Asheville, NC – The Biltmore & Mount Mitchell
We planned a long weekend trip to Asheville, NC in November 2018. We spent the weekend exploring Asheville, The Biltmore, and climbing Mount Mitchell – the highest peak east of the Mississippi! If you want to see photos and read more about our time then just keep scrolling!
Transportation:
We drove from our hometown in PA to Asheville, NC. It was about a 9 hour drive. This was our weekend itinerary:
Thursday
Downtown Asheville
Friday
The Biltmore
(Day tour + Candlelight Christmas Evenings)
Saturday
Mount Mitchell
Omni Grove Park Inn – Asheville
Thursday:
Our first stop was the New Belgium Brewing Company before checking-in at our hotel
Where we Stayed:
Clarion Inn Biltmore Village – after a lot of research we settled on staying at the Clarion Inn – Biltmore Village because the price was fair and the location was great. We knew we wouldn’t be spending any time at our hotel (except for sleep) so we decided to save on our stay. We were pleased with our stay here and they offered a nice complimentary breakfast in the morning.
The Clarion Inn is right in the heart of the restaurants and shopping in the Biltmore Village. We had breakfast at the Corner Kitchen before heading to the Biltmore Estate.
Thursday night – Downtown Asheville:
We took our first evening in Asheville to explore downtown and grab dinner.
Where we ate:
Tupelo Honey – I read a lot of reviews/recommendations to check out this restaurant. It did not disappoint! We enjoyed the food and vibe.
Friday – The Biltmore:
We spent the entire day at the Biltmore Estate! We chose the “Enhanced Biltmore” package. More about tickets & pricing can be found here.
Our tickets included:
- Access to Biltmore House & Gardens
- Audio Guide of Biltmore House including personal Vanderbilt stories and archival details
- Access to Antler Hill Village & Winery
- Complimentary parking
The morning started off with rain… fortunately, it cleared up by early afternoon once we were done touring the inside of the house.
The indoor swimming pool!
This was in the basement of the Biltmore
We spent some time exploring the gardens and the property after touring the inside of the house.
Later in the afternoon, we headed over to the Antler Hill Village & Winery (located on the Biltmore Estate property). The ticket package we purchased included a free wine tasting at the winery. We actually really enjoyed this part of our day and highly recommend doing this if you get the chance!
After the winery, we headed back to the estate for dinner at the Stable Cafe before taking our second tour of the house for the “Candlelight Christmas Evenings”.
All we can say is….WOW…Christmas time at the Biltmore is magical! We highly recommend visiting at Christmas time if you get the opportunity.
The Candlelight Christmas Evenings event concluded our day at the Biltmore Estate. We headed back to our hotel to rest up for our hike the next day!
Mount Mitchell
The last part of our Asheville, NC trip was hiking Mount Mitchell! Mount Mitchell is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak in mainland eastern North America. Mount Mitchell is about 35 miles Northeast of Downtown Asheville and is along the scenic drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The hike to the summit is 12 miles total (6 miles one-way). We decided it would be best to do the hike one way and have our car waiting for us at the top of the Summit so we could drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway when we were done with the hike. We chose to start our hike from the Black Mountain Campground. There is no shuttle service offered through Mount Mitchell State Park back so we made arrangements for a shuttle service with Hiker Transport – Yancey County Transit Authority (828-682-6144). You will need to make a 48-hour advanced reservation and there is a small fee. We needed to be at the summit parking lot by 7:00 AM that morning to park our car in the lot at the top and board our shuttle to take us to the trail head at The Black Mountain Campground. Since it was early November, the campground was closed (parking, camping, restrooms, etc.) so definitely keep that in mind. We were basically just dropped off there by the shuttle service so we could get to the start of the trail.
This photo was taken on our way to the mountain top to park our car and catch the shuttle….it was fall at the bottom of the trail and winter at the top!
We stopped a few times along the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way back!
We stopped a few times on our way back down the Blue Ridge Parkway!
To end the day, once we were back in Asheville, we headed over to The Omni Grove Park Inn for dinner!
Saturday night – Omni Grove Park Inn – Asheville
We heard a lot of great things about the Omni Grove Park Inn, so we headed there to check out the resort and have dinner. The views of the mountains were AMAZING from the back of the resort. We watched the sunset and had dinner at Edison Kitchen + Bar. We even got to watch a wedding happening at sunset!
That concludes our action packed weekend of exploring and hiking in Asheville, NC! Have you been to the Biltmore?! Leave us a comment and let us know your favorite thing to do in Asheville!
Click hereto read about our Mount Washington – NH weekend itinerary!