Ashville,NC..help with my boyfriend
 

We are staying at the Grove Park Inn one night, but I am in charge of finding things to do as well as eat...Will prob take a short tour of Biltmore...have been before years ago...Help! Any other not so expensive accomodations and what are things to do and places to eat!<BR>Thanks!

The Grove Park is a lovely place - I used to go there at Christmas to have lunch and walk around.<BR><BR>I remember going to an quaint old part of Asheville that had shops and restaurants - very nice. Can't remember the name or exact place, though.<BR><BR>There's a nice Comfort Inn near the Biltmore. Depending on time of year, you could drive the Blue Ridge highway into the Smokey Mtns, check out the waterfalls around Brevard (cute town, too), tour Castle Rock. It's a great area - you shouldn't have a problem finding places to eat/ things to do.

The shopping area Amanda is thinking of is probably Biltmore Village, which is in Asheville very close to the entrance to the Biltmore Estate. It is a nice place to browse around for gifts.<BR><BR>I also agree about going to Brevard. It has a nice town square and plenty of shops, along with a few promising art galleries. The toy store is enormous and a fun place to goof off in. <BR><BR>But aside from all that, just driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway is a great way to take in the local sights.

Just spent a weekend in Asheville and stayed at the Best Western Biltmore. It's a decent, not fancy hotel just 2-3 blocks from downtown (easy walk). We paid only $50 in winter with free parking. About a 5 minute drive to Biltmore.<BR><BR>Like I said, it was certainly nothing fancy, but the rooms were fine and the location is great. It's a fantastic bargain at that price.<BR><BR>Ate at La Caterina on Pack Square. Good Italian (portions are way too big however), friendly, professional service, very popular - reserve ahead.<BR><BR>Don't miss great beer at Barley's Tap Room and the Jack in the Wood pub. Nothing better on a cold day than a great microbrewed stout in a smoke-free atmosphere.<BR><BR>Asheville is the coolest place I've been in a long time. But don't spread that around . . .<BR>

There is a Hampton Inn on Tunnel Road that is clean, safe and reasonably priced. Biltmore should take up most of your day...and go to the winery while you're there. If you don't mind the cold weather, see if there are any trails open on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A good trail that is closeby is Craggy Gardens. A cheap place to eat is Barley's Tap Room in downtown Asheville...good pizza and beer.

How far is Brevard? We are thinking of going next week. Any other Suggests for dining or nightlife? We are not familiar with Ashville...is it there a compact downtown or all spread out?

Dowtown Asheville is very compact - easily walkable even in bitter cold. There are a few restaurants around Pack Square - sort of center of downtown. Other restaurants we wanted to go to (but ran out of stomach space) were Zambra, The Golden Horn and Market Place. Next time.<BR><BR>Be sure to stop at BeanStreets Coffee for a hot chocolate and live music to round out the evening. There seem to be a lot of young people hangouts in downtown.<BR><BR>If you do a Yahoo search for options, be sure to include the "e" in Asheville. Have fun.

If memory serves, Brevard is about 30-40 minutes from Asheville. <BR><BR>You may laugh, but when I was in Asheville in '97, we stayed at the Motel 6. Yep. And it was amazingly nice! They also had a decent free breakfast. It's a major step down from Grove Park but the price was great. <BR><BR>Asheville is spread out, so you'll definitely want a car. <BR><BR>I don't know if either of you are in any way literary but two famous authors have homes in and near Asheville. Thomas Wolf's house is in Asheville and I enjoyed the tour. Carl Sandburg's home is off the Parkway and was very interesting. It's also situated among some beautiful scenery.

Oh, I should add that we did the Biltmore House in 1/2 day, but it's important to arrive right at opening - when we left at 11:00, the lines to get in the house were very long.<BR><BR>We did drive over to the winery (it's included in the huge entrance fee). I wouldn't really recommend this unless you've never been to a winery. The "tour" is very short and the fee tastings are more entertaining than tasty. Listening to your bar-mates completely butcher the pronunciation of "mer-loat" and "pigg-no grize" is quite fun. The wine itself is pretty horrible. Interestingly, the winery's biggest seller is white zinfindel, the one grape they don't actually grow there. We weren't surprised.

Sorry, that's "free" tastings.

Sandburg's home is in Flat Rock, and it is very pretty. <BR><BR>The Haywood Park Hotel is in downtown Asheville, in the midst of fun shops and restaurants.

If you want to see some of the waterfalls in the area, here are some of the best. Rainbow and Turtleback Falls - an easy 20-30 minute hike each way. Whitewater Falls - 5 minute walk from the parking lot. Looking Glass Falls - right off the road near Brevard. Dry Falls and Cullasaja Falls -right on the road south of Asheville. You can see all of these either on the way to Brevard or from there. If you look at the "My Backyard" part of my Web site, you can see what some of them look like. I haven't added Whitewater photos yet, but it is the most spectacular one. You can actually go down a steep hill to the bottom of Rainbow Falls, and you can walk under Dry Falls (that's the reason for the name).

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