Ziplining the Smoky Mountains with CLIMB Works (and What We'd Do Differently in Gatlinburg)
Our honest first take on Gatlinburg, why we'd skip it next time, and the mountaintop zipline tour with CLIMB Works that absolutely stole the trip.
Heads up: this trip with CLIMB Works was a paid partnership. That said, this is 100% an experience we would book and pay for again with our own money, we only ever say yes to partners we'd genuinely recommend to our own family. No affiliate links on this one, just an honest recap.
Tennessee had been on our list for a long time, and this October we finally made it happen as a family. The Smoky Mountains are every bit as beautiful as people say, rolling, layered, foggy in the best way, and going in October was a sweet spot. Shoulder season, fall colors creeping in, crisp mornings, almost no humidity. If you can swing fall, do it.
But I want to be honest about the trip, because that's the only way these recaps are actually useful.
Real talk on staying in Gatlinburg
This was our first time to Gatlinburg, and we definitely learned from our mistakes. We're the kind of family that loves getting away from the crowds and being a little off the beaten path, so booking a hotel right in the middle of Gatlinburg was a mismatch from the start.
Once we checked in, we realized we basically couldn't drive anywhere. Anytime we tried, it was hours of traffic in and out of town. I genuinely believe the Smokies are stunning, but the infrastructure just cannot handle the volume of people coming through. We can't honestly say Gatlinburg was the right home base for us. If we went back, we'd skip the strip entirely and try to stay as close to the park as possible, a cabin tucked back in the trees, somewhere quiet, where you can actually get out the door and onto a trail without sitting in bumper-to-bumper.
That said, the experience that absolutely saved the trip and got us out of the crowds was CLIMB Works.
Why CLIMB Works was the highlight
CLIMB Works is rated the #1 zipline tour in Tennessee (they also have a location in Hawaii on Oahu, which is now firmly on our list). Their Smoky Mountains course is surrounded on three sides by Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so you're looking out over the mountains the entire time without actually being inside the park's traffic chaos.
This was the kids' very first time ziplining, so safety was the big question for me as a mom. Here's what put me at ease before we even clipped in: CLIMB Works uses a fully automatic, no-hand-braking system. You don't have to time anything, you don't have to grab anything, you don't have to trust a nervous nine-year-old to brake themselves in. You just ride. As a parent, that single detail changed everything. The kids got to actually enjoy the experience instead of stressing about what to do at the end of the line.
Communication was clear the whole way through. There are two guides on every group, one sending you off, one waiting at the landing, and they brief you before every single line. All the safety gear was provided. They even captured photos along the way as part of the experience.
What the tour actually includes
It's not just a zipline, it's a full two-hour mountaintop adventure where, as they put it, your feet don't touch the ground. You kick things off with a 6-passenger UTV ride up the mountain (500 feet of elevation over a 1.5-mile forest trail, which the kids thought was its own ride). From there you're moving through a series of side-by-side ziplines, multiple skybridges suspended high above the forest floor, and a controlled rappel at the end as the grand finale.
The side-by-side ziplines were Aniston and Noah's favorite, being able to race a sibling or a parent down the line, eye level with the treetops and the Smokies in the distance, is a memory they keep bringing up. On one of the longer lines we even got to go upside down. The whole family was laughing the entire way down.
Would we go back?
Yes. Easily. Quite frankly I think CLIMB Works was the kids' favorite thing we did in Tennessee, full stop. If you're going to Gatlinburg with a family, or honestly even as a couple, this is the one I'd build the day around. Then I'd drive back to a quiet cabin away from the strip and call it a perfect day.
Check them out and book directly at climbworks.com/smoky-mountains. Tell them The Venture Seekers sent you.
Follow along for more
No affiliate links on this one, just sharing the experience so you can decide for yourself. If you want to follow along with the rest of our adventures (and learn from more of our mistakes so you don't have to make them), come hang out on Instagram @the.ventureseekers. See you out there.
-Brittany, The Venture Seekers
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