Theme & Amusement Parks in Sevierville

A statue of Old MacDonald himself greets visitors to Ripley’s Old MacDonald’s Farm Mini Golf, a floppy straw hat casting a shadow across his overalls. His arm is locked in a neighborly wave in front of a gauntlet of animated farm animals and barnyard scenes surrounding three 18-hole mini-golf courses. Ceramic pigs sun themselves alongside a winding stream and wily rabbits poke their heads out of burrow holes. A classic red barn serves as the clubhouse, where players can discuss highlights of the round and arcade games release happy digital chatter like a calculator dreaming about pi.

Visitors enter a gleeful realm of recreation and friendly competition amid the indoor and outdoor attractions of Putt-Putt Golf & Games. The emerald corridors of 54 mini golf holes meander throughout the playscape, forming three 18-hole courses that gradually escalate in both difficulty and the territorial aggression of their native windmills. The thunderous clap of bat barrels smacking line-drives resonates from the baseball and softball cages, where mechanical hurlers sling baseballs at four different speeds and softballs at fast- and slow-pitch standards. More than 50 arcade and ticket-redemption games hungrily devour tokens in the game room, and guests can sate their appetites with pizza ($9 for a large), hot dogs ($1.50), and scoops of Blue Bunny ice cream ($2 for one scoop).

Tropical Gardens Miniature Golf strips away the cartoonish aspects of the game found on many courses, instead situating its 18 putting greens amid a diverse landscape of ponds and blooming floras. As a waterfall trickles nearby, a flamboyance of fake flamingos perches under the shade of a tree, silently observing golfers' mannerisms to use in their upcoming novel. Aside from navigating the miniature fairways, players can swing at baseballs in the batting cages or reunite quarters with their captive brethren in the video arcade.

Tucked away in the Smoky Mountains, RainForest Adventures Discovery Zoo nurtures a diverse family of more than 600 tropical and temperate species, many born in captivity. Brilliantly hued macaws and finches share space with eccentric guests such as two-headed turtles, hissing cockroaches, and reclusive business mogul Howard Hughes. Elsewhere, guests get up close with a cuddly collective of mammals such as kangaroos, African servals, and coatimundi, as well as cold-blooded crocodiles, lizards, and snakes. Regular visitors can witness the growth of Mason, a baby lemur born January 7, or come back in 2033 to celebrate his first legal bite of fermented berries.