Asheville Travel Guide
Okay first off, I just want to say Asheville during Fall/peak foliage is probably one of my favorite places I've ever been! It is absolutely beautiful and the weather is amazing. I know weather changes from year to year (I mean we were there during a hurricane that blew over us), but overall, we could not have asked for better weather. I feel like in the 5 days we were there, we did SO much. Lane & I are normally ones to chill on vacation, but there were things we wanted to cross off our list this time since we had never been to Asheville. I will share everything we did/places we ate below!!
Places to Stay:
- We stayed at the Grove Park Inn which is stunning! Little did I know that it was haunted. I found that out on Wednesday (we checked in on Monday) and I legit couldn't sleep the next 2 nights. The ghost is friendly, and it's not like I was "scarred", I just don't do well in those situations. We never say said ghost and many of you DM'd me and said you hadn't either, so I think you will be good to go! LOL there's a lot of great places to stay other than the GPI, but I just don't have any experience with them!
What We Did:
- We did the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove it for about 2 hours. The views were stunning! I definitely recommend taking the drive, especially if you don't necessarily want to get out and hike. Make sure you take gum if you don't want your ears to continuously pop.
- Rough Ridge is beautiful at sunset! See above for photos. The hike is about an hour round-trip to get to the rock we were on. Be careful the edge is VERY steep!
- Sliding Rock Falls which is along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's the waterfall rock that people slide down during the summer. SO COOL! We obviously didn't get to see anyone slide down it - but still cool to go see.
- Downtown Asheville is awesome just to walk! Visiting the shops, boutiques and bars. Not gonna lie, we came home with some goodies like honey being one. Love the flavors of the Asheville Bee Company. :)
- Grove Park Inn for massages! Unfortunately, we weren't able to secure a reservation, but we stayed in the hotel, so I feel like we still got the experience (without the massages HAHA). Book way in advance, but I've heard amazing things! It's fun to walk the Inn as well. It's so big!
- Visit the breweries! Some of the major ones are closed right now due to winter/COVID, but if you are going another time - definitely check them out!
- Last but not least - the Biltmore!!!! We were not going to do it, but I am SOOOO happy we decided too! It was one of our favorite parts of the entire trip. I would recommend booking an earlier time to visit, because once we booked, only the 3:30pm time slots were available and we could've easily spent the entire day there walking the grounds and going to the winery! You have to visit the winery afterwards!!
Places to Eat:
Now these are in no specific order. One thing you need to know is that Asheville is one of the best food places ever!!! There is so much to choose from and everything is so delicious. I don't think I have ever eaten as much as I did in Asheville. We went to 8 restaurants in 2 days to fit everything in. Every 4 hours we were at a new place HAHA! SO here we go:
- Biscuit Head - 100% go for breakfast
- Tupelo Honey - the honey dusted chicken breast with sriracha honey was amazeballs
- Baked Pie Company - know what beer & wine flights are? just think... pie flights... what more can you ask for?
- Asheville Proper - 10/10 recommend for a nice dinner & drinks! Their steaks are out of this world plus the nicest servers ever.
- Packs Tavern - cool vibe and american food! Yummy drinks too!!!
- Sunshine Sammies - the best ice cream cookie sandwiches!!!
- Crave - it's legit a dessert bar, sweets & drinks - literally has my name all over it. I had the oreo cheesecake! Out of the world!
- Manicomio Pizza - the white pizza with ricotta is amazing!!!!
- Hole Donuts - 100% go!! The best donuts ever!!
- Old Europe Cafe - delicious coffee & pastries!
- Early Girl Eatery - Great breakfast spot!!
- Biltmore Winery - for wine of course!!!
- Okay so I did save the best for last!!! - The Sunset Terrace which is in the Grove Park Inn! Make reservations! It was probably our favorite place to eat! The drinks were amazing and the views were out of this world! We got the Fried Green Tomato BLT and it was the most yummiest thing ever!!!
There's more restaurants that we didn't go too, but I think we crossed a lot off of our list! :)
Anyways - we had the best time in Asheville!!! If you go - please let me know and tell me what you did! Lane already wants to go back for Christmas!!! LOL!!