As of late, I haven’t been anywhere but work, but I did want to share about a day trip my other half and I took for our anniversary awhile back. We spent the day at the beautiful Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. 

It’s about a three and a half hour drive to the Estate from my house in Charlotte, but you can most definitely make it a (long) day trip! The drive is extremely beautiful though, especially if you were to go in the fall when the leaves are changing. My fiance had gone as a kid while on a field trip with school, but I had never been before so I was super excited!

We parked in a remote lot and boarded the shuttle that would take us right up to the front of the Estate. Home to the Vanderbilt Family, the French Renaissance chateau spans four acres of floor space, and includes 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. Construction began on the estate in 1889 and took six years to complete. The home officially opened on Christmas eve of 1895 and has since added attractions and amenities such as a dairy and horse barn, the winery, The Inn on Biltmore Estate, Antler Hill Village, and the Village Hotel. 

We made our way inside for the tour. The first thing I noticed was that it was HOT. There is no central AC inside the house so in July, it was stifling to say the least. They did have large fans going, but if we were to make a second trip back, I would plan to go during the colder months. 

You can choose to do an audio guided tour or a self-guided tour (They also have a kid's audio guide). We just toured ourselves around since it was just the two of us and we had fun wandering through the 250 rooms, listening to the guides that were strategically placed throughout the house, and reading about each room we were in.

The tour took us about 2 hours from start to finish. After finding some lunch, we made our way to the Gardens and meandered about and ended up finding our way to a waterfall (don’t ask me for directions because we ended up getting hopelessly lost!). The air down at the waterfall was much cooler and the mountain water was so refreshing – This was easily the best part of the entire trip, minus getting lost.

We eventually found our way back to the main part of the grounds and took a shuttle to the winery – another highlight for me. We went on the tour and sampled some of the best wine I have ever tasted. We bought a bottle of Moscato to take home with us. 

After the tour, it was getting late so we stopped in downtown Asheville for dinner. I’d even make a whole other day trip just to come explore downtown some more. Perhaps we'll make a weekend of it over Christmas - do some downtown shopping, beer tasting, and visit the Biltmore Estate - I have heard it is absolutely gorgeous over the holidays!