June 13, 2019

10 Awesome Things to do in Asheville

When most people think of Asheville they tend to associate it with the Biltmore. I know that’s the main reason we just recently made a visit to this quaint mountain town. After digging a little deeper while planning our trip did I realize that there’s so much more to this great town. We decided to gather up all the fun things we found in one place for all of you.

1. Biltmore House & Gardens

The Biltmore is probably the most well known landmark in Asheville. It’s the largest privately owned residence in the United States at 135,280 sqft of living space. It was built by George Vanderbilt over a 6 year span in the 1890’s. It’s unbelievable to know that this house was built by a single man as essentially his bachelor pad. Who needs that much room?? The audio tour of the house takes about two house and is well worth the price of admission!

2. Segway Tour of Downtown Asheville

If you’ve never ridden on a segway don’t worry. You don’t need prior experience for this activity. Our guide was took about 30 minutes to teach us how to work the segways. After about 10 minutes of practice we were good to go. This tour starts at the welcome center and takes you all over the downtown area. Our guide was awesome in pointing out all the notable landmarks and giving us suggestions of places to eat, also. He even made sure stop and take pictures of our groups for us.

3. Pinball Museum

Who knew this was a thing? I had heard about the Pinball Museum on a Vlog I watched previously and it was also mentioned during our segway tour. I knew we had to go check it out. It’s full of every kind of pinball game you can imagine. They also buy and sell the machines. It’s one admission price ($15) for unlimited play on all the machines in the museum. The museum doesn’t just have pinball machines though if you follow it back far enough there are tons of older console games available for play.

4. Brewery Tour

As the craft beer scene continues to grow everywhere, Asheville is no different. The downtown area is full of uniquely different breweries. The easiest way to explore them all is to take a Brewery tour. There are tons of different options to choose from. Tours include trips to 3-4 different breweries where you learn about how the beers are made, tour the production areas, and taste the different beers. Don’t worry if not everyone in your group drinks, most tours offer discounted prices for non-drinkers.

5. Follow the Urban Trail

The Urban trail is a path through the city that takes you past 30 different sculptures. Each of these sculptures represents a historical moment in the life of Asheville. The recommended starting point for the trail is at Asheville’s Pack Square, but starting at any of the 30 sculptures is fine. It’s a fun activity that takes you past most of downtown Asheville so take your time and explore as you go. You can find information on each stop and even listen to audio about each stop here.

Cat Walk – #9 on the trail

6. Live Music & Drum Circle

Asheville’s arts scene is huge with tons of options for live music at any given time. One of the things we heard over and over was that there is a drum circle every Friday night. In the middle of down town there is a small park with step seating. People gather and brings all kinds of drums and play together different beats. Those not drumming are dancing and relaxing. It’s a good introduction to the Asheville scene. Take some time to sit and relax or just enjoy the sounds on you way to dinner.

7. Paddleboarding

Paddle boarding is a great way to mix exercise and adventure. There are so many mountain rivers and lakes surrounding Asheville that are perfect for your paddle boarding adventures. Living in Florida paddle boarding is a huge activity, but we don’t have the beautiful mountain views to enjoy while adventuring. Bring your own board or pick from one of the many tour options available.

8. Waterfall Tour

The mountains around Asheville are mixed with tons of lakes and waterfalls. Whenever we asked a local what we should make sure to do while visiting, they all said to hike to a waterfall. There’s a lot of choices and all of them are beautiful so you can’t go wrong. You can easily spend an entire day in nature going from one waterfall to the next.

9. Enjoy the Food

Asheville is booming with new restaurants everywhere you go. It’s almost impossible to narrow down a list of places to try. We asked around and everyone said we must try the NC BBQ. Our segway guide highly recommended Buxton Hall Barbecue. This restaurant is owned by two James Beard nominees, Elliott Moss and Meherwan Irani. All the BBQ is smoked on sight by the Pitt Master overnight to be ready for the next day. The restaurant was very modern in it’s design, the service was great and the food was delicious.

10. Visit Mount Mitchell

The choices for hiking and discovering nature are plentiful in Asheville. Mt Mitchell is probably the most notable because at its summit it’s the highest point east of the Mississippi. That peak sits at 6,694 ft. There are plenty of paths to the top from an easy paved route to a more rustic mountain trail. You can even camp in the warmer moths at the 9 site campground near the summit. We didn’t have enough time to take on the hike from bottom to top. We drove to the summit and it was beautiful drive up the Blue Ridge Highway. The highway is full on overlook points where you can take a break and enjoy the serene views. Once you reach the summit, on a clear day, you can see up to 85 miles in any direction.

There’s so many awesome things to do in Asheville that we can’t wait to go back any try some more. If you’ve been to Asheville let me know below what activities you’ve done.

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