Looks like the wife has this zero'd in as our ten yr anniversary place. Looks for all recs on where to stay and what to do. We enjoy hiking, beer, good food, and just walking and hanging out and seeing the shops and sights. June for next year.

Blowing Rock Nc is your answer. Asheville is a crap hole

Amazing town. Agree with the Biltmore recommendation. If a spa package is something you guys are interested in, stay at the Omni Grove Park Inn. The views from the hotel are amazing, and it has a world class spa. The first pic below was the view from our room there. Second is the view from the patio of the bar.

Sierra Nevada Brewery is an absolute must see.

Biltmore was cool to see and loved the history of it.
Omni Grove Park Inn for at least wine/ sunsets but if you want to be able to walk around downtown and easily hit up restaurants and breweries I would recommend The Foundry. It's downtown in a cool building with easy walking to lots of places. There's a Penny Cup coffee shop right there with good bagels. Very easy walk to Curate and Limones restaurants but definitely get reservations way in advance as these are very popular. Both are great dinner spots. White duck tacos are decent and we liked the burgers at Packs Tavern. We also walked to Wicked Weed and Burial breweries and drove out to Sierra Nevada. We liked it but our favorite was New Belgium Brewery on the river in town. Just liked the modern industrial look of it plus I love their Voodoo Ranger IPA. Also hit up Hole Donut one morning.

OldAg92 said:

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Amazing town. Agree with the Biltmore recommendation. If a spa package is something you guys are interested in, stay at the Omni Grove Park Inn. The views from the hotel are amazing, and it has a world class spa. The first pic below was the view from our room there. Second is the view from the patio of the bar.

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100% agree with at least going and having a drink on the back patio of the Grove Park Inn. The lobby with the huge fireplaces and all of the rocking chairs are also really nice. The pics don't do it justice, the view of the Smokies from the back deck is just gorgeous. The hotel provides a really nice "perch" from which to see things. As far as other comments, Asheville is a hippie town. You either like that or you don't.

We enjoyed dinner and drinks at the Grove Park Inn in May. We ate at the Edison instead of the super expensive restaurant there. Still amazing views and outdoor seating.

We were not impressed with the town itself, but we did not get to see much of it because it was all blocked off for a drive by shooting that had just occurred.

I second staying at The Foundry. We loved Asheville. Had a fantastic dinner at Rhubarb. Buxton Hall BBQ is cool. Asheville is the microbrewery capital of America. They're everywhere. Had so much fun at New Belgium on the river that we almost missed our flight home. Biltmore is an absolute must. It's fascinating. Cocktails or wine at the Omni for sunset is also great.

They also have an Astros affiliate single A minor league team. Might be a fun option.

https://www.milb.com/asheville

Boat Shoes said:

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They also have an Astros affiliate single A minor league team. Might be a fun option.

https://www.milb.com/asheville

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Nice stadium and where Bull Durham had many scenes filmed

Smokin Chisel said:

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We enjoyed dinner and drinks at the Grove Park Inn in May. We ate at the Edison instead of the super expensive restaurant there. Still amazing views and outdoor seating.

We were not impressed with the town itself, but we did not get to see much of it because it was all blocked off for a drive by shooting that had just occurred.

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I already checked drive by shooting off of my bucket list on one of my trips to Vegas. Didn't realize Ashville had added this unique cultural event to their brochure.

We stayed at The Foundry in 2022 and walked to the Tourists stadium. Got seats really low between home and dugout on cheap beer night. Pretty darn perfect. And my daughter got a foul ball. Did Hole Donuts the next morning. Were good but too expensive for donuts. Hiked the state park between Brevard and Hendersonville to see three awesome waterfalls. If you guys don't want to hike just drive the Parkway. Foundry bar is very nice. Sierra Nevada is great, going to hit New Belgium next time.

We stayed at the AC in the middle of town. It was nice and convenient to go out at night. We went to a wedding at Grove Park. It was neat but glad I didn't stay there. Definitely go the the Biltmore.

Looking for more recs and ideas - keep them coming!!

Gig 'em!!

We spent a long weekend at a Bed and Breakfast in Hendersonville a few years ago. We've also been to Asheville several times as we live two hours west.

If you go to Sierra Nevada, you'll be close to Hendersonville. Ashville is the Western North Carolina equivalent of Austin, except 90% smaller. Hendersonville, particularly the main drag, reminds me of Fredericksburg from 30 years ago. Quaint shops, and just really neat.

We're more into the outdoors, so we spent quite a bit of time on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Also, while driving around, discovered Looking Glass Falls (would highly recommend). Took a day trip out to Chimney Rock, out near Bat Cave, and really enjoyed our visit.

Regarding Asheville, I agree with many of the recommendations. The Biltmore is an absolute must, and drinks and/or dinner at sunset at the Grove Park Inn was a lot of fun. If you are considering the Spa at The Grove Park Inn, make reservations weeks in advance.

If you have the time, drive 45 minutes northwest of Asheville to Hot Springs, NC. Another small quaint town on the French Broad river.

There is so much to do in Western North Carolina. You will have to pick and choose, but you will have a blast.

Thx for recs - I've got some homework for planning now

Gig 'em!!

Was there a month ago (went to see the leaves turning). Our first time there and had a great time. Stayed at the Foundry (great location, enjoyed their "living room/bar," listening to live music, hanging out by fireplace and watching baseball). Drove Blue Ridge Parkway, saw bears, went hiking. Visited the Biltmore and one of the highlights of our trip was renting e-bikes and cycling around the grounds (had perfect weather that day). The tour of the house was also a lot of fun. You can spend most of your day at the Biltmore. Wish we had gone to Biltmore earlier in our trip and should've got the two day pass. I'm a foodie and we ate well---Curate (need reservation, weeks in advance), Rhubarb, Cucina 24, Chestnut, Chai Pani (they don't take reservations, open lunch and dinner, very popular--we went there for lunch and were in line when they opened), All Day Darling (breakfast or lunch, a lot of gluten free options), Biscuit Head (had gluten free biscuit as an option). Didn't have bad meal, would go back to any of these places and two of them have James Beard awards (Curate and Chai Pani).

Did you take a particular tour with the e-bike or just random? Have you ridden an e-bike before or how easy was it - curious rather than having to use a regular bike. And would get to see more of the grounds in shorter time - thoughts?

Thanks!!

their e-bikes are pedal-assist, I have ridden before (vbt tour chesapeake bay and acadia carriage trails in maine) and in fact bought one since I live in the hill country and it helps negotiating climbs easier. you can rent bikes at the biltmore. my wife normally rides a trek road bike, but we both had e-bikes at the biltmore, so it made it easier to ride together, could cover more ground and didn't have to work much (there are a few climbs) and could ride in normal clothes (jeans, casual rubber sole shoe). rented for 2 hours, probably a good idea to make a reservation in advance

Check out our trip from fall 2020, great time and packed with great recs. We stayed in a killer house in Mars Hill a tad more off the beaten path.

Any of you guys have insight into the best mountain town to own a small vacation home/cabin in western NC? Prefer to be within 2 hours of Greenville, SC. Looking at Bryson City, Black Mountain....thoughts?

Some Texas friends moved to Waynesville NC about a year ago and love it.

Other than that don't know the area.

A former co-worker of mine just moved from Houston to Murphy. They had originally bought a second house there and loved it so much he quit his job and moved 2 weeks ago.

FYI - make sure you don't go downtown on "Free the tits" night. It's a topless nightmare. No extra charge for the armpit hair and dirty feet.

wsteed311 said:

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Any of you guys have insight into the best mountain town to own a small vacation home/cabin in western NC? Prefer to be within 2 hours of Greenville, SC. Looking at Bryson City, Black Mountain....thoughts?

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Spent several days in the Sylva/Dillsboro area last May. BEAUTIFUL area. Nice, small towns and friendly people.

Boat Shoes said:

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They also have an Astros affiliate single A minor league team. Might be a fun option.

https://www.milb.com/asheville

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Plus they run about 30 craft beer taps.

Do the Omni Grove Park Inn and the Biltmore. Get to the Biltmore at opening to be ahead of the crowds and rent the audio tour. Next valley to the north of Asheville is a cool town; Burnsville. Take good rain gear as once you're out of the microclimate of the valley Asheville is in you're in a temperate rainforest.

As suggested previously drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway to the 3 Bs(Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk).

Flying direct into CLT and driving up is generally quicker than a connecting flight but never do it on a Friday afternoon as the traffic heading west out of Charlotte to their weekend places is Rita evacuation of Houston level thanks to how few bridges there are over the river.

If you've got the time Greenville, SC is a very underrated city. Basically the hub for European auto manufacturing in the US and those companies have poured a lot of money into the city to make it attractive to employees.

Going to Asheville in March, any good recs for pizza? My daughter has a birthday while we are there and pizza and ice cream are a must. Staying at the Biltmore but probably headed downtown quite a bit.

White Duck Taco Shop. They're unique and great.

Fun town. Considerably more liberal than expected, but enjoyed it. There's an AirBNB right by the stadium entrance. Nice apartment.

I really enjoyed the live Bluegrass band playing at ISIS downtown - the Pond Brothers.

We drove over yesterday from our cabin in Cashiers. Places not mentioned- the NC Arboretum is very nice with some minor trails. White DuckTaco on the river is a fun place. We ate at 12 Bones BBQ in the River Arts District and it was ok.

Also drone to Black Mountain and Montreat. Nice little spot as well.

Asheville is where all the children of the 70-80's Austin hippies moved. Reminds me of early 70's Austin for sure

BQ2001 said:

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Going to Asheville in March, any good recs for pizza? My daughter has a birthday while we are there and pizza and ice cream are a must. Staying at the Biltmore but probably headed downtown quite a bit.

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How was the trip?

Looking at potentially doing our 10 year anniversary in April there.

Had a great time in Asheville. Biltmore was great, we stayed at the Inn and it was really classy. I normally stay at a hotel like a Holiday Inn Express, so it was an experience for sure when we got there, doors being opened for us, great lobby. They also had a (not free) breakfast buffet we did once and everything was great.

Some good places we ate were Wicked Weed Brewing, Asheville Brewing and Mellow Mushroom. Luella's BBQ was pretty good, but if you are coming from Texas and like Texas BBQ, not sure it's worth it or not. We are living in Colorado so any BBQ is worth trying. The Village at the Biltmore also had good food and really good ice cream. There was also one of those food court type things that I can't recall the name of that was nice because we could all get our own thing and still eat together, and then of course more ice cream for my daughter.