We are now most likely going to do a road trip instead of a beach type vacation. We just have too many people and places we need to visit. So, one of the trips we will be doing is a NJ - Kingsport TN - Asheville NC, and then back home again. We will probably do 2 weeks or so.
What side trips or stop offs would you recommend? We are open to driving off direct paths and spending a day or two if it makes sense. My sister lives in TN, so we would stay there for 4-5 days, and then on to Asheville, for a few days and then maybe back to TN for 3-4 days, and then back home. We might even stretch this to 3 weeks if we have enough places to stop into and enjoy. Locations, hotels, restaurants etc are all things we are looking for.
While we would love to be able to hike and do things like that, we are both limited due to health issues or injuries that we are dealing with. So hiking trails and that sort of thing are just not in our cards right now.
Been a long long time since we did a road trip like this. Any advice or recs would be greatly appreciated.
Since you’re going to be on the road 2 weeks plus, Charleston SC is a 4 hour drive from Asheville, straight shot down I-26, highly recommended if you’ve never been.
We drove down to Asheville last spring via–mostly–the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway. Overnighted in Staunton, VA at the lovely Berkeley House B&B across the street from the very interesting Woodrow Wilson Museum–also enjoyed just poking around the town. Charlottesville/Monticello isn’t too far from Staunton. Also overnighted in Roanoke, VA at another nice B&B, the King George Inn. The town’s Taubman Art Museum is quite interesting. Ate well in both places–Zynodoa in Staunton, Metro in Roanoke. In Asheville, we stayed at still another B&B, the very fine Inn on Mountford; we had excellent dinners at Posana’s, Admiral and Rhubarb.
I don’t know how you are routing the trip, but if you have never been to Charlottesville I strongly recommend that diversion. Also Richmond is ~ an hour east and has a great many things to do. Historical sights, art museums, great food scene. Let me know if you want specifics.
Thank you for some ideas. We have not mapped out the trip yet, because we want to consider options and then decide. Once I narrow down a few stops, I’ll have a route that I can post.
Thanks again. I’ll reach out for recs for specific areas once I do get the route figured out, or at least what we are leaning on doing. I’m open to changing midstream, so to speak, too.
Definitely agree with Neal on Charlottesville and Richmond, the whole family especially enjoyed Monticello a year or two ago. We added colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown to that trip, though it takes you further away from your main path.
We are contemplating a few days in the Asheville area this summer (I have never been there or to the Smokeys) and would appreciate any recent guidance folks might have to offer. Hotels, restaurants, sites to see . . . anything that might occur to you to pass on. Thx in advance.
Great town to visit. Yes, Biltmore is expensive (I think it’s $65 now), but it’s truly impressive. To balance that cost (or just because it’s beautiful), drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Force yourself to forget wine in Asheville. It’s all about the beer and there’s so much of it that’s really good.
A couple of restaurant recs - Table, Curate (although I haven’t been since it expanded) and the Admiral, which looks like a dump from the outside but is quite good.
For breakfast everyone will tell you to go to Tupelo Honey but consider instead Early Girl Eatery.
I posted this a while back on another thread, Neal: “We drove down to Asheville last spring via–mostly–the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway. Overnighted in Staunton, VA at the lovely Berkeley House B&B across the street from the very interesting Woodrow Wilson Museum–also enjoyed just poking around the town. Charlottesville/Monticello isn’t too far from Staunton. Also overnighted in Roanoke, VA at another nice B&B, the King George Inn. The town’s Taubman Art Museum is quite interesting. Ate well in both places–Zynodoa in Staunton, Metro in Roanoke. In Asheville, we stayed at still another B&B, the very fine Inn on Mountford; we had excellent dinners at Posana’s, Admiral and Rhubarb.”
Decided that our backs might not be happy making this trip, so we are now flying into Asheville ($170 RT non stop helped in the decision too). Going to stay there for 2-3 days and then my sister will meet us there for lunch and then head to Kingsport. Will probably go back to Asheville for a day or two during the stay too, or at least leave a couple days ahead of our flight home and spend a couple more days there.
So, things to do IN or around Asheville, as well as restaurants etc would be appreciated.
And if anyone knows Asheville well enough, what is real estate opportunities like there? We have a friend who retired there (an artist who taught with Karen) and we are considering looking into buying a home there for retirement. Just thought I would throw that out as well.
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