Parrot Mountain & Gardens, Tennessee, United States

4BrianHink 5:00 PM Sep 26, 2020

Worth a visit
We went to Parrot Mountain & Gardens, the 3 littles (7, 4 & 2) and spent about 3 hours there in total, that included a lunch break. The drive up to Parrot Mountain was entertaining in itself (never been up a hill like that before), but once we conquered the hill we came to a beautiful entryway and oasis amongst the Smokey Mountain. The park is gorgeous and well maintained, with beautiful flowers, plants and architecture with a Mediterranean vibe to it, it's really appealing to the eye, very nice. We enjoyed seeing the many types of birds on display and the information on them is done very well. The variety is more then just your typical bird aviary at a zoom, this is a bird aviary on steroids, with a chance to get your picture with Parrot's even sitting on your shoulder or arm and feed nectar to some of the birds, these features are an extra cost. You can tell the people that work here really care about the place and have put a lot of time and effort into it being a great time for us guest. The park is on a side of the hill, so there are some hills to walk up and stairs, but if you are hiking in the Smokey's while visiting you should be fine, it wasn't exhausting or anything. I did notice they have golf carts they are willing to take you around on if you think the hills are to much (the carts may cost extra), but our 4 and 7 year old did fine even with those little legs. The park has lots of scriptures in different places in the park and it was cool to read them and be reminded of God's goodness in such a beautiful setting. The nursery was really cool, getting to pet and feed and even have the birds jump on our fingers, hands and arms and was great for taking pictures, even our 4 year old did a great job. The eating area is lovely and very well done, super relaxing with a fountain and just a gorgeous view, the restaurant on site is typical burgers, hot dogs and fries, they have more than that, but you know stuff like that, nothing fancy. Super clean bathrooms and man that store has more bird stuff then I could ever imagine possible, t-shirts, birdhouses and everything in between, really cool stickers by the way. All in all we had a great time, the boys loved parts of it and at other times they didn't enjoy it much, they were scared of the big birds sitting on their hands, because there are signs throughout the park that say birds bite, but they still got in the picture. It's a great spot, my only critic is we felt it was a little pricey, for what you get, as even are 2 year old has to pay admission, wish they had 3 and under free, but not at Parrot Mountain, so we felt it was a bit much, $15 a person would be great for what you get, but we would recommend it, even know we didn't feel like it was the greatest $20 dollars per person we could have spent, we are happy with our time there and would totally recommend it to others.

5Doug R 5:00 PM Mar 16, 2023

Good family time!
Lots of birds to view and interact with. It’s on top of the mountain so there’s great views as well. There’s a spot where you can buy bird seed for .25 cents and feed the birds. Many birds will sit on your arms and shoulders for great picture opportunities. Because of this, I don’t recommend the $3 option offered with your ticket to buy nectar to feed the birds. There’s just a bunch of tiny birds there that fly at you and poop on you. We would go back again - very enjoyable.