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River House Country Inn and Restaurant

More of a mountain resort retreat than a simple lodging. 336-982-2109; www.riverhousenc.com; 1896 Old Field Creek Rd, Grassy Creek; r $125-195, 2-person cabins $195-225, additional person $50 each, min 2-night stay summer;

USEFUL WEBSITES

www.blueridgeparkway.org

www.nps.gov/blri

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LINK YOUR TRIP www.lonelyplanet.com/trip-planner

TRIP

14 From Dirty Dancing to Dawson’s Creek

18 Mayberry & the Yapa Valley

20 48 Hours in Asheville opposite

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Return to beginning of chapter

TRIP 20

48 Hours in Asheville

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WHY GO Known as the Paris of the South, Freak City USA or home to the Biltmore Estate, the hippified mountain town of Asheville defies any single categorization. A mixture of Blue Ridge folk traditions, New Age healing centers and a Slow Food outpost, Asheville rightfully tops countless “Best Place to Live/Visit/See art-deco Architecture” lists.

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TIME

2 days

DISTANCE

BEST TIME TO GO

Sep - Dec

START

Asheville, NC

END

Asheville, NC

ALSO GOOD FOR

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To get your bearings (and have a good laugh), start your trip with LaZoom Tours, a bus tour as zany as Asheville itself. The lavender biodiesel bus is run by a group of drama geeks-turned-tour guides who inform as well as they entertain. After you’ve driven through town, head out on foot for a walking tour. Start at Malaprops Bookstore and Café, the city’s gathering spot for intellectual lefties where there are not only two bookcases dedicated to “Green Living” but three shelves to “Conscious Green Living.” From the bookstore, stop in at Tupelo Honey Cafe, which advertises itself as a down-home Southern restaurant with an uptown twist. Be prepared to wait, as this restaurant is packed and for good reason. Sure, it’s got grits, but they’re basil-infused, goat cheese grits topped with fried green tomato goodness. Try them with sides like honey-pickled beet salad and candied ginger cornbread.

After lunch, head down Haywood St to Pritchard Park. Popular with transients most of the week, each Friday night around 7pm the park explodes with more than 100 drummers, dancers, dread-wearers, hackeysack players and those wanting to commune with the rhythmic flow of the beat. Walk down Walnut St towards Woolworth Walk, an art gallery housing more than 150 artists’ wares. The retro soda fountain is where the old Woolworth’s Luncheonette used to be, and it still serves up low-priced sandwiches, egg creams and ice-cream shakes. On the first Friday of the warmer months, Woolworth’s is the gathering spot for the First Friday Art Walk. Head to Wall Street, a bricked-over semi-pedestrianized street filled with shops and restaurants. The best of the bunch is the adorably delicious Early Girl Eatery. A cross between a city diner and an organic farm restaurant, Early Girl has quickly become an institution for serving delightfully new “health” food such as biscuits with vegetarian herbed gravy alongside farmstead cheeseburgers slathered with basil mayo. Spend some time perusing the Grove Arcade, the pinnacle of Asheville’s art-deco architecture. Built by the Grove of the famed Grove Park Inn and Spa in 1929 but abandoned after World War II, the former public market reopened in 2002 filled with shops and restaurants, signaling the apex of Asheville’s return to city-center culture.

There are dozens of B&Bs in town, but stay at Crooked Oak Mountain Inn to appreciate the best of Asheville’s lush surroundings only a seven-minute drive from downtown. The six-room B&B is set in a forested glen just past the Western Residence for North Carolina’s governor and each room’s windows look out to serene woods.

The must-see destination that put Asheville on the map is the 175,000-sq-ft Biltmore Estate. The French chateau-style super-mega-mansion took six years to complete and required hundreds of artisans, craftsmen and educated professionals,