One of the many reasons we chose beautiful East Tennessee as our home is its strategic location; close to Interstate highways 40, 75 and 81 and a regional airport. The highways alone allow travel by car to areas of the country with almost 60% of the population of the United States.
My husband and I #easttnfan enjoy visiting nearby areas such as the Smoky Mountains, Dollywood, the Cherohala Skyway, Indian Boundary Lake in the Cherokee National Park and others. We also like Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Louisville, Lexington and other cities that are a little further away. Of course, all that changed with the Covid-19 virus threat.
A week ago we decided that we needed a get-away so we planned a drive to the famous Biltmore Estate, in Asheville, North Carolina which is only three hours away from our home near Tellico Lake. The Biltmore Estate includes over 8,000 acres of land, the incredible Biltmore Mansion, two beautiful hotels, a winery, shops, restaurants, stables, lakes, a working farm, etc. In addition to Biltmore’s historic significance and its beautiful gardens, we especially wanted to see a special Downton Abby exhibit that was due to close soon - my husband and I are super fans of the show!!
After a pleasant drive through the mountains we arrived in Asheville and our first stop was for lunch. Asheville is mecca of excellent, interesting restaurants and shops and is well known for the many artists who live there. We had heard about a new outdoor music venue/bar that had just opened called Rabbit Rabbit and we gave it a try. This restaurant is a joint project of Orange Peel Events and Asheville Brewing Co. and is located on an open area of over one acre in downtown Asheville. The original idea was to have capacity for up to 3,000 people but during the pandemic the maximum capacity has been limited to about 300 with tables well separated for social distancing.
Rabbit Rabbit offers beers, cocktails, music and movies as well as food from food trucks parked on-site. Reservations are highly recommended to avoid the inconvenience of not finding space available. Tom and I felt comfortable with all the preventive measures, use of masks for employees and attendants, social distancing and constant cleaning of surfaces.
There are many good hotels in the Asheville area, in addition to the options offered by Air BnB, VRBO, etc. We decided to stay at the Biltmore Village Hotel which is located in the Biltmore Village that includes shops, a winery, restaurants, one of the Downton Abbey exhibits, etc. It was very convenient and we liked not being in crowds of people which might have been the case elsewhere.
The next morning, after breakfast, we went to the Biltmore House, a wonderful place owned by the descendants of George Vanderbilt. Here is a bit of history:
Towards the end of the 1880s, George Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, a millionaire and philanthropist who made his fortune in railroads, began to go to Ashville, North Carolina. Little by little he bought over 125,000 acres in the area. His dreams of creating a huge estate was made a reality in 1895, with the support of his friend and architect, Richard Morris Hunt, and the garden designer Frederick Law Olmsted. Construction took six years. The Biltmore house design evokes European castles, both in the house and in the gardens. Today, the Biltmore Estate has approximately 8,000 acres.
The Biltmore House was used by the family until 1930 when it was opened to the public. Below you can see some photos of this visit which took us a couple of hours.
From there we went to visit the gardens; there are nine gardens, each with particular details. Prepare to walk for another two hours or so.
Our third stop was the Downtown Abby exhibit. We had to queue for just over half an hour but I can say it was worth the wait!
At the end, we had a late lunch. This time we chose Bistro restaurant in the Village and it had very good service and excellent food.
We ended our day by going to the Biltmore winery for their wine tasting. Be sure to make reservations!
In summary, this visit was excellent, we highly recommend it.
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