Things To Do
Restaurants
Downtown Asheville has plenty of great restaraunts. You can find good recommendations online, but our favorites include: • White Duck Taco Shop: Unique tacos with international ingredients in downtown. • Tupelo Honey: Good southern food (like chicken and waffles) downtown, great for breakfast or brunch. • Limones: A more upscale restaurant with California-style food (whatever that means, I'm just reading from the website). We had a fantastic anniversary dinner here in 2023. • Green Sage Cafe: Casual, take-away or sitdown breakfast place right downtown with smoothies, organic ingredients, breakfast sandwiches, coffee, etc. • Wicked Weed Brewing's Brewpub: Excellent brewpub food and beer in downtown Asheville. • The Funkatorium: Wicked Weed's other brewpub, known for its sour and unique beers. • Nine Mile: Caribbean / Jamaican restaurant just outside of downtown. •Biscuit Head: Classic southern breakfast spot. Busy but worth it. •Luminosa: Upscale Italian-American food
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is slowly opening after Hurricane Helene. It's a picturesque drive that passes right through Asheville. A 20 minute drive along the BRP in either direction (north or south) takes you to some beautiful views. Update: May 7, 2025: North along the BRP is closed, south is open. Go south for nice hikes and views. BRP conditions change frequently. Check https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/conditions.htm or Google Maps
Biltmore Estate
The Biltmore is the largest privately-owned house in the United States and a top tourist spot in Asheville. There are multiple tour options (like exterior-only, full interior tours, etc.) available every day (check biltmore.com)
Explore Downtown
Downtown Asheville is packed with great restaurants, bars, and breweries - all within walking distance. There are also worthwhile downtown attractions like: •Thomas Wolfe House •Asheville Art Gallery •Asheville Pinball Museum
Breweries
Asheville is famous for its beer and has plenty of great breweries. New Belgium is close to downtown and does a great little tour. Burial makes some of the best beer in the US. Sierra Nevada has a large taproom about 20 minutes south of downtown by the airport. There's pretty much a brewery on every block in downtown Asheville (especially the South Slope) area and you can't go wrong with any of them.
Rooftop Bar for Sunset
The Cambria, AC Marriott Hotel, Embassy Suites, Doubletree (all downtown) have great sunset views of the hills around Asheville and are open to the public.
Hikes, River Rafting, Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour, Mountain Biking, & More
• Hiking / Viewpoints / Mountain Biking: Max Patch, Looking Glass Rock Trail, Black Balsam Knob, Lovers Leap Loop Trail, Pinnacle Park, Catawba Falls, Grandfather Mountain, Asheville Botanical Garden Trails, and Linville Gorge are all open in 2025 post-Helene • Hop On / Hop Off Bus: Gray Line Trolley Tours has a hop on / hop off bus that takes you to Asheville's top sights. • Rafting / Tubing: There's a small river (the French Broad) going through Asheville. and you can whitewater raft on sections of it (check frenchbroadrafting.com) or tube down it. Asheville has lots going on in and around it - just please make it safely to Saturday!