Asheville NC

The Urban Trail in Downtown Asheville NC

Downtown Asheville’s Urban Trail takes visitors along a 1.7 mile stroll through the city’s varied history. The thirty stops along the trail include reminders of the city’s Gilded Age, its Art Deco period (Asheville has more restored Art Deco buildings than any U.S. city except Miami Beach), the frontier period, and the life and times of author, Thomas Wolfe. Along the route are interesting shops, restaurants, and art galleries.

The Carl Sandburg Home

Carl Sandburg was the people’s poet. Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, among other awards, Sandburg, a Midwesterner, and his wife moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina, about 30 miles outside of Asheville, where they built a lovely country estate called Connemera. Sandburg fell in love with the charming Blue Ridge Mountain countryside and spent the last 22 years of his life there. Today, the home is a National Historic Site and welcomes visitors to tour the 30-acre farm, which includes a working goat farm, five miles of hiking trails, and two ponds, an apple orchard as well as the residence.

The Biltmore Estate

Asheville, NC’s most famous attraction is the massive, 250-room Biltmore Estate, built by industrialist George Vanderbilt in 1895. The mansion, designed to resemble a French chateau is America’s largest privately owned house, and many of the original Gilded Age furnishings and the Vanderbilts’ extensive art collection have been retained, giving the house a homey feel, despite its size. Among the many rooms is a huge, 72-foot dining hall with a 70-foot high ceiling and a massive dining table, capable of seating 64 guests as well as 34 bedrooms and 43 baths. The 8000-acre estate also includes a winery, a four-star inn, an extensive and innovative culinary garden, and a stable complex.

Adjacent to the estate is the Biltmore Village, built by the Vanderbilts as a company town to house the over 1000 construction workers who helped to built the mansion and later the scores of workers who were employed by the estate. The town, designed by landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, to resemble an English country town, included a train depot, an Episcopal church, a hospital, and a school, among other buildings. Today, the area is filled with trendy restaurants, eclectic art galleries, and a variety of boutiques and shops.

The Blue Ridge Parkway

The rolling and picturesque Blue Ridge Mountainsdominate the Asheville NC skyline. The Blue Ridge Parkway, called America’s Favorite Drive, takes visitors 469 miles through the mountains from north central Virginia, near Roanoke, to western North Carolina, southwest of Asheville. The Parkway is the most visited site in the National Park Service and cuts through the Biltmore Estate property and features an Appalachian Folk Art Center, just outside of the city. Mount Pisgah, once a part of the Biltmore Property, at over 6000 feet is the centerpiece of the Pisgah National Forest and is a scenic highlight of the Parkway.