We recently made our annual visit to the Biltmore Estate and while we always love visiting the Biltmore this year we decided to expand on our visit and venture off the Estate.

We have been visiting the Biltmore Estate for the last 6 years, always staying at The Inn at the Biltmore estate and rarely venturing out (with the exception of the first year). Since this time we were there for almost a week, we decided to see what else North Carolina had to offer.

The first night we spent at a Bed and Breakfast in Ashville and the following day we spent the day driving around and visiting all of the small cities around Ashville, we traveled to Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Weaverville, Fairview, Black Mountain, and Hendersonville.

Another day we traveled to Downtown Ashville and spent time walking among the shops and cafes and even discovered an awesome bookshop that also hosted a bar. We also ate at restaurants outside of the Biltmore estate which is not something we did often. Another day we ventured out and visited an antique mall that was so big and amazing and we were so tempted to buy all the things.

On the day of our Wedding Anniversary, we headed down to the Biltmore Village which is an area we had also not been to before, and had dinner at the Red Stag Grill and also very much enjoyed the atmosphere inside the Grand Bohemian Hotel which is one of the coziest lobbies I have ever seen with a beautiful fireplace.

The one thing that We love the most about visiting the Blue Ridge mountains is we are both always reminded how much we love it up there. The smell of maple and spice in the air always makes us feel like we are home and always rekindles our dream to one day retire there.