Asheville

1. 1

   Biltmore Estate

   George Vanderbilt’s 250-room Châteauesque mansion, completed in 1895, remains the largest privately owned home in the United States, set within an 8,000-acre estate designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The house itself is a masterwork of Gilded Age ambition — 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, a bowling alley, an indoor swimming pool, and an art collection including works by Renoir and Sargent. Beyond the house, the Olmsted-designed gardens progress through Italian, walled, shrub, and azalea gardens across four acres of manicured grounds. Antler Hill Village includes the estate’s winery (free tastings with admission), a farmyard, restaurants, and outdoor adventure activities including horseback riding, kayaking, and Land Rover driving experiences. The estate requires a full day to appreciate properly — arrive when gates open and start with the gardens before your timed house entry. Standard adult admission starts at approximately $70, with discounts for advance online booking. The estate also offers overnight stays at the Inn on Biltmore Estate and Village Hotel, transforming the visit into a multi-day experience.

2. 2

   Blue Ridge Parkway

   Known as ‘America’s Favorite Drive,’ this 469-mile scenic parkway connecting Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park passes directly through the Asheville area, making the city an ideal base for exploring its most dramatic sections. The stretch between mileposts 355 and 410 delivers the Parkway’s most concentrated scenic impact: Craggy Gardens (milepost 364) erupts in rhododendron bloom each June at 5,500 feet elevation; Mount Mitchell — the highest peak east of the Mississippi at 6,684 feet — sits a short spur road from milepost 355; and the Folk Art Center (milepost 382) showcases Southern Highland Craft Guild artisanship. The overlooks provide layered Blue Ridge mountain views that change character with each season — spring wildflowers, summer’s deep green canopy, October’s spectacular foliage, and winter’s stark ridge-line silhouettes. Multiple hiking trailheads along the Parkway offer walks ranging from 15-minute overlook loops to strenuous multi-hour ridge hikes. The Parkway has no entrance fee, though some facilities have separate admission. Cell service is limited to nonexistent along most sections — download maps before departing.

3. 3

   River Arts District

   Stretching along the French Broad River in former industrial warehouses and cotton mills, the River Arts District (RAD) houses over 270 working artists across more than 25 buildings in what has become one of the Southeast’s most significant art communities. Unlike sanitized gallery districts, RAD maintains its working studio character — visitors walk through active ceramic workshops, watch glassblowers shape molten material, observe painters mid-canvas, and purchase directly from makers. The district’s renovation from industrial corridor to creative hub happened organically beginning in the 1980s when artists seeking affordable studio space colonized abandoned buildings along the railroad tracks and riverfront. Today the district also includes breweries (Wedge Brewing Company is a local institution), restaurants (12 Bones Smokehouse draws crowds including former President Obama), and the recently completed greenway providing cycling and walking access along the river. Most studios are open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM, with the second Saturday of each month featuring special open studio events. The district is a short drive or pleasant bike ride from downtown — free parking is available at multiple lots throughout.

4. 4

   Downtown Asheville & Pack Square

   Asheville’s downtown core centers on Pack Square, a public plaza named for George Willis Pack and surrounded by art deco, Beaux-Arts, and early 20th-century commercial buildings that give the city its architectural personality. The Grove Arcade — a 1929 Tudor Revival commercial building that George W. Vanderbilt III originally commissioned — houses independent shops, restaurants, and the Asheville Art Museum. Woolworth Walk, occupying the former five-and-dime store on Haywood Street, showcases 170 local artists across every medium in a space that preserves its original soda fountain lunch counter. The Thomas Wolfe Memorial preserves the boarding house where the novelist grew up, immortalized as ‘Dixieland’ in ‘Look Homeward, Angel.’ The Basilica of St. Lawrence, designed by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino, features the largest freestanding elliptical dome in North America. South Slope, the blocks below Patton Avenue, concentrates more than a dozen craft breweries within walking distance — Burial, Green Man, Hi-Wire, and Catawba among them. Friday evening drum circles in Pritchard Park, running from spring through fall, have become Asheville’s most organic cultural tradition.

5. 5

   Pisgah National Forest & Mount Mitchell

   The 500,000-acre Pisgah National Forest wraps around Asheville’s eastern and southern flanks, providing a wilderness gateway within 30 minutes of downtown. The forest encompasses waterfalls (Looking Glass Falls drops 60 feet into a swimming pool accessible from the road; Sliding Rock is a natural 60-foot waterslide), hiking trails for all abilities, swimming holes along the Davidson River, and some of the East Coast’s most challenging mountain biking terrain. Mount Mitchell State Park, reached via a spur road from the Blue Ridge Parkway or NC-128, takes visitors to the 6,684-foot summit — the highest point east of the Mississippi River — where an observation deck delivers 360-degree views across wave after wave of Blue Ridge peaks. The trail from the summit to Mount Craig adds a 1.8-mile round trip to the second-highest eastern peak. Graveyard Fields (milepost 418), a high-elevation valley with waterfalls and blueberry bushes, attracts crowds during August berry season. For rock climbing, Looking Glass Rock offers multi-pitch routes on a 400-foot exposed granite dome. The forest has no entrance fee; individual recreation areas may charge parking fees.

Editor-curated picks carried over from our original guide. Where a full place guide exists, the card links to it.