What To Expect At The New Dolly Parton Travel Stop

The summer is the perfect time to do a road trip and there is no shortage of places for you to check out around New York State. Your road trip might take you a little further out of the state, like mine did this summer and put you down south. There's also no shortage of places to visit there, especially in the state of Tennessee.

Read More: These Four Gas Stations Are The Best But Not In New York

Anyone who has traveled through Tennessee has probably stopped in Nashville, Pigeon Forge, Memphis or Knoxville. This is a beautiful place to visit, especially if you can see the Smokey Mountains. I've always been impressed with most of the places I've stopped it in Tennessee, especially since they have a few Buc-ee's locations.

This summer Dolly Parton decided to get in on the rest stop game. As we were making our way through Tennessee we decided to make a stop and see what all the fuss was about. Online the travel influencers were going nuts for this place. I do know how much people love Dolly and how much they love Dollywood, which is also in Tennessee. The while vibe of her new travel stop was that it was supposed to rival the Buc-ee's, Sheetz, and Love's of the world. I found that it was nothing but a glorified gas station with a bunch of Dolly merchandise.

Read More: Buc-ee's Expanding East and North, What About New York?

Over all this travel stop is pretty small compared to others. While it is shiny and new it was already a truck stop, just with a Dolly Parton paint job. The outside looked great, but there wasn't a ton of parking. Once you get inside it's just the same as any other rest stop off a major highway - except for with tons of Dolly merchandise, which I am certain you can also get at Dollywood.

The big things are the live music, which wasn't playing when we arrived (to be fair it was 8am), a BBQ place, and Dolly's new Cup of Ambition coffee shop. The coffee was just, well, coffee. It's just Community brand coffee with Dolly's branding. They were selling her famous cinnamon bread, which again is something from Dollywood. I didn't try the BBQ because it was morning, but I got a chicken on a biscuit which was just OK. It tasted on par with any other one.

I over heard several people saying they had traveled long distances to see this place and were very disappointed with it when they got there. I have to agree. While this was a stop that was on our way, if I had gone out of the way I would have been pretty upset.

If you go you can expect overpriced Dolly merch, low quality food, and maybe live music if you're there at the right time.

Am I glad I went to see it? Sure, because now I won't have to again and will just go up the road a few miles to the nearby Buc-ee's. Why am I writing this for you all in Upstate New York? So that you can plan accordingly and not get caught up in the hype like I did.

Safe travels!