Asheville North Carolina near our Log Cabins

The popular Blue Ridge Mountain resort city of Asheville is just a 45-minute drive from your secluded log cabin in the North Carolina mountains. Asheville is home to Biltmore Estate, a vibrant downtown, museums and plenty of art.

You can spend most of the day exploring downtown Asheville with its many restaurants, museums, and 200+ locally-owned shops and art galleries. Enjoy street performers and one of the many festivals. Downtown also has wonderful architecture. More art deco architecture built in the late 1920s and early 1930s can be found in downtown Asheville than in any other southeastern city outside Miami.

From Mediterranean to vegetarian, four-star restaurant to down-home diner, Asheville boasts a variety of eateries that go well beyond its Southern cooking and barbecue roots. Dining in Asheville can be an adventure with menu choices that range from ostrich to sushi, Island quesadillas with Caribbean pumpkin to black-eyed peacakes, Carolina brook trout to grilled portabello mushroom sandwiches. There are more than 50 locally-owned restaurants in downtown Asheville.

The Basilica of Saint Lawrence in downtown, a National Historic Site, contains the largest unsupported tile dome in the U.S. With only 35 Basilicas nationwide, architect Rafael Guastavino constructed the structure from 1905 to 1909. There are no beams of wood or steel in the entire structure; all walls, floors, ceilings and pillars are made of tile or other masonry materials.

Perhaps the best deal downtown is a tour of the Thomas Wolfe House, only $1 per person! One of America's most esteemed authors, Thomas Wolfe, was born and raised in Asheville. Wolfe spent his boyhood years at his mother's boardinghouse, the Old Kentucky Home, which he later used as the setting of his most famous novel "Look Homeward, Angel.” Although many of the rooms and furnishings were damaged by a fire that ravaged the house in July 1998, the house has been completely restored and offers tours daily. Located on Market Street and directly behind the house, the memorial and visitor center is open to the public.

Grove Arcade The Southeast’s largest outdoor free festival, Bele Chere, is held each July in downtown Asheville. More than 350,000 people gather in the streets each year to enjoy local and national music acts, food, dance, handmade crafts and other entertainment during the three-day annual event.

Just north of Asheville is Mount Mitchell, is the highest point east of the Mississippi River at 6,684 feet. Asheville is also a good spot to hop on the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of the nation's most popular scenic highway linking Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the country's largest private, non-profit preservation organization, named Asheville one of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations, an annual list of the best preserved and unique communities in the United States. In recognizing Asheville, the National Trust singled out the city’s winning components: well-managed growth, dynamic downtown, commitment to historic preservation, interesting and attractive architecture, cultural diversity, an economic base of locally owned businesses, activities for families with children and walking access for residents and visitors.

One of the Southeast's best examples of a restored early 19th century farm, Vance Birthplace, traces the early life of North Carolina's Civil War-era governor Zebulon B. Vance. The state historic site is located minutes from Asheville in Weaverville.

Asheville is home to the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the oldest of its kind in the nation, located at the Folk Art Center off the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, just 15 minutes from downtown. The "Craft Heritage Trails of Western North Carolina," produced by HandMade in America, is also a nifty guide that pinpoints artisan studios, galleries and other worthwhile stopping points throughout the entire mountain region of Western North Carolina including Asheville.

The North Carolina Arboretum consists of 426 acres of public garden within the Pisgah National Forest. The Arboretum was established in 1986 by the North Carolina General Assembly creating a home to more than 3,000 indigenous plants.

The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, held in August in downtown Asheville, is the oldest of its kind in the nation. Celebrating music indigenous to the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains, some of the region's best musicians entertain capacity crowds and compete for prize money. The mountain music and clog dancing performed at the festival have evolved over 200 years, with their roots in the lives of Welsh, Irish, Scottish and English pioneers who settled this part of the country.

Asheville Regional Airport is Western North Carolina's largest and is serviced by Continental, US Airways, Northwest Airlines and Delta through its carriers – Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Comair. Asheville Regional Airport has non-stop service to Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis, Newark and Orlando.

The Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding Asheville make it the premier southeastern destination for autumn leaf watchers. The fall color season extends from late September through early November, with trees turning first at the highest elevations of 6,000 feet, and moving downward through October to Asheville at 2,500 feet and then to Chimney Rock at 1,300 feet. This significant variance in elevation means there is no "peak week" for viewing fall color, and the fall display can be enjoyed for six weeks or more, depending at what elevation it is viewed.

Nine of North Carolina's 11 major waterfalls are located in the western part of the state, including the eastern United State's highest, Whitewater Falls at 411 feet. Bridal Veil Falls, Cullasaja Falls, High Falls, Rainbow Falls and Whitewater Falls are all on or just off U.S. Highway 64. Connestee Falls, Looking Glass Falls and Maiden Hair Falls can be found along U.S. Highway 276. Sliding Rock, a natural waterslide, is also just off U.S. 276.

Great Smoky Mountains Park, located about 50 miles southwest of Asheville, is the country's most popular national park with more than 514,000 acres and from 400 to 600 black bears.

After a day exploring Asheville, return to your quiet, secluded cabin at Spring House Farm.

Near Our Cabins: Asheville, North Carolina