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We've compiled the best of the best in The North Carolina Mountains - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
A handsome downtown bank building from 1905 is now a charming boutique hotel with rooms that have wide-plank paneling and soaring ceilings, creating a rustic atmosphere. You'll feel pampered with comfy beds, high-thread-count sheets, and organic toiletries.
Turn back the clock and still enjoy modern amenities at this charming, pastoral inn on the National Register of Historic Places. Accommodations are in the farmhouse or in five rustic cottages, one of which dates to 1818 and is the oldest inhabitable cabin in the state. A restaurant serves breakfast and dinner on weekends.
The spectacular setting is the main draw at the rustic Pisgah Inn, perched on a mountaintop at 5,000 feet. Rooms have small porches or balconies with rocking chairs where you can take in the views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The restaurant has huge windows facing the tree-clad slopes and serves mountain trout, fried chicken, and other tasty fare.
The two-acre grounds at this B&B feel like a private estate within walking distance of downtown. Period furnishings, a crystal chandelier, and a grand piano add to the grandeur of the 1926 stone-built home.
This folksy friendly mountain inn on 55 acres on a hilltop near Bryson City, operated by the same family since 1969, is the kind of place where you can relax in a rocking chair, catch up on reading, or play a game of Scrabble. The family-style meals are prepared with regional foods.
Sophistication with flair (like the portrait of the Rolling Stones over the stone fireplace) defines this playfully elegant inn built in an 1885 farmhouse directly on Main Street. In the rooms, high-end fixtures and furnishings are framed by artistic floral wallpaper. On the ground floor, the Ruffed Grouse tavern serves a simple, excellent menu of pheasant, trout, steak, and duck meatballs that matches the English hunting lodge feel of the restored manse.
With a stone staircase in the entry hall, colorful gardens, Arts and Crafts furnishings, and chestnut paneling and bark siding, it's no wonder that this 1900 manor-style house in the heart of Blowing Rock gets many return guests. All rooms have fireplaces, and some have private balconies. The Best Cellar restaurant, inside the main lodge, serves a seafood-focused menu that includes their signature tuna and a pan-seared mountain trout. Two adjacent cabins allow pets.
Walkable to the Village Green and with its own on-site brewery, this polished option features single rooms, suites, and luxurious cabins, making it suitable for any travel party. Canopy beds, shiplap, black exterior stain, and sapling trees used in porch construction lend thoughtful, boutique appeal. The property also includes Whiteside Brewing, which offers a full lunch and dinner menu, and a breakfast food truck.
