Anakeesta! Magical views!

Sunday, March 24:

Picking up where I left off in my last post- Sunday afternoon. So after arrival, a late lunch and then checking in at the resort, we headed out for Anakeesta.

It’s a mountaintop “village/amusement park” of sorts. Not a full on amusement park but a smaller mountain version. The only rides are two different mountain coasters or a zipline (both an extra charge). (Base price is $36.99/person just to get in. Then $16.99/person add on for the mountain coasters, and another $15.99/person for the optional night walk/light show.)

The office is located right along the main strip in Gatlinburg. We found parking (we have learned traffic and/or parking is not for the faint of heart in Gatlinburg- it’s BUSY), but luckily there is a parking lot just almost out of town (on our side) that only charges $10 instead of the $20 all the other lots charge AND has always had spots. We just have to walk a couple minutes more.

I had pre-purchased tickets online, so we didn’t have to wait in the long ticket line.

You can either take an open chairlift up, an enclosed chondola, or a truck goes up the back side of the mountain for people who don’t like heights.

They had bluegrass music playing over speakers the whole way too which was a very nice touch. Got me in the whole “Smoky Mountains” mindset. 🙂

At the top, waiting for my parents who opted for the enclosed chondola:

Right near the chairlift is a bar/restaurant with AMAZING views. For now we just looked, but we came back later for a drink on this incredible deck.

Some family pics:

Then we set out to wander around. Like I said, there’s not “that” much to do up there, but many areas to just check out with stunning backdrops.

There are little village shops, restaurants, a huge lookout tower, several photo op stops, a Tree Top skywalk hanging bridges experience, several really cool kids play areas, 2 mountain coasters and the zip line. Enough to keep you entertained for several hours probably, but not a full day activity. (Just FYI if anyone reading plans a trip.)

Highly recommend the evening arrival like we did! It was perfect to see all the views by daylight, plus sunset time and then after dark views. We got there around 5/5:30 I think?

This little mini-adventure was a cool photo op stop:

Spring is juuust starting- lots of the red bud trees in bloom, daffodils and they’ve planted some flowers already. So pretty!

They also have a bunch of huge fire pits which is a nice touch! The whole place sort of felt like maybe a little Swiss mountain village? (Or what I kind of envision that might be like?)

We climbed the look out tower which was great too. Amazing 360 degree views!

This photo stop was so cute:

The carved giant was apparently another “no” from the boys so here’s me:

A little relaxing while Ivan took a… phone call in the background 🙄.

We bought some lemonades and figured out where the mountain coasters were located. I had bought the boys a pass to do both of the coasters. I would have liked to do it too, but we all did them in Colorado a few years back. And I was more interested this time in sipping a beer on that beautiful patio vs standing in line for a mountain coaster!

No pics of the coasters but the boys got in line and we told them to just text us when they were done to meet back up. (Ahh it’s wonderful traveling with teenagers!)

The rest of us did the TreeTop Skywalk which was so pretty! I think this would definitely be even better in the summer.

This shot us out right back over by the restaurant, and luckily we were able to snag a table with a great view!

Views were just so, so good. I had read some mixed reviews of Anakeesta online, but I personally LOVED it!! The views alone were worth it for me! Just a super pleasant evening.

When the boys came back we grabbed some highly overpriced food/snacks/dinner to share. It was after 8:00 already and we had 9:15 tickets for the special night walk event (Astra Lumina). The food, I will admit, was NOT great. I guess you pay for the view and the good beer, and the food is a definite afterthought. Oh well. We were a captive audience up there, so what else were we going to do, anyway?

I wanted the boys to see the SkyWalk, so the four of us quickly walked through that whole thing again. I loved it by night! The boys really liked the swinging and bouncing bridges. Super fun.

Here’s some of the main village area by night:

Made it to the gates of Astra Lumina and checked in for our 9:15 time slot. I am so glad I snagged tickets for this!!! I knew they sold tickets in advance, but hadn’t been sure of our exact plans, so hadn’t bought any. Saturday night in Lexington I was looking at some stuff on my phone about Anakeesta details to buy our main tickets, and I saw that the extra tickets for the night show were completely sold out already except for the final time slot (9:15)!! I impulsively bought them even though we hadn’t all really discussed if people wanted to do this add-on or not because I didn’t want to miss out. I had heard great reviews of it.

I love this shot!!! Sooo pretty! Kind of Disney World-esque right here, lol!

The night walk is a 1 mile long path that walks you through many different stations with super cool laser light and other light effect shows. It’s supposed to be based on the stars and cosmic world.

It was sooo creative! The photos don’t do it justice. It was a total sensory overload- lights, fog, music, darkness all around… really neat. Very glad we did this as it was a very new experience for me. (I’m always looking for “new” experiences.)

It took 45 minutes to an hour to slowly walk through the whole exhibit. Then we took the chairlift back down. This was GORGEOUS by night! Gatlinburg all lit up down below:

I rode with my parents- my mom took the open chairlift this time!!!! She does not like heights, but there was a super long line for the enclosed chondolas. So she agreed to try the chairlift. It was really high!! She did not love it but she did it. Hahaha!

And that was our first day in Gatlinburg! (Well, partial.) I feel like it was actually the perfect introductory experience – the views were so amazing. I know we had yet to do any hiking or anything, but I sort of felt like if I had had to leave and go home the next day, I would have already felt like I got a nice taste of both Gatlinburg and the views of the Smokies.