My man friend and I will be in Asheville for a week, Sept 22-29. We chose Asheville because I had these airline ticket vouchers that had to be used up by a certain date which was suddenly looming - we kind of closed our eyes and poked the map to choose a destination.
We have a flat in a house in the Montford (sp?) section of town and will have a car. We like history and museums, so definitely planning to visit Biltmore. We like the outdoors but aren’t particularly “outdoorsy” if that makes any sense (he’s a little bit crippled and I’m a little bit lazy). Music, food and dancing are always welcome.
Tell us how to spend our time, O Straight Dope Oracles!
The Orange Peel and Grey Eagle for best music and sound, Jack of the Woods for crunchy hippy/folk music. Best place for a beer is Barley’s, independent film movie theater is next door.
These are great, thank you both! I had never heard of the Carl Sandburg farm, now I have to go look that up. Also putting the Arboretum on the list. What is the deal with the Blue Ridge Parkway? Is it a scenic drive or what?
I would recommend Hot Springs, since you mentioned your partner’s limitations. Hard to link w my phone, but Google will lead you about 40 minutes away to a soak in the woods and a massage if you are in the mood. Pretty much every attraction in and around Asheville is a thumbs up, it’s a resort town, but no tacky tourist traps. It’s beautiful, safe, and laid back.
We enjoyed Chimney Rock… it almost sounds backwards, but I learned from experience that if you are dead set on taking the stairs one way, and you have a knee or two that aren’t in great shape take them up. There is an elevator which we took up and thought the down would be a piece of cake… was for the others but my bad knee was killing me about mid way down.
Lake Lure is pretty and we’ve stayed in a condo on the lake a couple of times, but other than being a lake I’m not aware of much else to it.
One thing we had a lot of fun with (we have kids, but we all had fun) is to find one of the “gem mines.” You can buy a bucket (various sizes for various prices) and you sift through them in the sluice (think that’s what it is called… running water and a box with a screen on the bottom) and find the shiny stones. It is pretty cool to find a ruby… even if it is a tiny chip worth nothing really… you still leave with a baggie full of colorful stones, and if you do find a good one, they will polish and cut it and I’m sure mount it (all for additional cost of course). We didn’t find anything worth doing that with, but there were some people who had some very nice looking rings and such that they had gotten this way.
Not sure about your timing, but I was surprised with the number of apple orchards in the area.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a very scenic drive… I’m not sure where you are from, but I would spend some time driving on it. Even better if you have a sports car or motorcycle.
As far as food, four of us were there on business so we didn’t get out much, but made sure we went somewhere for dinner each evening. We had fantastic meals at each of these places: Tupelo Honey Cafe, Rosetta’s Kitchen, and Bouchon French Bistro.
Great tip, thanks. Both of my knees are pretty much crap, and he’s got a drop foot, so long strenuous hikes are out. I would like to see that view from the top, though! So maybe hike up and elevator down.
We are from CT, so turning leaves aren’t quite a destination focus for us, but beautiful scenery is always welcome. I checked out the gem and gold mining sites and I think they might be more kid/family focused than what we’ll want to do.
There’s a narrow gauge train around Asheville somewhere, right? Although we returned to Durango covered in train soot, the Durango-Silverton NG railway was one of our favorite things on our Colorado trip.
You can always ride the elevator up… take in the view, then ride it back down again. You can climb the stairs up as high as you are comfortable with and then walk back down as far as you went up. There were some interesting things to see along the stairs. There was also a group with re-habing raptors last time we were there which was very interesting, but not sure if they are there all the time or not.
The gem mines tended to have two groups… families with kids, and older folks. A good place to sit in the shade, and play in the water for an hour or so and walk away with some pretty rocks. If you guys are more movers and shakers it probably isn’t the best option for you. There is good white water rafting in the area if you prefer getting more than just your hands wet.
Thanks for linking to that old thread, Motorgirl! I stand behind all my recommendations therein :).
Hot Springs is a great idea for a day trip (or a day plus bed-and-breakfast, if you want). And if you can get on the Parkway, definitely do so. There’s a drive up to the Pisgah Inn that’s not too long, maybe 30-45 minutes, and is totally beautiful, and if you go another 15 minutes or so you can get to Graveyard Fields, which is a short, medium-strenuous hike.
You can also get to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with about an hour’s drive, and it’s really gorgeous and has some very flat, friendly trails. Possible bonus: it’s close to Cherokee, which I neither recommend nor warn against.
Oh, and if you want something laid-back but outdoors, the WNC Nature Center is a relatively small but absolutely lovely zoo that focuses on local wildlife, including otters, wolves, and cougars; they have their AZA certification, well-earned through the care they put into their habitats. 10-minute drive from Montford.
Native American tourist trap + gambling. Beautiful people in garish faux-native dress and plenty of souvenirs. Cool for kids and gamblers, sad and a bit embarrassing for history buffs.
Oh boy, yes, that does sound sad. I think we’ll give that one a pass…we have plenty of opportunities to gamble with the Mashantuckets and Pequots here in CT.
That’s about it. We went to a restaurant there offering traditional Cherokee food (on reflection the new Paula Deen trough in the casino is probably more traditional than anything else), and I got the worst Indian Taco that’s ever been made. It was a piece of bread briefly fried, with a can of beans and a can of tomatoes dumped on top and some pre-shredded cheese scattered atop that. Puke.
But the outdoor drama “Unto These Hills” tells a mythologized version of the Trail of Tears and is pretty popular :).
12 Bones Smokehouse is where Obama ate when he was campaigning there a few years back. I have friends who’ve eaten there and they liked it. That assumes BBQ is to your taste.