Asheville

May 30, 2023 8:57 PM

I have about eight hours between checkout in my hotel and my bus. I have spent a week in Asheville, and have done almost everything I could in town, I think. I don't drive so I can't do a day trip out of town. Any thoughts about how to kill eight hours (from noon to ten) tomorrow, in town?
posted by PinkMoose to Travel & Transportation around Asheville, NC (13 answers total)

The Botanical Garden is always nice. Are you a museum person? There's a good art museum and a pinball museum. If you want something more active you could do a drop in yoga class or two, or there's a 7pm women's drumming class at Elephant Door.

Biltmore is worth checking out if you haven't already. And of course there are tons of local craft breweries and kava spots to pop into if you need a relaxing beverage.
posted by ananci at 9:07 PM on May 30, 2023

Can you elaborate on what you *have done*? Where are you staying?

If you’re downtown, go to Grove Arcade, get a treatment at the foot spa, then get a some champagne and read a book at Battery Park Book Exchange. Then take yourself to dinner and go see a movie at Fine Arts.
posted by greta simone at 9:43 PM on May 30, 2023

Response by poster: I have seen a few breweries, (though i don't drink beer), had meals on haywood, gone to bookstores downtown and in haywood, gone to the book exchange, the art musuem, saw a movie at the fine art, seen two shows at the orange peel, gone to several grocery stores, ate bbq, ate dumplings, ate fine dining, been to the art musuem, went to the southern cultural folk center.

I am staying on Tunnel Road.

The botanical gardens sounds alright, the biltmore is 80 dollar admisison.
posted by PinkMoose at 10:56 PM on May 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Canoe, kayak, or tube the French Broad?

Pinball museum?
posted by at at 11:21 PM on May 30, 2023

The Moogseum? That's where I would be, but I'm a synthesizer nerd.
posted by mkb at 4:45 AM on May 31, 2023 [3 favorites]

People have mentioned the Asheville Pinball Museum, which opens at 2PM on Wednesdays. My people have all loved it in there ($15 for all-you-can-play pinball and classic video games) but if you're not near the front of the line when they open, you're on a wait list waiting for enough people to leave that you can get in. (They only allow ~65 ppl at a time.)

So if it were me, I'd plan on a leisurely lunch someplace in the vicinity (Wall Street, Grove Arcade , and/or snacking by the front door so I'd be in the first group of 65). If that won't work, there's hop-on, hop-off bus tours going around the city that can be hit or miss, but I've had some amazing drivers with a wealth of knowledge (and personality). Since it's hop-on/hop-off, you can just bail on any driver that's not doing it for you.
posted by adekllny at 5:52 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

Does your response imply that you’ve spent a week in Asheville and haven’t gone to Biltmore?! I know it’s pricey but so is the rest of Asheville and you’ll probably kill $80 trying to entertain yourself for 10 hrs elsewhere. You really shouldn’t miss Biltmore.
posted by greta simone at 5:56 AM on May 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

Mills River Brewing is a really neat brewery--and they have local wine and liquor. The outside space is just pleasant. And the permanent food truck is phenomenal. It's an 8 minute drive from the airport (south and past the airport from downtown), so you might be able to get an uber from there to the airport.
posted by Snowishberlin at 6:23 AM on May 31, 2023

There are some sites related to Thomas Wolfe (no, not Tom Wolfe) author of Look Homeward Angel and other books that are set in a fictionalized version of Asheville, which is where Wolfe grew up.
posted by beagle at 6:41 AM on May 31, 2023

Definitely, the Thomas Wolfe house, which is the best historical tour I’ve ever been on: https://wolfememorial.com/
posted by joycehealy at 7:58 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Biltmore is ludacris (and I mean that in the best possible way). The scale of the rooms and all the infrastructure it took to have an enormous estate is really eye opening. If you ever watched Downton Abbey or Gosford Park or the like, it really puts things in perspective.

You say you don't drink beer, but do you drink wine? The owner of my favorite wine shop in Cincinnati moved to Asheville and manages Metro Wines. His events were always great.
posted by mmascolino at 9:18 AM on May 31, 2023

Get a pretty drink at a pretty coffee shop/brewery/cidery/grocery store and drink it at a pretty park while you read a pretty book, which may or may not have come from a pretty bookshop. I find that these non-"travelly" moments stick with me after I travel, almost more than the "seeing all the things" moments do.
posted by papayaninja at 3:49 PM on May 31, 2023

Response by poster: I went tubing! I had dinner! Insat in a concrete parking lot for three hours.
posted by PinkMoose at 11:05 PM on May 31, 2023