Heading up to Nashville (briefly) tomorrow but planning to check out Knoxville, Gatlinburg and surrounding areas. Suggestions on places to go or eat/drink? Will be there nearly a full week.

We stayed at the Bearskin Lodge in Gatlinburg this summer and would recommend. It is right next to the park entrance and you can "avoid" the strip in Gatlinburg if you want. The Greenbriar, and Crystle Creek were both "off the strip" places we enjoyed eating at.

- great hiking in the Gatlinburg area in the National Park
- several fantastic places to go Zipline in the area: Foxfire Mountain has been our favorite over the years

If you want so get away fr some of the commercialism of Gatlinburg look at Townsend. The Townsend Gateway inn is nice, clean and affordable.

We also spent a few days in Bryson City, NC. The Nantahala Gorge is home to excellent fishing, kayaking and rafting. There are various lodging options in the area. We stayed at the Fyremont Inn. It is old, it is rustic, but clean, and I loved it. There are cabins, lodges, and B&Bs galore in Bryson City.

Townsend is a very good recommendation as an alternative to the madness that is Gatlinburg.

Check out the most visited distillery in America....

http://olesmoky.com/about/distillery

I went to the Old Smokey distillery. It was kind of fun. Basically, it is just a large "shot" bar and you try all their different types of product. Honestly, their moonshine is just flavored neutral corn spirits. A lot of it tastes like an alcoholic Jolly Rancher. Think of it as a bar - nothing more.

If you really want some good legal moonshine, go to NC and buy some Troy & Sons. It is a lot better than Old Smokey.

Pretty late for the OP, but I'll weigh in, anyway. I'm sort of a nerd over the Manhattan project history. So I recommend going to Oak Ridge and the museum there. There is also a small display of MP history at the visitor's center of the Oak Ridge plant.

Among the displays at the main museum in town, is a manufactured house produced for the plant workers. Oak Ridge went from a few hundred people to 50,000 people almost overnight. Amazingly, several of the "temporary" houses are still in use. If anyone cares, I can give you the general area to see them.

Check with the museum in town, they run tour buses that take you onto the Oak Ridge plant site to visit a few of the WWII sites. It's pretty much impossible to see these sites otherwise.

Pretty area. My photo below was from Frozen Head State Park northwest of Oak Ridge.