Sam and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this past June, and decided to celebrate with a weekend getaway to Asheville. With only a 5.5 hour drive from Louisville, Asheville seemed like a great choice for a Friday – Sunday mini trip.
When planning this trip, a friend shared their Wanderlog itinerary with me from a previous trip they’d taken. I had never heard of Wanderlog before, but am now obsessed! It allows you to add in all the places you’d like to visit, categorize them in whichever way you’d like, and map out your itinerary. You can share your trip with others to allow collaboration or visibility, too. Click here for my overview of Asheville (you can click ‘continue in view only mode’ to avoid creating an account), which includes way more recommendations than we even made it to!
Friday
We drove straight to Sierra Nevada since it’s a bit outside of the city center, and figured it’d be a good way to spend our Friday afternoon. We did not make reservations for the tap room, but planned to just sit out on the back porch. Once we got there, I was very happy with the decision as the inside felt a little dark.
We arrived to a poppin’ scene with the outdoor tables filled with friends and families young and old. However, we had no problem ordering a beer + snack and grabbing a table. We ended up walking around the grounds a bit to explore, and then sat down by the ampitheater for a new view. I really enjoyed it here, as it has beautiful grounds and yummy beers. I think an afternoon is plenty of time here.
We made our way into Asheville and checked into our hotel, The Restoration. This had just opened a few months prior to our trip, so I was excited to check it out. The boutique hotel feels very personal, with complimentary wine + charcuterie each night, and a personally delivered breakfast basket each morning! The only two warnings I’ll give is that you have to valet park (and the parking is not in a garage), and it’s located directly across from the famous drum circle. On Friday nights, the drum circle beats go on for hours. I personally thought it was cool to witness from our room, but could see where it may be annoying if you’re trying to get some shut eye.
We had dinner reservations at Sunset Terrace at the Omni Grove Park Inn, so decided to head over there for a pre-dinner drink. I was a little confused before visiting – but there is also a ‘sunset cocktail terrace’, which is in the same spot as the restaurant. You can definitely just go grab a drink at the indoor bar and walk out to grab an adirondak chair or small table. I would recommend going this route if you want a more relaxing, inexpensive vibe with sweeping views. This is a must-see if visiting Asheville, in my opinion. As a heads up, parking is free for the first hour and $10 for 3 hours after that.
Our dinner at Sunset Terrace was delicious and a perfect way to end our anniversary. Our table was situated with perfect views of the mountains in a picturesque setting. I made sure to check the time of sunset before making our reservation to ensure we got cotton candy clouds. I do recommend enjoying a meal here if you’re looking for a special occasion.
The Omni seemed very beautiful overall, and we would have loved a spa day there… so certainly worth looking into if you’re wanting some R&R.
Saturday
I’ll admit, we had plans of waking up and going on a hike on Saturday morning, but we were reveling in vacation mode and chose to sleep in instead! My main complaint with the hikes near Asheville is that they’re all 45+ minutes away from downtown. Since we had already driven in the previous day and had to drive back on Sunday, we weren’t keen on adding more hours in the car. However, if you are looking to hike, I have several recommendations on my Wanderlog.
We ended up having a lazy morning and then heading to New Belgium around 11:30. They don’t open until noon, so we walked around the property to explore. Once they opened, we enjoyed a few great beers and grilled cheese sandwiches from their food truck. New Belgium was both of our favorites since it was so large and situated on the river, great for people watching of floaters and paddlers. We wished we would’ve brought our hammock, as they had several spots to hang them! We quite frankly could have spent all day here. One thing of note: New Belgium is a bit out of the way of several other breweries, so we chose to drive here before heading back to the hotel to drop our car and walk to the rest.
After dropping our car at the hotel, we began walking around downtown. We had a long list of breweries to visit, but admittedly got beer-d out pretty quickly! We ended up heading to a really neat cocktail bar to break up the beers, and loved it. We got a small table outside in the shade, and it was the perfect reset for us. We then travelled back to our hotel where we ended up spending the rest of our evening! We hopped from bar to bar within our hotel and had a great time! Here are all the places we visited throughout the day:
Wicked Weed – probably my least favorite of the ones we visited (sorry).
Wicked Weed Funkatorium – recommend a flight here to try all the different sours! This is also right next to a sports and social club which could be a cool place to stop in for entertainment.
Antidote – tied to Chemist Spirits, provides unique gin cocktails along with other spirits. You could also look into a distillery tour here!
The Observatory – our hotel rooftop bar, we could’ve stayed here for hours (maybe we did…) and enjoy spicy margaritas.
The Exchange Restaurant & Bar – also in our hotel, we ended up having dinner outside here and ending with nightcap Espresso Martinis at the indoor bar.
Sunday
It sadly felt like our weekend came to an end quickly, and we had to be strategic about departure time due to an incoming storm. But we made time for one last stop based on rave reviews – Biscuit Head!
There are several different locations in Asheville, but we visited the one in West Asheville. Be warned: the line was wayyy out the door and onto the sidewalk by the time we arrived. It’s the type of place where you order at the counter and find a table, so we had to wait about 20 minutes to order. We heard it was worth the wait, so didn’t mind.
I had such a hard time choosing which mouth-watering biscuit I wanted, but ended up with the Fried Green Tomato Biscuit and Sam got the regular biscuit with chicken and pork gravies. It was a great way to fill our bellies before heading home.
Overall, I enjoyed visiting Asheville and only wish we had more time there. We didn’t really contemplate visiting the famous Biltmore, due to how expensive the entry fee is and having little time for other activities. If you’ve visited or live in Asheville, what are the top spots I’m missing!? Let me know below.