Asheville: Delightfully Diverse

By David Monforton

Long known as an eclectic mountain city in western North Carolina that is home to countless artists, musicians and writers, Asheville offers a vacation respite for nearly every kind of traveler. There is Bele Chere, the Southeast’s largest free street festival with dozens of bands and tons of delicious food. And the storied Biltmore Estate, America’s largest privately owned home and, surprisingly, the country’s most-visited winery. But Asheville also boasts challenging golf courses, relaxing spas, plenty of history, and mountains of activities.

Over 300,000 people attend the Bele Chere Festival in downtown Asheville each July. Photo by: Asheville CVB

A Festival of Fun

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Bele Chere features nine stages of great music, three food courts, a children’s area, and a full spectrum of the finest handmade arts and crafts in downtown Asheville. This year’s event is scheduled for July 25-27.

America’s Castle

Built in 1895, the Biltmore Estate is America’s 250-room real-life castle, with original art from masters such as Renoir, magnificent 16th-century tapestries, Napoleon’s chess set, a library with 10,000 volumes, a Banquet Hall with a 70-foot ceiling, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, bowling alley and priceless antiques. Referred to as its 8,500-acre backyard, the grounds are impressive and offer a wide variety of gardens and activities. Visitors can participate in vigorous activities including biking, hiking and fishing, or enjoy the scenery in a more laidback setting on foot or via carriage ride or horseback.

The Biltmore’s winery produces and bottles all of its own vintages in its 90,000-square-foot facility, and the grapes used are grown on 94 acres right on the estate. The wine’s quality speaks for itself, with numerous awards to back it up.

A Literary Tribute

Thomas Wolfe, a major 20th-century American writer who made Asheville famous in his epic novel Look Homeward, Angel, used his hometown as a backdrop in this autobiographical book. In fact, the Victorian structure he dubbed Dixieland in the book was really his mother’s boardinghouse and his boyhood residence, the Old Kentucky Home.

Despite nearly 30 percent of the home being destroyed by arson in 1998, the structure has risen from the ashes and come back to life as the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. The Visitors Center located across the street houses an exhibit hall featuring personal effects from the Wolfe family home, Wolfe’s New York City apartment and his father’s stonecutting shop. An audio-visual program on Wolfe’s life and writing is shown every hour, and guided tours around the boarding house leave from the visitors center. It is a fitting tribute to a celebrated author whose life was cut short in 1938 at the too-young age of 37.

Courses in the Blue Ridge Mountains take golf to new heights. Photo by: Bill Russ

Treacherous Links

When you come to the North Carolina mountains to play golf, be prepared to maneuver around severe doglegs to the left and to the right, up and down some precipitous slopes, and to shoot over deep chasms, jagged rocks and perilous whitewater streams. And that’s before you even get to the golf course. The signature challenge of North Carolina’s mountain courses is dramatic elevation changes.

An exception to these courses is Broadmoor Golf Links in Fletcher, which is uniquely challenging in its own right. A Scottish links-style course, Broadmoor features flatter terrain, love-grass lining the fairways, pot bunkers and even the prevailing winds that are so predominant in golf’s homeland.

Mountains Majesty

If the thought of being outdoors and communing with nature elevates your heart rate with anticipation, you’re certain to find exactly what you’re looking for in Western North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains. There, you’ll find natural waterslides, rollercoaster-like mountain bike trails and stunning vistas that will take your breath away. Whether you’re into extreme sports or soft adventure, the mountains surrounding Asheville offer endless adventures.

And for stunning views that rise over the horizon as picture postcards in every direction, take a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, commonly referred to as “America’s Favorite Drive.” Access on and off the parkway is easy from Asheville, and drivers are permitted to pull over just about anywhere on the parkway to admire a view, spread out for a picnic, or just to enjoy the great outdoors—just be sure to move your vehicle completely off the road. (Driving across open fields, however, is prohibited.)

Take advantage of a view for all seasons at Sugarland Mountain Accommodations, with fully furnished homes offering spectacular views of Sugar Mountain. Come in the winter and take advantage of the region’s top-notch ski slopes, come in the summer and relax amidst nature’s splendor. Less than a two-hour picturesque drive from Asheville, these accommodations will make you feel like you’re on top of the world.

Less than two hours in the opposite direction (southwest) from Asheville, Cashiers, NC, is the definition of beauty. Here, the southern crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains rewards visitors with incredible vegetation, craggy rock faces, the tallest waterfall in the eastern U.S., and views of mountaintop upon mountaintop for as far as the eye can see.

Hiking trails in the Asheville area boast amazing views. Photo by: Hugh Morton

Mountain Fun for the Family

There are few places on earth where a train ride can be as scenic as it is in the mountains of Western North Carolina. And on top of its incredible views, the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad offers entertainment for the whole family as the stunning landscape passes by. Of particular interest to those with small children is the Day Out With Thomas tour departing from its Dillsboro, NC, station from July 25-Aug. 3, 2008. For nine fun-filled days, Thomas the Tank Engine fans will meet Sir Topham Hatt and ride the train. Included is live entertainment, a petting zoo, storytelling, video viewing, an interactive play center and more.

In addition to catering to the kids, the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad offers plenty of excursions for adults, too, with train rides focusing on celebrated wines, fall colors and gourmet dining, as well as mystery dinner train rides to keep you on your toes, yet laughing all the way.

Nestled at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains in Maggie Valley, Ghost Town In The Sky is an amusement park offering rides fit for the youngest buckaroo to the bravest outlaw. Ghost Town also features staged gunfights, live music and shows, crafts, food and lots more fun. The park is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from May 2-18 and Sept. 5-Nov. 2, and seven days a week from May 23-Sept. 1.

Few regions across the country can boast the range of activities and sites found in or near Asheville, NC. A visit here can be a mountain adventure, a golf holiday, a spa getaway, or all of the above and more. One thing you can be sure of, though: A vacation in Asheville will be over too soon. On your way home, you’ll be asking yourself, “Where on earth did that week go?”

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There's Always Something to Do at America's Largest Home

When visitors plan a trip to the Biltmore Estate, they often think first of Biltmore House, with its 250 rooms of art and antiques. But there’s so much more to George W. Vanderbilt’s historic property in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Whether a guest’s interest lies in food and wine, gardening, history, agriculture, family activities or just escaping the everyday, Biltmore has an event or activity to suit.

Whatever the time of year, Biltmore offers ever-changing ways to enjoy Vanderbilt’s historic property. Each spring, the estate celebrates with a month-long Festival of Flowers, and Easter weekend wouldn’t be complete without the massive egg hunt on the front lawn of Biltmore House. Summer is packed with activities, including Winery Summerfest Weekends, offering great jazz and blues, and Summer Evening Concerts, bringing nationally known acts to the South Terrace of Biltmore House for fabulous music under the stars.

In the fall, Biltmore welcomes cooler weather with Harvest Celebration, featuring crafters, music, dancing and children’s activities. And then there’s Christmas at Biltmore and Candlelight Christmas Evenings, when the 250-room chateau is transformed into a fairy-tale castle with miles of evergreen garland, hundreds of poinsettias, dozens of Christmas trees and a magnificent 35-foot-tall live Fraser fir decked with lights, ornaments and gifts.

Biltmore House, Biltmore Estate