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Suggested ItinerariesSuggested 4 Night ItineraryDay 1- Arrive at your B&B. Relax. You need to put the work week behind you. Ask your innkeeper for dining suggestions and the weekly entertainment guide. Or if the Asheville Tourists are playing at home, see baseball played as it should be, full of passion and innocence, at historic McCormick Field. Your innkeeper may have tickets available. Day 2 - Acclimate yourself. Take the 1.7-mile Urban Trail to learn more about Asheville's history and architecture. Rent the audio tape that goes with it at the Asheville Art Museum. While you're at Pack Place, visit the museums and see what's on stage. Savor a nice lunch nearby. For a pleasant afternoon, take a walk in the woods at the N.C. Arboretum or N.C. Botanical Gardens. Day 3 - If this is summer, there must be a festival around. Sample the food at restaurant booths and take note of places you want to try later. No festivals? Browse through the antique stores and craft shops around Lexington Avenue, or visit downtown Weaverville and Lake Louise. Day 4 - The Biltmore Estate is a must. And so is shopping and dinner afterward. Check out the galleries and other shops in Biltmore Village, then drive up to the city's center. Day 5 - Time to go. But take some gifts with you. Check out the shops on Wall Street, Haywood Street and Grove Arcade before you hit the road, then take a detour through a small town or two. The mall at home has nothing like this.
Suggested 4 Night Itinerary: The Great OutdoorsDay 1 - Arrive at your B&B and ask your hosts about the best trails in the area. Dine downtown; it may be the last civilization you see for awhile. Day 2 - Get wet and wild on a mountain river. To raft, canoe or kayak, call Southern Waterways, Nantahala Outdoor Center , French Broad Rafting, or Headwaters Outfitters Take a picnic lunch or book a trip that includes lunch. Day 3- Hit the trail. For an easy 3.5-mile hike to two waterfalls, try Graveyard Fields. For an all-day pilgrimage to a mystical quartz formation, try Shining Rock. Or just take a picnic lunch the mile or so up to Mount Pisgah. Day 4- Feeling brave? Take a rock-climbing class. But don't worry, your guides know the ropes. Feeling meditative? Try fly fishing. Or take in 18 holes at one of the half dozen golf courses within a few minutes of your B&B. Book a massage afterward. Day 5 - Time to go. But work in a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway as part of the trip home. And don't forget the camera.
Suggested 5 Night ItineraryDay 1 - Arrive at your B&B and read up on the Biltmore. Enjoy a leisurely dinner, and follow it up with a cocktail as you watch the sunset at the Grove Park Inn. Day 2 - Explore downtown Asheville in the morning, and walk the Urban Trail. See why George Vanderbilt decided to build his monument here. After lunch, go to the Biltmore and take the self-guided tour. Book a specialty tour for the next day and get your ticket validated. Stop at the winery before you go. Day 3 - Return to the Biltmore early, and take one or so specialty tours. After lunch, drive to Chimney Rock Park and enjoy the views and short hikes. If time permits, consider a sunset cruise on Lake Lure. Day 4 - Go west. Visit Cherokee and the Oconaluftee Village. Be sure to leave in time to ride the 1:30 excursion aboard the Great Smoky Mountain Railway. If it's summer and you aren't too tired, take in a performance of Unto These Hills. Day 5 - Take a half-day trip via the Blue Ridge Parkway to Penland to see the crafts. Stop on your way at the Folk Art Center. Take U.S. 19 West to Mars Hill, then N.C. 213 to U.S. 25-70 and Hot Springs for a soak and a massage. You'll get back to your B&B in time to go out for dinner. Day 6- So much to see, and so little time. Before heading home, have lunch on Wall Street or at the Grove Arcade and imagine life here as it was decades ago.
Sites Worth VisitingHere are some area businesses and web sites worth mentioning: |
Asheville, NC Area AttractionsThe CityExploring Downtown
Asheville and surrounding villages are artwork themselves. Fine craftsmen and architects outdid each other in the days of opulence and speculation at the dawn of the last century. The Great Depression ended the boom, but the buildings lived on, escaping the urban renewal that brought a sameness to America's other cities. In Asheville, you can walk the 30 stations of the Urban Trail and learn more about the rich history of our city, from drover crossroad to the era of the grand hotels to today's colorful cosmopolitan atmosphere. These mountain downtowns offer unique opportunities for shoppers. Fine arts and crafts, antiques and a delicious assortment of restaurants are all clustered in central business districts of Asheville, Biltmore Village and Weaverville.
Savor the contrasts. Snack on sushi before giving clogging a try at Shindig on the Green. Try on the latest hiking boots before enjoying a performance by any of a dozen excellent theatre or dance companies. Dine at a cool sidewalk table, then burn the calories off dancing at a steamy nightclub. There's a good reason that both Modern Maturity and Rolling Stone called this the place to be. Biltmore Estate Today, everyone can enjoy the collection of fine art and antiques, and stroll through gardens designed by America's father of landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted. Other attractions on the estate include a winery with complimentary wine tasting, a newly renovated conservatory and three restaurants serving dishes prepared from food grown on the estate. Biltmore Estate is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas, and offers candlelight Christmas tours in November and December by reservation only. Your innkeeper offers Biltmore daytime tickets at the gate price. Some B&Bs offer packages that include Biltmore tickets, and can help you arrange candlelight Christmas tours. Outdoor AttractionsWestern North Carolina is a mecca for outdoors enthusiasts. As the novelist and Asheville native Thomas Wolfe wrote, around us are the "soaring and lordly ranges that melt away in purple mist."
The Blue Ridge Parkway, one of America's most stunning highways, carries travelers more than 400 miles along ridgelines unmarred by billboards, trucks or any buildings other than the occasional information center. Take a drive north to Mount Mitchell, highest peak east of the Rockies, and maybe Grandfather Mountain, a tourist attraction featuring a mile-high swinging bridge and small zoo.
An hour or so to the west of Asheville by Blue Ridge Parkway or U.S. 74, Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains more plant and animal species than any other park in America, and offers visitors a chance to see bears, elk and other animals in the wild, as well as see how pioneers lived in a re-created mountain community.
Your bed and breakfast hosts will be glad to put you in touch with just the adventure you seek. Chimney Rock Park Straight west of Chimney Rock about a half hour away is Flat Rock, home to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Closed Christmas Day. Flat Rock Playhouse, one of several respected theatres in the area and the State Theatre of North Carolina. Ask your innkeeper for more information about the plays of the season. Other Attractions
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If you can imagine our valley as a pendant, then Asheville, Norht Carolina would be
an Art Deco gem held by a setting
of blue-green mountains. It's easy to think of Asheville and Western North Carolina in artistic terms. 
Indulge your tastebuds. The Asheville area has some gourmet specialties, including mountain trout cooked 47 ways, Southern barbecue and some of the finest microbrew beers in the Southeast. But the gastronomic attraction here is the diversity of dishes to be found, ranging from curry and couscous to Caribbean to aged steaks. Only Italy offers more varieties of Italian cuisine. As in Europe, dining in Asheville is an event where one lingers to enjoy the flavor and texture of life as well as dinner.
No trip to Asheville is complete without a visit to the 
Thousands of miles of trophy trout streams wet
the wrinkles of the Smokies, the Balsams, the
Blacks and the Blue Ridge, joining into rivers
where whitewater rafters and kayakers can take
in the mountain beauty up close. Where highland valleys meet climbing hills, some of the most
beautiful golf courses in the nation challenge
all levels. 
Trailheads along the parkway and other mountain roads beckon hikers to waterfalls, balds and escarpments where rock climbers test themselves against the mountain. Steep trails at two county
parks challenge mountain bicyclists. 
Chimney Rock Park, located 25 miles southeast of Asheville, offers spectacular 75-mile views, numerous hiking trails and a 404-foot waterfall featured in the movie Last of the Mohicans. The rock for which the park is named rises straight above the limits of the Piedmont, giving an aerial view of Lake Lure and points east. Visitors have the choice of hiking challenging trails or taking an elevator to the observation area. Admission is charged to the park. Open daily 8:30a.m to 6 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. 
Great Smoky Mountains Railroad
One attraction is Oconaluftee Indian Village, a re-created Cherokee Village of the 1750s. Regular tours by Cherokee guides present history, crafts, early homes and many mountain forest demonstrations of beadwork, pottery, blowguns, and much more in a beautiful forest setting.