I had no hesitation in planning a stop in Asheville, North Carolina on our recent girlfriends getaway to Destin, Florida in the fall. I had been there to visit a couple of times before but was impressed with the wonderful hotels, great restaurants and lots of things to see and do in the area I couldn’t wait to share it with my sister and sister-in-law.
We were on our way to the lovely Destin coast of Florida but it was quite a drive so we decided to stop for a couple of nights on our way. I had been to Asheville before with my husband Tom and we spent an entire day at the Biltmore Estate checking out the fabulous clothes and other items from the television show, Downtown Abbey we both enjoyed, so we decided to skip seeing the beautiful Biltmore Estate on this trip and take one of the trolley tours they offer of the town.
Trolley for tours of the town
We were lucky enough to work with the kind people who represent the Hampton Inn and Suites Asheville Biltmore Village and generously provided us with two adjoining rooms and then also met us for breakfast one morning.
Our beautiful hotel!
Our rooms were large and comfortable with plenty of space for the three of us. We asked for two adjoining rooms so we would have plenty of space and they kindly gave us a king room and one with two queen beds with an adjoining door for easy access to each room.
Great comfy king suite!
The hotel is conveniently located right in the heart of Biltmore Village, where there are lots of great restaurants and shops you can easily walk to from the hotel and its also a quick walk to the Biltmore Estate. Tucked away in a forest setting in a historic area, the hotel is in a great location. In the morning, you can wake up to a free hot breakfast (great scrambled eggs!) and catch up on business on the fast and free WiFi. There’s a beautiful indoor pool along with mini-fridges and coffee makers in every room, so you can get your leftovers packed up and take them back to you room for a snack later!
We wished we had time to spend by the pool during our visit!
We unpacked all our stuff and shuffled everything up to our two rooms, where we rested for a little while, then headed out to dinner. There are tons of great restaurants in Asheville but the last time we were there, we ate at The Tupelo Honey Cafe, which was wonderful we we decided to give it another shot on this trip. Still great, fresh local food. Everything is made from scratch and absolutely wonderful. I got carried away with the wonderful food and didn’t get a picture but honestly it was great! After dinner, we headed back to our wonderful hotel and crashed for the night.
Another of their hotels, the Double Tree Biltmore is right next door and one of the stops on the Asheville Trolley Tour so you can purchase your tickets online and hop on the trolley, which we did on our first day and it was so easy and convenient. The trolley tour is absolutely the best introduction to Asheville and the most comfortable way to see the town. They even offer other tours like a ghost tour and a Christmas tour so there’s plenty of way to see the town. There are lots of stops where you can hop off and back on one of the many trolleys touring the town. We were intrigued when we stopped downtown right by the old Woolworth building where there is plenty of art to see – and a great soda fountain! We were all three kind of hungry so we hopped off and headed into the building for a bite of lunch. A table opened up in the Soda Fountain as we walked in so we snagged it, then took turns ordering our lunch as the rest of the group saved our table. Lunch was awesome! Really fresh and the price was also really reasonable. After lunch we grabbed another trolley that came by and took the rest of the tour. Beautiful old homes and gorgeous hotels to see so it was worth the wait. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and grabbed some barbecue for dinner which is available everywhere!
We would have liked to stay a few more days and see more of the town and even visit Biltmore again but we had a plan to get to Destin so the next day we crammed everything back in our vehicle and hit the road for Florida. It’s always a treat to visit beautiful Asheville and I would love to head back there again!
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