Things to do in Asheville NC

This was actually my first trip in my 40 cities in one year goal! Check that out here if you haven’t yet!

From my neck of the woods in PA to Asheville NC roundtrip was 1,110 miles! (We flew ;)) We traveled to Asheville the end of January 2022. We were traveling there for my husband’s work trip so we flew to Charlotte NC from BWI. We rented a car and drove from Charlotte to Asheville (about 2 hours). We stopped in Black Mountain on our way for coffee. This is where my husband’s work meeting was so I got to walk around and explore a little by myself!

Black Moutain

What a cute, small town!! There’s a couple streets with shops of all kinds! I stopped in to this sweet wine store called, Merry Wine Market and bought a bottle of cab that was recommended to me by the employee working there. It was delicious and a perfect memento for this trip. (Every trip I take, I like to buy a souvenir, which is usually a local bottle of wine). Everyone seemed very friendly and helpful as I wondered through art galleries and tchotchke shops. There were some great looking restuarants too but I didn’t try any. My husband said that the Black Mountain Bistro was delicious! This town was a great place to explore for the afternoon and so scenic. There are mountains surrounding it and you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere and then a town pops up!

Asheville

Later that afternoon we went the AC Hotel in downtown Asheville. (It was only a 10 minute drive from Black Mountain). The AC is really nice and we were happy with our room. All the tickets for the Biltmore Estate were sold out for the day (I’ve heard great things but I haven’t seen it yet) so we meandered through downtown. Asheville is known as “Beer City, USA” and now I know why. SO many great breweries. It’s got a great chill, laid back vibe to it that I love! They have art galleries and, of course, breweries and restaurants. We had good flights at Wicked Weed and GIANT burritos, margs, and beer at Mamacitas. We made reservations at Limones but, after walking by and scoping it out we decided it was a little too fancy for our mood. We decided to check out Strada Italian Restaurant. We had a bottle of chianti, calamari, abd shared 2 giant ravioli with shrimp. The food and atmosphere were amazing! We sat on a second story covered patio. After we finished our wine we went to the street to American Beauty Academy which advertised a comedy night but it was over by the time we got there. Our server at Strada told us it was known as a gay bar. It wasn’t busy when we went, we were hoping for a little more energy so we left after 20 minutes. We checked out the rooftop bar at our hotel (AC) which was super pretty and had great views. We headed home the next day but really enjoyed our trip! Our plan is to check out cities and towns to get an idea or overview of the area and then decide whether we want to go back and how much time we need. We definitely want to go back to Asheville and think its a great place for a long weekend!

Things We Wanted To Do But Couldn’t:

1. Biltmore
2. Archetype Brewing Co
3. Buy an $8000 picture of a lion. — I totally wanted to buy this amazing photograph from Benjamin Walls Gallery! His work is fantastic and so moving! My husband shot down my “art is an investment pitch” so home I went with no artwork. 🙁

I hope you enjoyed this short and sweet little trip as much as I did! Please comment below with questions or your own experience!

<3,

Allie

P.S. If you’re looking to travel more but don’t know where to start, check out my blog post: How to Make Traveling Easy. And my free printable travel binder to help get you started!