A Visit to the Biltmore
Believe it or not, in all of our travels, Jim and I had never been to Asheville, NC. Since we were only about an hour away in Bryson City by the Smoky Mountains, we knew we had to pay it a visit. Tim and Amy, our nomadic friends from Denver, who were staying in Asheville at the time, invited us to join them for a visit. Because they invested in an annual membership, we were able to spend a day at the Biltmore as their complimentary guests. (Side note: why the heck is it so expensive to see the Biltmore? Tickets are $64-$74 each without the audio tour of the house!)
As a gal who can fit everything she owns into her suitcase and a 5x5 storage unit, the Biltmore was overwhelming. Reigning over 8,000 acres, the main house (or the “chateau”) has 250 rooms—all of them much bigger than my storage unit! Vanderbilt’s vision of a country retreat away from the city is both amazing and impressive. Between the house, gardens (six!), trails, petting zoo, winery, shops, and other adventures, you can easily spend countless hours taking in the sights at the Biltmore. The grounds are beautiful, as you can see from the pictures. I have my own vision of a girls’ weekend here complete with appropriate era tea hats, fancy dresses, and sipping afternoon tea while taking in the mountain vistas. Of course, this would require me to actually own a tea hat and fancy dress, but a gal can dream, right?
After the house tour, we left the estate for a tasty lunch at a picnic table with some take out Nashville-style fried chicken from Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack. We returned to explore the grounds and gardens before closing our afternoon exploring downtown Asheville, socially distanced, and catching up. It was great to hear about what they’d been up to and commiserate with them over our shared experience of nomadic life during a pandemic. They started their adventure just a few months after we did and had planned to be out of the country as well. They, too, have made the most of being denied entry to the countries originally on their calendar and are slow traveling through the US until things calm down.
The Biltmore was a wonder to explore and a fun way to see how the super-rich lived a hundred years ago. It was a long day there and we still saw only a small fraction of the property. It’s a great stop for a day visit but one could probably spend a week exploring it and we could see why someone might want to just pick up an annual membership. Of course, we enjoyed our short time seeing Asheville as well. But our stay in the mountains of North Carolina was barely more than two weeks long and it was just about time for us to move on. So we said our see-you-laters to Tim, Amy, and Asheville and set our sights back on the road.
