Asheville
 

Hi,
My husband and I are hoping to plan a last minute trip to Asheville to see the foliage, hike and explore the town and environs. We welcome suggestions on where to stay and whether we should hit peak foliage if we drove up around 10/18 or so. Any tips on these topics or itinerary would be greatly appreciated. This will be ourt first visit. As for accomodations, we prefer inns or upscale, but not too pricey B,&Bs, but are open to hotels too. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Dont forget to visit Chimney rock.Paul

There are some previous posts and trips reports on Asheville on this board, so try the Search box (I admit, it's a flawed function).

Last minute this time of year is tricky, but the leaves are turning late. If you try to find accommodation for the 10/18 date, try later. Unfortunately, the drought means that the colors will be muted -- going brown rather than brighter colors.

We found our B&B through tripadvisor.com but not sure what your price range is, since you said "upscale but not too pricey." Asheville's prices are less than big city but they're not really a bargain, either. $200/night gets you nice but you have to go higher for luxury.

You essentially have 4 areas to choose from -- downtown (chains), northwest-ish (Montford or the Merriman corridor of motels), south of Biltmore (less expensive but decent chain motels), or up north-northeast around the Grove Park Inn (some pricey B&Bs but cheaper than the GP Inn, which is unnecessarily out of sight expensive).

Biltmore is the don't-miss attraction, but it's $49. per person -- IMO worth it for the house, the gardens, the extensive surrounding facilities/woods.

Biltmore Village, nearby, is full of upscale boutique-y stores, galleries, and nice restaurants.

Downtown is wonderful to walk around, good restaurants, bistros, galleries, bookstores, and just fun wandering.

The Folk Art Center at the Rte. 70 entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway has very good quality stuff, and there's also a Park Service Info desk with good info on the Parkway, activities, etc.

You can spend all your time driving up and then down the Blue Ridge Parkway -- climb Craggy Gardens' lookout, trails are everywhere.

This is a start.

Should clarify re: Montford -- several nice B&Bs near Montford park. Not much you can walk to other than the park, so you have to drive to restaurants, etc., but the B&Bs are pretty. Merrimon is more traditionally commercial, and some areas are less nice.

HKP---Thank you so much for the helpful info on surrounding areas. I'm sorry, but,I thought I had posted a thank you already but realized that I had not. I am still struggling to piece this trip together! Thanks again.