Asheville

Things to do in Asheville:
wander around downtown - they have lots of quirky shops (i like this tea/spice shop downtown)
Biltmore - great gardens, if you want to pay the cost to get in, you could spend a whole day there if you wanted.  http://www.biltmore.com/

outside of Biltmore is the Biltmore Village which has high end shops and restaurants 
Blue Ridge Parkway http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/   - Time goes slower on the parkway. Mileage too. The normal time it takes to drive 10 miles anywhere else is doubled on the parkway. It's great but you have to remember not to try and bite off more than you can chew.
Chimney Rock, I haven't been here yet but one day: http://www.chimneyrockpark.com/
The Arboretum: http://www.ncarboretum.org/  It's pretty neat and not too expensive. There are some easy trails around the property that are nice. 
Asheville also has a lot of good music venues, if you wanted to check them out. This is one I've heard of: http://www.theorangepeel.net/

Tupelo Honey Cafe - this is my favorite restaurant. It's local, organic, made from scratch and a great Asheville institution. I like going to the one in south Asheville just because you can make reservations but you usually don't need them, they're larger and usually less crowded. But the one downtown is the original and has more "character" http://tupelohoneycafe.com/

Breweries - Asheville is becoming one of the best places for beer in the Southeast. Many breweries are opening up East coast locations in Asheville. You can check out this visitor site which is helpful: http://www.exploreasheville.com/foodtopia/food-adventures/asheville-beer/. They say that Asheville has more breweries per capita in the US. We enjoyed our visit to Highlands Brewing Company. Many of these places host music events on the weekends, as well.   

To stay: Down to Earth cottages: http://www.downtoearthcottages.com/
it's like if you had your own cottage in the mountains. You take care of food and all yourself but they also leave you alone. They also have a garden and fire pit and things to do around there. Brevard is about 45 min- an hour drive from asheville. I love Brevard as a mountain town.  I will do a mountain/Brevard post in the future.

Also, west of Asheville is Waynesville which is a pretty cool mountain town. 

I use a lot of the tourism websites for town info. Also for events calendars. I find out a lot of fun things via these sites. Here: 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Battle of Rivers Bridge State Historic Site

Image
2020 Hiking Post 4 You might remember how last May, we visited the  Battle of Rivers Bridge State Historic Site . Recently, we returned there so we could explore the park more. This site is the only SC State Park where Confederate soldiers fought Sherman's troops as he made his way from Savannah to Columbia. There is a short trail (less than a mile) that takes you around the battleground and shows you the battle and what conditions were like at the time. There are still earthen rifle pits and other embankments that the soldiers built. Lots of informational signs along the way. Rifle pit mounds Retreat Trail There's also another trail that marks the route that the soldiers took as they retreated and a cemetery that has the dead from the battle. The park is free and has good visuals of how the battle took place and who was involved in it. There is also a community center and some neat events that take place throughout the year that show you what life wa
Read more

Charleston Area State Parks

Image
2019 Hiking Week 41 Charles Towne Landing Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It’s been quite the year traveling all over the state and seeing all that South Carolina has to offer. We didn’t anticipate at the beginning of this year that we would visit all of the South Carolina State parks but we finished and received our certificate! We ended our state park visits with Charleston area parks. We stayed in the area and visited Edisto , Colleton, Givhan’s Ferry, and Charles Towne Landing . We had previously visited Colonial Dorchester State Park on a day trip.  Edisto Beach State Park covers a large part of Edisto Island. There is an inland section with trails, camping, a boat dock, and nature center, as well as a beach section of the park. It was pretty cold when we visited but still beautiful. Edisto is one of the barrier islands that is remote and takes awhile to get there. It’s about an hour’s drive from Charleston. We’ve stayed there a couple times and it’s one of tho
Read more

Going Greek

Well, it's one of my favorite times of the year in Columbia. Football season, fall and...the Greek Festival! If you live in the area and haven't been, you need to make it a point to go. It's a great festival with lots of great food and some real friendly people. Now, disclaimer, it gets crowded! They usually take up one block with booths, games, entertainment stages, and food vendors so every free space there is can be filled with people. I recommend going during one of the off-times. Like take a late lunch or an early dinner. Or even an early lunch. They're open from 10 am - 10 pm Thursday through Saturday. They also have Sunday hours. But while you're there, try and make it a point to tour their church. It was just built in the last couple of years and they are always working on adding new artwork. It's beautiful. You can sit there and study all of the Greek Ikons and learn about the history of each painting. Greek Festivals are great family activities and I
Read more