When you have a farm, getting off the homestead requires careful planning. Before we purchase our tickets and book our hotels, we need to schedule for someone to care for all of our 30+ animals while we are gone. This can be quite a task because how many people you know get excited about being outside in the Florida heat to fill up food ans water barrels? I am lucky enough to have amazing parents who see our farm as a mini-getaway from their normal every day life. They were gracious enough to offer to care for the animals while we took our first family vacation in years!
On this adventure we decided to head up to the mountains to the Asheville area in North Carolina. Let me tell you, we had a BLAST! This was our first time in Asheville so I wanted to fill you in on some great activities we did and my overall impression of the city. While there are an overwhelming amount of things to do in Asheville, I will focus on my top 4 favorite destinations we visited during our stay.
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Downtown Asheville
Downtown Asheville has a great vibe to it. It is so different from what you would normally think of when you think about North Carolina. The downtown area is alive with great restaurants, street performers and awesome craft breweries. It is impossible to visit them all in a week unless you have a bottomless stomach. One of our favorite restaurant’s we visited was Tupelo Honey Talk about delicious friend chicken and their biscuits are to die for. We visited so many breweries but I think my two favorites were Lexington Avenue Brewery and the Thirsty Monk.
Downtown Asheville is so fun to just walk around and “people watch”. The street are buzzing with young students from the local art-school and lots of tourist. Down the main strip you will find plenty of street performers and a great artist who’s sales pitch is that he promises to draw you a really bad picture. There are definitely some fun characters in downtown Asheville but another great aspect of the city is that there are a lot of really cute boutiques. We had a lot of fun visiting all of the neat family owned shops and brought home some great souvenirs.
Also while exploring downtown we stumbled on the cutest little community garden. It is called Elder and Sage Garden. They had lots of yummy looking food growing. It was so great to see such a great space in the middle of a thriving city.
The only downside I could find to this otherwise amazing downtown district is that during the week, most things close quite early. Don’t plan on partying all night on a Wednesday because there just wont be much open and you will be partying alone.
Top 4 Fun Things to Do Within Driving Distance
The great thing about Asheville is that there is so much to do within driving distance. We were able to find lots of family-friendly activities that were close to our hotel. Keep in mind that, unless you are visiting just to hangout downtown, you will need a car to get around. The upside to having to drive is the view. There was not a day that went by that I was not in totally amazement at the breath-taking mountain skyline.
Mount Mitchell
Mount Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi. Stating tall at 6,684 feet, you are guaranteed to have amazing views at the summit. There are several ways to get up to the summit. We knew we wanted to hike so we went straight for the hiking trails. There are a few short easy hikes that will take you to the summit and then there is a “strenuous” hike. My husband and I looked at each other and said “we got this” and off we went.
About half way through the hike I realized that they were not kidding when they said this trail was strenuous. There are large boulders you need to climb over and there is even an area where you need to use a rope to climb down. I wouldn’t say we are completely out of shape but we definitely had to take a couple of water breaks during the hike.
If you aren’t planning on getting a killer workout in during your vacation, I would recommend driving up the mountain to the main parking area, close to the gift shop. From there, you will only have a very short walk, with a slight incline, to the summit. Which ever way you decided to get there, Mount Mitchell is a must see. The views from the summit are breath-taking.
After you visit the summit you can also grab lunch at the Mount Mitchell View Restaurant. The sign says “fine Dining” but would wouldn’t call it fine dining. The service was amazing and after that long hike, the food really hit the spot. The serve items like burgers and sandwiches. I had the Chicken-Philly sandwich and I killed it. The views are also just beautiful so it was very relaxing.
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock was a spectacular place to visit as well. Once you drive in to the parking area, you will wait for a bus to come get you and take you to the base of the rock. From there, it is a very small, slightly inclined walk to an area where they have you make a choice. Your first option is to go through this neat air-conditioned tunnel inside of the mountain to an elevator that takes you to the gift shop located at the top of the mountain. From there you can go through the gift shop to the top of Chimney Rock and the views are AMAZING!
Your second option to get the the top of Chimney Rock is to climb up the stairs. Depending on where you start the ascend to the top, you could be climbing almost 1000 steps one-way. There are several places where you can stop and rest but the climb up to the summit is not an easy one by any means.
Once you are at the summit, you will forget you almost felt like dying on the stairs. The views are amazing. You can see a 75-mile panoramic view of the mountains, Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure. It is just spectacular. 
Once you get back down from Chimney Rock there are several hiking options you can take. After all of those stairs, our legs were already like jello so we chose to take a short, easy hike to Hickory Nut Falls.
This hike has beautiful tall trees shielding you from the sun. It is a peaceful trail that takes you to the falls. There is a little observation deck but you can also climb over a few boulders and get wet from falls as well. It was quite refreshing after all of that climbing and walking we did earlier.
We had a blast at Chimney Rock and I would without-a-doubt return. I will however be spending some serious time on the stair master to prepare!
White Water Rafting
Oh water rafting! This was my first experience and to say I was nervous was an understatement. There are MANY different options for water rafting within driving distance from Asheville. After researching several places we decided on Big Bear Water Rafting in Hartford, Tennessee. It had great reviews and was just under an hour’s drive from our hotel. For this attraction it is best if you book your rafting time in advance as they fill up quickly and it might be hard to get in right away if you are a walk-in.
After you check in, you wait a bit and an employee will call your time slot and you will be divided into to groups of 6 and assigned a guide. This guide will be with you the entire time on the water. Once you are assigned a guide and given your life-vest, you take a short bus ride to the rapids. While on the bus you will be given a crash course on safety by way of a seasoned guide. She explained everything thoroughly and I felt really comfortable going in. She safety talk was full of lots of corny jokes but I am easily amused so I thought she was hilarious.
Once you are at the rapids, your assigned guide takes over. Our guide’s name was Wilson and he really made our experience a blast! While going down the rapids there is a lot of “slow time” where you just glide easily down.
During this time your guide will talk about the history of the lake and some fun stories. The whole time I kept telling myself “Do not fall off this raft. Do not be THAT person”. Thank goodness no one in our boat fell out and we the best time! The rapids were fun and Wilson, our guide, did a great job teaching us exactly what to do to get through them.
When we asked the kids what was their favorite part our our trip they were quick to say it was the rafting! We will definitely be visiting again!
Most people are shocked to know that we didn’t go to the Biltmore while in Asheville. The Biltmore is one of the most visited attractions in Asheville. It looks beautiful but for this vacation we wanted to keep things as active as possible. When I brought it up to the kids, they were less than excited to visit a “huge house”. (Their words, not mine). It is definitely on my list for next time!
Overall I can honestly say that this was one our our favorite family trips. I would be lying if I said I didn’t look at house prices in the area, just for giggles. Asheville was beautiful and its people extraordinary. This will go down forever in our memories of the time when we fell in love with a city.
Until next time! XOXO
Eva
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