Not every visit to Asheville will be an extended one, but even the shortest of stays will convince you to return later when you can stay longer, perhaps including a return visit to our Might Tree Properties vacation retreats when you do. Asheville is an exciting mountain town, offering a sophisticated cultural landscape and a countryside that is both lush and verdant, adding a rugged serenity and a natural peace to your North Carolina adventures. This guide to planning a day trip to Asheville and a night’s stay in our luxurious rentals will also give you many reasons you will want to return for more fun, relaxation, and luxury, later down the road.
Sunrise Over the Mountains
We should preface this with the thought that we know your sunrise may be on the day of your day trip or before you leave to go back to whence you came, so remember, these are just suggestions, and we don’t expect you to rise early to drive into town to witness our spectacular mountain sunrise. Whether you arrived in town late the night before or this is the day that you return to real life, rolling out of bed and stepping outside on to large patios, decks, or balconies, will give you the most serene start to your adventures. It will be cold in the winter months, so grab a coat, and remember shoes or slippers, unless you are staying in one of our homes with a sunroom, meaning you can stay cozy and comfortable while still feeling as if you are outside and becoming one with nature. As the skies begin to lighten and the fiery colors begin to take up residence where once it was dark, you will know that it was worth every minute of lost sleep.
Choices are What Makes Travel Fun
When the skies are azure once more and the golden fire of the sun is smiling down on you, it will be time to make your first choice. Do you want to climb back into bed and enjoy a couple more hours of happy dreams? The next adventure on the agenda for today is breakfast, but you can decide to put that off a little longer. Or, if the sunrise made you realize exactly how hungry you are—the fresh air can do that to you—go straight to breakfast and get a really early start on your day! However you decide to handle the beginning of your travel day, Sunny Point Café, located at 626 Haywood Road, offers a delicious taste of the south, serving plate sized pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and cheesy grits, only their grits are spiced up a bit with chipotle! Also offering a generous selection of vegan options, this breakfast really will be one you never forget.
A Festival for Every Season
We can’t predict what time of year your visit may occur during, so we thought we’d give a peek into festivals that will take place while you are here. The ones listed below are our favorites!
Winter Is for Restaurant Week
Ok, as you can imagine and already expect, Asheville becomes a winter wonderland at Christmas, with the best time to visit being the evening hours, but you probably expected us to lead with Christmas, and we decided to aim for your stomach instead! Restaurant Week takes up two weeks every year, one in January and one in February, so you can choose which month you want to visit to enjoy a taste of the town. Come see why Asheville has become one of our nation’s top 10 food and drink destinations, as nearly every restaurant in town offers a special meal that will show off their talents in the most delicious of ways.
Spring Is for the Asheville Orchid Festival
Truly one of our most colorful festivals, the Asheville Orchid Festival held in March offers three days filled with flowers, and the orchids at this festival are rare and stunning in their beauty. Held in various venues, including the North Carolina Arboretum, 20 Frederick Law Olmstead Way, many orchids and other flowers will be on sale, as will flower accessories, allowing travelers to do a little shopping as they fall in love with these incredible blooms.
Summer Is for the Goombay Festival
Held after Labor Day Weekend but before summers end in September, the Goombay Festival is a tradition rich in history and culture. For over 40 years, this wonderful festival has celebrated the rhythm, resilience, and the richness of Black culture, offering three days of music, food, fun, and art with more than 40 vendors selling the best there is to offer.
Autumn Is for the Lovely Asheville Fall Festival
The beauty of Asheville seems to shine brighter in the fall as the leaves turn fiery colors, the air turns crisp, and the Lovely Asheville Fall Festival comes to town in mid-October. Offering two days of live music, yummy food, and arts, crafts, and picturesque views, your fall adventures in North Carolina are certain to be unforgettable ones.
A Tour of America’s Largest Home, the Biltmore Estate
So what if you come to town when there isn’t a festival taking place? You start by taking a tour of America’s Largest Home (and it’s trademarked, so it must be true!), the Biltmore Estate. Built by George Vanderbilt in the late 19th century, the house, the gardens, the ambience, the vibe, all work together to give you a better understanding of the way the elite used to live over 100 years ago. Offering a different experience with every season, there is generally some kind of exhibition going on, including the current one, The Tutankhamun Exhibition, which will be included in the price of your tickets. If you are visiting during Christmas, this is THE activity you will definitely want to experience, as the elegant home will be decorated in its finest holiday attire adding a festive touch to your tour of riches.
Grove Arcade, 1 Page Avenue
Shopping while on vacation is one of those life experiences that never get old, and when you visit the Grove Arcade, it is an experience you won’t soon forget. Offering shops, restaurants, and more inside a beautiful historic building (It’s almost 100 years old!), its history and elegant charms are almost as wonderful as the shops and restaurants inside. This beautiful building was the dream of EW Grove, the inventor of the “tasteless chill tonic.” The genius behind the Grove died a full two years before his dream building was finished. Over the years it has gone through many incarnations before settling back into its original purpose as sort of a lifestyle center for everyone. Offering everything from art to watches, its Restaurant Row Is certainly worth exploring, especially its Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar. How did it take this long for someone to come up with the idea of blending books and champagne?
Explore the River Arts District
The most talented artists often migrate to the most beautiful places, and if you aren’t quite sure of what we mean, after your exploration of the River Arts District, it will become amazingly clear. An artist’s colony located along the banks of the French Broad River, it is still in the process of rebuilding after nearly surrendering to the power of Hurricane Helene in 2024, but there will still be plenty to see and purchase, and the money you spend will help hurry along the efforts to rebuild the spots that still need help. The artists that work here cover all the different genres, including jewelry, photography, and even paper, and there are usually some sort of class that can be taken during your adventures at the RAD.
Watery Adventures with Asheville Adventure Company, 521 Amboy Road
Sometimes you just need to splash in the water, and the Asheville Adventure Company offers many ways to let you do just that. Explore the views of the River Arts District from the water as you participate in a tubing adventure, discover the excitement of white water rafting on Section 9 of the French Broad River, and fall in love with the sheer beauty of the Biltmore as you paddle by on a kayak in a self-guided tour. The French Broad offers peace and excitement to our town, and with the help of this wonderful company, you too will soon understand the draw of the water!
A Meal to Remember
As your day begins to draw to a close, exploring the culinary landscape of Asheville will be your favorite adventure, filling your stomach with good old Southern country food while filling your soul. The 150+ restaurants that can be found here may overwhelm you with the sheer number of choices you will have, which is why we are going to help you out a little with a recommendation to visit Daddy Mac’s Down Home Dive, located at 161 Biltmore Avenue. Offering a menu filled with Southern favorites, such as Daddy’s Original Pimiento Cheese and Mama’s Got Mac cheddar mac and cheese, we can assure you that no one leaves Daddy Mac’s feeling hungry, especially if you take this time to explore some of the South’s favorite desserts, including Nutter Butter Nana Pudding, or if you prefer to drink your dessert calories, we can highly recommend their Blackberry Cheesecake Martini made with Smirnoff Whipped Vodka, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and pineapple juice. The blackberry syrup and nutter butter rim may be considered overkill—until you taste it, that is!
The Most Comfortable Adventures Begin with Mighty Tree Properties
Our Mighty Tree Properties vacation escapes give new meaning to the word luxury, providing game rooms, swimming pools, hot tubs, and yes, in at least one memorable case, a koi pond for your vacationing enjoyment. But perhaps our best amenity of all will be their welcoming vibe, encouraging guests to rest, relax, and recharge before you head back out on the road and enticing you to return another day when you have more time to explore them all.
More Amenities You Will Love
Our homes are designed to be a home away from home, and even if you do nothing more exciting than spend an evening watching television while you sip a glass of wine from a bottle that has been resting in the wine refrigerator, we can promise that your stay with us will be a memorable one. Will you be able to explore all that we have to offer in our luxury retreats? Maybe not, your time will be limited, but we have faith that you will give it your best shot.
Watch movies in our home theaters furnished with supersized movie screens and rows of leather recliners that are as comfortable as they looked in the pictures you perused on the listing. Sit on back patios, watching the sun fall behind the mountains. And when you can’t put off the inevitable another moment, crawl beneath the silky soft linens that top our premium beds; your dreams will be happy, your sleep will be deep, and morning will arrive when you are ready for it!
Reserve Your Favorite North Carolina Retreat Today
A day trip to Asheville is going to be one of those adventures that will live on in your memory long after your trip has finished, and we’re not bragging when we say that will be due in part to your stay in our luxurious sanctuaries. Reserve your favorite today and discover all the ways Mighty Tree Properties can make your travel life that much more comfortable.