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What to Do with 3 Days in Asheville, NC
If you’re planning a trip to Asheville, North Carolina (nicknamed “The Paris of the South”), you’ve come to the right place. Asheville makes for a terrific long weekend getaway at any time of year, but especially if you’ll be making the journey in the spring or fall when the foliage views are at their most impressive and the weather is mild.
Here you’ll find the Biltmore Estate, nature and wildlife centers, and beautiful hiking through scenic wooded areas.
So what are some of the best things to see and do on a short trip to Asheville, North Carolina? What are the best places to visit?
Keep reading for a great itinerary that lays out what to see and do if you have 3 or 4 days in Asheville, NC. It’s the exact itinerary that I followed during my visit there.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Tickets to the Biltmore Estate are timed and many popular entry times during peak season sell out weeks or months in advance. Book your reservation as far ahead as possible to ensure you can enter at your preferred time.
How to Get There and Get Around
The easiest and most enjoyable way to get around and enjoy these places is through a combination of driving your own vehicle and walking.
Getting there can be half the fun, as you’ll have the chance to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of America’s greatest road trips. Asheville is conveniently located right in between two vast stretches of the parkway. You’ll see some of it regardless of whether you’re driving in from the north or south.
If you’re arriving by plane, the closest airport is Asheville Regional Airport (AVL, about 15 miles away). The nearest international airports to Asheville are Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP, about 53 miles) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT, about 95 miles).
Where to Stay
You have numerous lodging options in and around Asheville. There are plenty of hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts. Asheville has many fine Airbnb options as well; in fact, during my trip here I booked a charming Airbnb in a tiny house in the city of Fairview, just outside of Asheville. The tiny house option is a great one to consider, especially during surges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Browse the available listings as far in advance as possible so you can secure the best Airbnb stay or alternative lodging choice near Asheville at the lowest possible price for your itinerary.
In general, you’ll pay less for lodging the further out you are from downtown Asheville. Prices for lodging in the area also tend to be less expensive in winter.
Brief Overview – What to Do During a Long Weekend in Asheville
Here’s a quick overview of some of the top things to see and do in the Asheville area.
- North Carolina Arboretum
- Biltmore Estate
- Walking Tours of Downtown Asheville
- Thomas Wolfe Memorial and Museum
- Western North Carolina Nature Center
If you plan to spend a week or more in the area, this trip can pair well with visits to other East Coast national parks nearby, like Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee or Congaree National Park in South Carolina.
Now let’s take a closer look at some of the best places to visit in North Carolina.
Detailed Itinerary for 3 Days in Asheville
If you’re driving in from the north or south, you’ll enjoy at least part of the impressive tree-lined Blue Ridge Parkway. Be sure to pull over at some of the many overlooks for 360-degree panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.
Coming in from the north on the parkway, check out the Laurel Knob Overlook, Mount Mitchell Overlook, and Craggy Dome Overlook. All are within 25-35 miles of downtown Asheville.
Coming in from the south on the Blue Ridge Parkway, take a look at Devil’s Courthouse, View Looking Glass Rock Overlook, Frying Pan Mountain Lookout Tower, and Mills River Valley Overlook. All are within 40 miles of downtown Asheville.
Plan to arrive in Asheville the afternoon or evening prior to Day 1 of this itinerary. Check into your Asheville Airbnb or hotel and get a good night’s rest. You’ll want to get an early and fresh start the following morning.
Day 1: North Carolina Arboretum
Early in the morning, drive out to the 434-acre North Carolina Arboretum (open 0800-2100 daily from April-October and 0800-1900 daily from November-March). There’s a parking fee of $16 for a standard vehicle, but entry tickets are free.
Pick up a nice hard copy map and guide at the Baker Visitor Center and get some tips on what to expect that day from one of the staff.
Take your pick from a variety of scenic nature trails through the arboretum. The pamphlet you’ve received includes a list of good hiking options, ranging from the easy 0.75-mile Natural Trail to the more challenging 4-mile trail from Wesley Branch to Carolina Mountain. It also lays out what kinds of plants and animals you’re most likely to see.
Pay close attention on the trails so you don’t lose your way, as the on-site maps do not always correspond to what you’ll see on the ground.
Walk the forested paths, passing gardens, ponds, and even a stone amphitheater. If you go between May and October, you’ll find a Bonsai Exhibition Garden not far from the visitor center. During the winter, a special bonsai display is located inside the visitor center.
If you need to use the facilities during your wanderings, you’ll be glad for the numerous porta-potty bathrooms dispersed at regular intervals throughout the arboretum’s trails. These even have hand washing stations with running water and paper towel dispensers. As far as outdoor bathrooms go, it doesn’t get much better than that.
At the arboretum’s on-site Bent Creek Bistro, typically open from 1000-1600 during warm weather months, you can have brunch or lunch with dishes such as quiche, soup, and salad.
If you’re up for it, walk the lengthy Carolina Trail over to Lake Powhatan. This is a nice secluded area with good viewpoints of the water framed by woods. Take note of the advice on posted signs explaining how to deal with black bears in the unlikely event that you cross paths with one. Don’t run, back away slowly, face it but don’t stare into its eyes, and wave your arms and yell to seem bigger.
Day 2: Biltmore Estate
What You Need to Know About Tickets and Costs
Ideally, you purchased your entry ticket(s) to Biltmore Estate and Gardens well in advance of your arrival. If you’re reading this right before your visit, then I hope you’re still able to snag a good entry time.
The price of entry tickets varies depending on the time of year (and are generally more expensive on the weekend), but plan on spending roughly $100 or more per adult for a standard daytime audio-guided tour of the estate. Specialized expert-guided group tours or tickets that include multi-sensory exhibits are also available and are more expensive; expect to pay well over $300 per ticket for some of these special tours.
Biltmore Estate Background Information
A splendid monument to the Gilded Age, the Biltmore Estate is the most popular tourist attraction in Asheville. It’s easy to understand why, when you see the awe-inspiring 250-room mansion located on a massive 8,000-acre estate. Even more remarkable is the fact that the grounds you see today occupy only a small fraction of the land that once belonged to Biltmore; George Vanderbilt bought 125,000 acres for the estate at the end of the 19th century, and its holdings have shrunk over the years. So what happened to the rest of that land? Much of it now makes up Pisgah National Forest.
If you think Biltmore looks unusual for an American estate, you’re right. George Vanderbilt and Richard Morris Hunt were inspired by the surrounding landscape and their admiration of France’s chateaus in the Loire Valley. They designed Biltmore to look like a 16th-century French chateau.
How to Make the Best Use of Your Time at Biltmore
Try to arrive at Biltmore early in the morning, so you can find a good parking space and beat the large tourist crowds. A little before 0900 is a good time to show up.
Walk the trail from the lot over to the estate. Eventually you’ll see it from the top of a balcony. Walk down the staircase and explore the grounds.
Your entry time will probably be at or after 1000. Having some extra time actually works out quite well because you will be able to spend a while walking the meticulously tended gardens before the crowds arrive.
Enjoy grand views from the Library and South Terraces. There’s an array of themed gardens to admire here, like the Italian Garden, Shrub Garden, Spring Garden, Walled Garden, Rose Garden, and Azalea Garden.
You can enter a conservatory that Richard Morris Hunt designed to see some of the estate’s more exotic plants.
Make sure to return to the mansion in time for your designated entry time. If you don’t see everything you want to see in the gardens, you can always come back later.
The 250-room mansion has 43 bathrooms, but the bathrooms are off limits to visitors—use one in the adjoining restaurant and shopping area before your tour begins.
You’ll begin the tour in an impressive entrance hall.
Proceed to the billiard room and opulent banquet hall. The latter is adorned with Flemish tapestries, hunting trophies, and ornate woodwork. Its ceiling is seven stories up. Guests would have dinners with up to 10 courses here.
You’ll see the breakfast room, salon, and music room. Step into the loggia for dramatic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
George Vanderbilt’s personal library is amazing and holds about half of his 22,000 book collection.
Walk through a tapestry gallery, family rooms, and guest retreats. Then explore the recreation area and basement. It even has a gym, bowling alley, and swimming pool.
You’ll proceed to the rooms where the servants lived and worked. These include a vegetable pantry, bedrooms, several kitchens, laundry room, and old school walk-in refrigerators.
Wrap up your tour in the bachelors’ wing, which has a smoking room, gun room, and hallway with portraits of the Cecils, who opened Biltmore to the public.
After you’ve finished your tour of the mansion, spend some more time exploring the gardens, walking the miles of fantastic nature trails, and enjoying the wooded areas.
There’s still more to see and do. Drive over to Antler Hill Village and Winery, which is still on the grounds of the estate. At the historic barn, you can learn about traditional crafts like blacksmithing and woodworking with on-site demonstrations. Take a look at the farmyard, village green, and outdoor adventure center.
You can also sample the adult beverages if you partake. Or get some ice cream at the Creamery. Their specialty is The Biltmore Churn, which is vanilla ice cream with house-made cookie dough.
There’s more than enough for a full and busy day of sightseeing at Biltmore.
Day 3: Downtown Asheville, Thomas Wolfe Memorial, Western North Carolina Nature Center
Try to rise early for another full day of sightseeing. Consider going to Five Points Restaurant for a delicious breakfast. I had the corned beef hash, eggs, biscuit, and potatoes with coffee for a reasonable price.
Then make your way to downtown Asheville. If you arrive early, you’ll get a much better parking space. I showed up at 0800 and got a spot at a free public lot, saving me $12 I would have spent at one of the garages.
Be sure to pick up a pamphlet called Asheville Downtown Trails Walking Tours from the Asheville Visitors Center. Alternatively, use this link to get a free printable map and audio tours. Take your pick from any or all of the recommended walking tours.
Here are descriptions of the two main ones.
The Urban Trail
With 30 stations, the 2-hour Urban Trail uses sculptures, monuments, and historic buildings to illustrate different periods in Asheville’s history. You’ll see tributes to the lives of some of the most famous people who once called Asheville home.
The first half focuses on the Gilded Age (1880-1930). Check out the plaque dedicated to author O. Henry, the master of the surprise ending short story. He rented an office nearby around 1909-1910. Other sections are devoted to the Frontier Period (1784-1880), The Times of Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), the Era of Civic Pride, and the Age of Diversity.
The Architecture Trail
The 14 stops of the Architecture Trail will show you some of Asheville’s most remarkable buildings. You’ll see Art Nouveau, Beaux-Art, and Deco architecture on this walk. Highlights include the Buncombe County Courthouse, First Baptist Church, and 13-story Jackson Building Basilica of Saint Lawrence.
Also be sure to check out the Grove Arcade, one of the last shopping arcades built in the country in the late 1920s.
If you enjoy books, you can stop by the Pack Memorial Library and pick something up from its book sale.
It’s not on the tour, but the Basilica of Saint Lawrence is worth a quick look as well.
Thomas Wolfe Memorial
Make your way over to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Museum. I visited this museum on a whim, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of my vacation in the Asheville area.
Start by watching an interesting 22-minute film about the life of author Thomas Wolfe, then take a guided tour of the adjoining house. When I visited, Sara provided an entertaining and informative tour about Wolfe and what life was like in the house.
After the tour, take a look at the rest of the museum, which holds a chronology of Wolfe’s life and some of his personal effects. It was a different, bleaker world in the early 1900s; death was omnipresent, and three of his siblings died before reaching their late 20s. He himself died young at the age of 37 from tubercular meningitis.
A snack of New Orleans style powdered sugar beignet donuts with coffee at Bebettes would be a good snack as you wrap up your walking tour of the downtown area. Aim to be on your way to the next destination early in the afternoon.
Western North Carolina Nature Center
Try to arrive at the wonderful Western North Carolina Nature Center before 1400. Entry is about $15 and is worth every penny.
Spent the next couple of hours studying the variety of ordinary and exotic creatures. Many of these were pets or were wounded earlier in their lives, leaving them unable to survive on their own in the wild.
I’d recommend starting at the barn and farmyard and walking along the southern edge of the nature center in a counterclockwise direction.
Just past the farmyard, you’ll see Black Bear Ridge. If you’re lucky, you’ll be there when the on-site staff feed them pumpkins and tomatoes.
Also in the area are white-tailed deer and birds of prey, like red-tailed hawks, owls, and vultures.
Several sections contain large felines and canines. You’ll see bobcats, cougars, gray and red wolves, coyotes, some very lively foxes, and red pandas in this area. The wolves howl eerily from time to time.
The Appalachian Station has some remarkable reptiles, like a giant Hellbender salamander and assorted snakes.
Here’s an interesting tidbit that might come in handy someday: venomous snakes have triangular heads and elliptical pupils while non-venomous snakes have rounded heads and round pupils.
Your day exploring downtown Asheville on this itinerary is drawing to a close. If you’re craving barbecue, you can get a delicious dinner of pulled pork, bread, five bean salad, and cucumbers from Smokey and the Pig.
Other Attractions in Asheville
Hopefully this itinerary and description of some of the top tourist attractions will make your long weekend in Asheville a memorable and enjoyable one.
Of course, you’ll need more than one weekend to experience all that Asheville has to offer. The list and itinerary above are not exhaustive.
If you have more time, consider lengthening your Asheville weekend trip. Check out some of the other notable attractions and activities that are in or close to Asheville, such as:
- LaZoom Bus Tour
- Axeville Axe Throwing
- Asheville Pinball Museum
- New Belgium Brewing Company
- The Folk Art Center
- Grovewood Village
- Botanical Gardens at Asheville
- Downtown Asheville Art District
- Tom’s Creek Falls
If You Have More Time – Other Attractions in the Area
If you have more time in the broader area, don’t miss taking a day or three to drive up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Also don’t forget about some of the excellent national parks near Asheville, NC. These include Congaree National Park in South Carolina, Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee, Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. All are within a day’s drive of Asheville. They’re well worth your time on this trip or a future trip.