowling alley with four lanes, and an arcade with Skee-Ball, basketball, and more. The lazy river has beautiful mountain views while the main pool has a waterslide for kids and easy access to the bar area to order food and drinks.
And perhaps its my long background working in radio – but I paid close attention to the music playlist that blasted throughout the entire resort. It was a good mix of upbeat, feel-good tunes with the obvious homage to Jimmy Buffett every few songs. It should be noted that this is not a quiet place – the music is playing all day long. However, after 10pm things were quiet and the rock and rolling didn’t seem to crank up again until 10:00 the next morning.
The place has a really great vibe and its location is perfect – up the hill from the busy main Pigeon Forge strip yet super close to attractions and the main entrance to Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
The best time to visit Camp Margaritaville is in the early fall – once school is back in session and before the leaves start changing colors in the mountains. Also be sure to avoid any weekends when there are big events in Pigeon Forge.
You can book your visit on their website and learn more about the lodge and RV hookups!