Gatlinburg · Hotel shortlist
The best hotels near Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
Tobias Lang Germany, Austria and Switzerland
These are my five favourites in Gatlinburg, out of the 72 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.7 down to 4.4.
All five are inside 1.2 km of Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, so you can walk it.
Highest rated of the five
Margaritaville Resort Gatlinburg
★★★★★4.7 from 3,062 reviews
Margaritaville Resort Gatlinburg comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.7 from 3,062 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 4 star property, found under poi and around $480 a night on the dates we checked.
72 hotels in Gatlinburg qualified for this list and five made it. The Greystone Lodge On The River is the one I would book if the first is full.
All five, ranked
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1
Margaritaville Resort Gatlinburg
★★★★★4.7 from 3,062 reviews
under 200 m from Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, about a 1 minute walk
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2The Greystone Lodge On The River
★★★★★4.4 from 2,279 reviews
200 m from Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, about a 2 minute walk
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3Jack Huff's
★★★★★4.7 from 500 reviews
300 m from Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, about a 4 minute walk
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4Marshall's Creek Rest Motel
★★★★★4.7 from 455 reviews
400 m from Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, about a 5 minute walk
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5Embassy Suites by Hilton Gatlinburg Resort
★★★★★4.6 from 551 reviews
1.2 km from Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, about a 15 minute walk
How this list was put together
72 Gatlinburg hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating first and on how close they are to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies second, then took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Tobias Lang Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Touring already moves him around Europe nine months a year, so he stays on three or four extra days at his own cost whenever a tour hits somewhere new. He calls it stealing time.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.