5 nights in Asheville, North Carolina: See our favorite attractions including Biltmore Estate, Asheville downtown, and Blue Ridge
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| Biltmore Estates, Asheville, NC |
Growing up in New York City, you tend to forget there’s a much bigger world out there, just outside the 5 boroughs of the city. Until I got my driver’s license, this was the case.
Sure, my family went on road trips to Pennsylvania, Virginia, District of Columbia, Long Island, and nearby New Jersey, but it wasn’t like we did that every month or so. Most of my teenage years, pre-driver’s license, I traveled within the “city that never sleeps”, using its dour, and sometimes very depressing public transportation system, the dreaded underground subway.
Even though I loved growing up in the world famous New York City, there were not so positive things about the city. Those included: higher crime rates compared to other places, sometimes dangerous and usually dirty underground subways with their gigantic rats, ubiquitous and known among the locals as the unofficial city mascot, as well as the always busy and not so friendly people that roam the streets.
I dreamt of eventually leaving the city behind for “greener pastures”. With my driver’s license came immense freedom and joy to finally realize that dream to see the larger world just beyond the city limits. I was finally ready to experience the fascinating, and the amazing world.
Asheville, was one of those places. The city didn’t really get on my radar until I was well over 30 years old. Pre-30’s, I liked either lively cities or really laidback beach-type places.
It wasn’t until I got into Travel Channel in my mid to late 30’s that I first encountered this city in western North Carolina. The beautiful mountainous landscape of the city with a rather bohemian atmosphere really appeared to me. Add Biltmore Estates, America’s largest home, and I was sold on the city.
After selling our home in Pennsylvania during the summer to 2020 to move to Raleigh, North Carolina, my wife and I thought of visiting that city once and for all. Unfortunately, it took all of 3+ years to finally visit Asheville. It’s always funny how things turn out: you overlook attractions nearby, usually picking ones far away from where you live…
At least we made it there in January 2024. Better late than never.
On the morning of January 24, we left our hotel in Pigeon Forge (Tennessee) for Asheville (North Carolina). At a distance of around 90 miles, the drive would take approximately 2 hours.
We booked one of our favorite hotel chains, Homewood Suites by Hilton, for our 5 nights/6 days trip. We definitely appreciated the spacious 1 bedroom suite with a full kitchen. Throw in the excellent free buffet breakfast, as well as the Wednesdays only evening reception, and we’re sold!
We enjoyed the nice views of the surrounding mountains from the room, and we witnessed epic rainfall during our stay. Experiencing rain falling is one of those wonderful moments that make life worth living…
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| Homewood Suites Asheville, NC |
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| View outside along Tunnel Road |
Using this nice hotel as our base camp, we set out on our exploration of the famed city surrounded by mountains. Here are our favorite attractions near Asheville:
- Biltmore Estate
Biltmore Estate is a National Historic Landmark and America’s largest home. It was built by George Vanderbilt, a noted art collector and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family, who amassed their fortune through steamboats, railroads, and other business ventures.
George Vanderbilt first traveled to Asheville in 1887, and promptly fell in love with sweeping mountain vistas and mild climate. He decided to build his family country home in the area, with first construction beginning in 1889. The house would be completed in 1895, containing more than 4 acres of floor space with 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.
Visiting Asheville for most first time visitors usually means a trip to Biltmore Estate, and we were no different. We had purchased two tickets to Biltmore Estate online, at a price of $75(!) per person in January, and hoped the place was worth that kind of money.
We left our comfortable confines of our hotel, heading towards Biltmore Estate. At a distance of about 3 miles, the trip took less than 15 minutes to arrive at the main entrance to Biltmore.
We showed our e-ticket for entrance, then drove into the impossibly vast and long driveway to the house itself. The place reminded us of visiting the DuPont Family homes like Longwood Gardens, Nemours, or Winterthur, but at a much bigger scale.
We found visitor parking a short distance away from the house, parked, then got on the free shuttle that takes you to the front of the house. As we approached the house, it looked like nothing we had ever seen.
The castle-like house was humongous, stately, and reeked of luxury. Thanks to constant maintenance done on the house and the surrounding areas, the place looked magnificent.
We lined up at the front of the house to begin our house tour (which must be reserved while purchasing the tickets). We waited not more than 5 minutes to get inside the magnificent house.
The foyer area/main entrance to the house was so welcoming. I’m no architect, but I know luxury when I see it! Place was so elegant and beautiful that only pictures can do justice!
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| Front of the house |
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| Near the main entrance to the house |
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| Mini garden |
Even on a January weekday, the place was busy. We moved at a snail’s pace, trying not to run into other visitors, who were gawking at every opulent furnishings/decorations inside the house.
We had no choice but to move slowly, but it worked to our advantage as we really got a chance to look at the house in detail. Nice!
We made it to the outside balcony to check out the views of the North Carolina countryside and we loved the very French looking countryside. Monet would have loved the scenery, then would have created a masterpiece just putting something on canvas out there. The setting was definitely idyllic and serene…
We continued our tour of the house, going upstairs to see the various bedrooms/bathrooms, then headed downstairs to the basement to see the impressive foundation of the building as well as the home gym, and the kitchen area. It was literally a mini village, with the house able to accommodate hundreds of people at any given time.
After our tour of the house ended, we walked outside to tour the just-as-impressive gardens and the surrounding areas. We definitely liked the view from the back of the house a bit more. What do you think?
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| View of the house from the back |
We started our hike, following one of many beautiful trails surrounding the house. You simply can’t go wrong hiking any of the trails there: all beautiful with views for miles…
We headed towards Bass Pond, an easy walk, and we ended up at a mini man-made waterfall.
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| Hey, a waterfall! |
We particularly liked the Deer Park Trail with sweeping views of the French Broad River. Along the trail, we stopped by at the excellent gardens/arboretum with blooming plants.
To be honest, there are so many other things to do and see besides the house, gardens, and hiking trails. We were so exhausted by the end of our hikes that we didn’t bother with visiting other major attractions, like Antler Hill Village, where winery, shops/restaurants, hotels are located. *And more hiking trails near there as well.
We figured we only saw the most important part of Biltmore Estate, but it was for us, good enough. We don’t need to see every single thing in detail to know a place. We got our money’s worth, at the end of the day.
*Note: Biltmore Estate ticket gives you a 2 day admission. If you want to make the most of your visit there, we recommend using those two days: See the house/gardens/hikes the first day, then check out Antler Hill Village the following day.
- Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway is a 469 mile long scenic highway connecting Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park to North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s the longest single-unit road in the country and the most visited National Park unit.
On the day of our arrival near Asheville area, we made this our first stop. We knew our hotel room wouldn’t be ready until well after 2 o’clock, so it made perfect sense to kill few hours.
We headed straight towards the l (Asheville) to use the restroom facilities and to do a bit of hiking around the area.
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| Visitor center, open year round |
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| Hiking trail info |
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| Start of the trail |
After making the necessary pit stop, we stopped by at the information booth to chat with a ranger about the hiking trail. We found out there is a 1 mile long looping trail right at the end of the parking lot. That distance sounded just about right to get a decent exercise!
We found the beginning of the trail easy enough, then walked inside the sparsely wooded forest (thanks to it being end of January). We got some fresh lungful of air and we felt great, sniffing the air constantly and enjoying the alpine woodland smell. I felt my brain clearing up nicely with each step we took.
Walking among the trees is one of those activities that doesn’t cost much money, yet it is one of the absolute best things to feel great about life, sans medications or drugs. I’ll take that any day!
We hiked through at a decent pace, passing wet portions of the trail, then under a small bridge, before seeing the trail starting to loop back. We had made it back to the visitor center. Nice hike…
After finishing the hike, we drove out, heading north on the parkway. We felt the road climbing in elevation with each passed mile marker. By the time we had driven about 10 minutes, we saw a nice overlook with views of the city below.
What a view!
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| Blue Ridge Parkway pull off area view |
We spent few minutes taking in all the beautiful views, even on a very cloudy/foggy day. We kept going north afterwards, wondering what else lay ahead.
We unfortunately didn’t get to see much else beyond the pull off area, as the foggy conditions worsened just beyond it. We could barely see 200 hundred feet in front of us, and we started to see cars we saw go before us, turn around. That was our queue to end our short exploration of the parkway that day.
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| Foggy Blue Ridge Parkway |
We took a chance on another day back at the parkway, but that second day was even worse, as the foggy conditions had shut down the road beyond that same overlook/pull off we had stopped by before.
I knew there are so many missed treasures along the parkway, but it is what it is. Seeing it in the middle of the winter can be challenging, with many road closures. Oh, well. Until next time…
- Asheville downtown
When we moved down to North Carolina during the summer of 2020, which coincided with us retiring early, we had no idea how busy and developed the area near Raleigh had become. We had visited the area some 12 years ago, and it looked so different.
There were so many new construction going on with even more commercial developments happening all around, that we thought we were back in Philadelphia! It was both good to see and bit jarring to see the brilliant pace of development happening to North Carolina.
North Carolina had been one of the poorest states in the Union just about 20 years ago, yet by 2024, its GDP had surpassed that of other 38 states (11th richest state by GDP). We were excited to see Asheville downtown finally, against this backdrop.
We left our hotel on a chilly January Sunday morning heading downtown, a distance of about 4 miles from the hotel. We purposely chose a Sunday as most cities offer free parking on that particular day. Asheville was no exception.
We found a convenient parking spot, then started our walk. We found downtown impressive, as big and imposing as many of the cities we had visited. Place was indeed packed with concrete buildings, both residential and commercial, with plenty of squares and gathering spaces interspersed throughout.
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| Downtown Asheville |
We headed towards the Asheville Art Museum area, as it seemed like the focal point of downtown. Along the way, we saw shops/restaurants starting to open up, with some of the dining establishments already packed to the brim with customers.
It was a scene right out of what we were used to seeing in the big jungles of New York City. I had personally ate at plenty of diners in my day, stopping in for a morning meal consisting of omelets, coffee, toast, home fries, with a side of lively, and at times raucous chatter from all those caffeinated people.
Across from the art museum, we found some cutesy statues of pigs in a small square, which we couldn’t pass up. How cute!
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| Cute pigs! |
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| Pack Square Park, downtown Asheville |
We headed towards Pack Square Park, just down the block from the Art Museum. There was just the right amount of people on a Sunday morning in downtown Asheville.
We made our way to the park in no time. We liked the open space of the square with nice views of downtown. A very imposing court house stood right in the middle of the square. It looked almost like any one of those large, impenetrable government buildings in Washington D.C.
We were duly impressed by the cosmopolitan design of the downtown area, reminding us of any number of great cities in the United States, like aforementioned Washington D.C., Philadelphia, or New York. We really liked the city’s vibe and the vibrant atmosphere. It was a shame we didn’t get to check out any of the city’s restaurants, as many of them looked really inviting with extensive and sometimes eclectic menus. Next time, for sure…
In conclusion:
Asheville was just as advertised. It has a beautiful city center, with plenty of things to do, surrounded by beautiful mountains and natural beauty.
We really loved exploring the one and only Biltmore Estate, Blue Ridge Parkway, and the downtown area. We stayed five nights but we really felt we could’ve spent a month or longer there. Just hiking along Blue Ridge Parkway would eat up a good portion of a month!
Asheville is still recovering from the horrific aftermaths of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the area at the end of September 2024. We really hope the city can recover, inviting people from everywhere, who appreciate its unique combination of art, culture, nature, and community.
We wish you the best Asheville. We will be rooting for you, and we will see you again soon, we hope.
Thank you for reading and happy trails!
Jake
Wandering Money Pig
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