Went to Asheville last week with my mom- definitely plan to return! We were there for three days and it was not enough time. As always, this site was incredibly helpful so I wanted to share highlights:

*Visitor's Center is a great first stop to pick up maps and get some advice as to where to park and what to do. Although there is metered parking, we found the parking garages a better option.
*If you want a good overview of the architecture, try walking the Urban Trail (get map from hotel or Visitor's Center).
*The Grove Arcade and Biltmore Village each had a handful of interesting shops, but don't expect to spend that much time in them. Arcade especially had a lot of empty storefronts.
*We went to the Biltmore as soon as it opened and thereby missed the school field trip groups that swarmed in late morning. We rented the headphones and found them incredibly helpful as there is little signage to describe the rooms.
*If you walk in the Biltmore gardens, keep in mind that you go downhill as you leave the house. This means your return trip is uphill. Just something to remember when your endurance starts to flag!
*We had a very disappointing experience with Waterfall Tours of Western NC (http://www.waterfalltours.com/). I called the day before and was given directions to the meeting point, and told the guide (Victoria) would call me back to confirm. She called while we were out and left a message and asked me to return her call to confirm. I did, and left a message on her machine. The next morning we drove down to the Brevard meeting point and waited...and waited...andwaited. Luckily i still had Victoria's # with me. I called her and she tried to say I had never confirmed! Once I quoted back her answering machine greeting to her, she then backpedaled and tried to claim she'd been calling us all morning to re-confirm (?). She said we should wait there for another hour and she'd meet us. uh huh. We were quite fed up by that point and just cancelled the tour. Driving ourselves thru Pisgal Forest and seeing Looking Glass Falls and Sliding Rock was quite fun, though. PS When we got back to our hotel room there were no messages from Victoria. Maybe if you book way in advance and do NOT get Victoria your experience might be better.
*NC Arboretum has some beautiful gardens. We were all walked-out by that point, but the trails looked interesting.
*We stayed at the Bayonne Biltmore; it was a decent hotel, right near Biltmore Village, just off I-40. I got a rate of $67.50/night thru Expedia.

Sounds like you had a fairly good time, although I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with the waterfall tour company. Truth be told, yours was the first bad experience I've heard of with them... I wonder what's going on there?

As for the Grove Arcade, yeah there are quite a few empty storefronts, but that's because the arcade was only recently refurbished and opened up after about 50 years as a government office building. It was built in 1929 as one of the first indoor shopping malls in the country but was comandeered by the federal government during World War II, and only last year reopened its doors. Should you find yourself in Asheville again sometime, definitely check back. I was at the arcade yesterday and noticed that a few more restaurants have opened since I was there last, plus summertime hasn't arrived yet; when it does, rest assured that those iron stalls outside will fill up with vendors.

Give the arcade time.

Meanwhile, I'm glad you walked the Asheville Urban Trail. What was your favorite sculpture? I think mine is probably the bronze cats on Wall Street. I didn't notice until yesterday though, that two bronze mice have one cat's rapt attention.

Thanks also, for your recommendation of the Visitor's Center. We locals hardly ever think about it, but it's a fantastic source of information for tourists, especially in regards to parking downtown. That's a difficult situation these days what with streets downtown being resurfaced one at a time. Did you notice that there are patches on Haywood Street where you can see where the asphalt has been scraped away down to the original brick pavement? On another street, though I forget which one, they've uncovered the old trolley tracks, along with the bricks.

At any rate, I'm glad you enjoyed your visit. Come on back anytime!

We also returned from Asheville about two weeks ago. Sorry about your experience with the waterfall tour. In the book "Hidden Carolinas" there is a page listing locations of the larger, well-known falls. We were able to easily find all of them. Dry Falls and Bridal Veil Falls are close together on Rt 64 (almost right beside the road) near Highlands. You can walk behind both of these falls, so they?re kind of fun. However, Dry Falls is not really dry. Whitewater Falls is also close by-we got directions from the bulletin board at Dry Falls. I think it is about 150Ft high. The maps and info we got at the Brevard visitor?s center were confusing. We tried to find a couple of other falls using the maps but couldn?t find them. I guess some of them are on private property or do not have signs at the roadside. Our favorite was Pearson?s Falls located near Saluda. The water cascades in a stair step pattern and the surrounding are really pretty. We visited Pearson?s Falls after we went to Hendersonville and Flat Rock.

Actually, not having the tour was probably just as well. We spent quite a while just looking as Sliding Rock- maybe it's because of all the recent rainfall, but we just couldn't get over how treacherous it looked! (For those who don't know it, it's a natural water slide.) Looked like loads of fun in warmer weather. I think my mom enjoyed the NC arboretum more than she would've the tour anyway!

No matter how warm the weather---the water is always around the 30;s I think--It literally takes your breath away when you hit it!

Sliding Rock is cold -- but not that cold! It's between 50 and 60 degrees. A lifeguard or two is on duty from Memorial Day until Labor Day.