Take me home, country roads…. I love heading up to the Carolina mountains any chance we can get and the hubby and I especially love Asheville (and especially love the fall time where we can see the leaves starting to change colors). It’s such a fun, quirky town full of history, hiking, breweries and in my opinion one of the best spas in the United States. Here are my top places to visit in Asheville.
Favorite Restaurants:
Curate
13 Biltmore Avenue
Website: https://curatetapasbar.com
We make a reservation here every.single.trip to Asheville and it has never disappointed us (and yes you 100% need to make a reservation) . This tapas bar is lively, has a top notch staff and delicious food. Some of our favorite dishes are: pimientos de piquillo rellenos, berenjenas con miel, ensalada remolacha, and berenjenas con miel.
Chestnut
48 Biltmore Avenue
Website: https://www.chestnutasheville.com
This was a new adventure for us on our last trip to the city and we were beyond impressed! I can see why they have a full house every night. The cuisine was mouth watering and we especially loved they use local food providers from ranchers to dairy farmers. Some of our favorite dishes were: lobster bisque (serious yum!), roasted beet salad, quail and waffles, and the petite filet.
Sunset Terrace at Grove Park Inn
290 Macon Avenue
This is an absolute must when you travel to Asheville just for the view alone! The food is rather tasty too–our favorite dishes are the heirloom tomatoes, Caesar salad and dry aged bone in New York strip.
Favorite Activities:
Take a Hike
Our favorite thing to do up in the mountains is to hike. North Carolina has tons of incredible trails especially on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some of our favorite hikes are: Flat Rock near Brevard (make sure to head to Oscar Blues Brewery after for a cold one and food from their food truck), School House Falls in Canada (yes there is a Canada in NC)–this is a family favorite hike that we do every single summer because there is always amazing wild blueberries to snack on when you reach the top, and Looking Glass Falls about 40 minutes outside of Asheville (go here if you want to see a beautiful waterfall).
Visit a Brewery or 20
Asheville is known for their brewery scene and they in fact have 25 breweries in the town itself and 60 in the region. I personally love the diversity of the craft beer scene when it comes to breweries as you get everything across the board–go super modern and commercial with Sierra Nevada (plus they have a great lawn out back for kiddos), go super rustic at Burial Beer Co and make sure to check out when they have live music playing out back, go “outdoor-sy” at New Belgium or go to Wicked Weed to experience the well known brewery scene (make sure to get reservations) plus they are known for their Sours–check out Funkatorium too.
Plan a Golf/Spa Day at the Grove Park Inn
The Omni Grove Park Inn is one of our favorite places to visit. They have huge fireplaces in the main lobby with plenty of rocking chairs and lounge chairs to just sit and relax. Plus they have a bar where you can get one of their delicious craft cocktails to enjoy while warming by the fire. If you can I would suggest spending at least half a day up here taking in the spectacular views from the Sunset Terrace and going to their highly acclaimed spa. The Spa boosts over 46,000 square feet of pure relaxation with therapeutic waterfall pools, lap pools, fireside lounge areas, eucalyptus infused rooms and so much more. And if you are a golfer you will want to check out the links — such a beautiful course with tee boxes on top of rolling hills.
Visit the Biltmore Estate
The Biltmore Estate is a gorgeous property that will take you back into time. I have been numerous times and absolutely love the grounds which include a winery. You can tour the estate itself and I would suggest to do this during Christmas time or when they have an exhibit — the last time I toured the home I went during the Titanic exhibit and throughly enjoyed learning about the house along with the Titanic’s history at the same time. The Vanderbilt family whose estate this still is was actually scheduled to sail back to America on the Titanic but ended up getting an earlier ship. You can rent bicycles on the property to explore some of the 8,000 acres and make sure you do a wine tasting down at the winery.