The timing just couldn’t have worked out better. Having recently quit my day job to spend a year traveling and adventuring (and getting my boys off to college), I wanted to get the party started well.

One of my dearest friends, Amanda, happened to be looking for some adventure as well (she’s a single mom of 6, 2 of which are still at home), so together we headed out to Asheville, NC, to visit the Biltmore Estate. This destination has been on my list for basically my entire life. I would see pictures and videos and think, wow, how amazing it would be to someday actually see that in person.

This would also be my first time trying to be a travel YouTube type person and I learned A LOT that I may put in another post. Spoiler: it’s not as easy as you think to experience something and film it at the same time. But if you want to see evidence of our trip, definitely check out the YouTube video and while you’re there please go ahead and subscribe because that would make me happy and, hopefully, they’ll be some worthwhile stuff there that you’ll enjoy!

We arrived mid-day on Friday to our hotel, The Grand Bohemian, in the Biltmore Village. I LOVED this hotel and it’s location. The Biltmore Village has been there as long as the estate itself, and was built by George Vanderbilt for those that worked at the estate. He wanted a strong community, and the first thing they built was the church. George actually paid all the operating expenses for the Cathedral of All Souls Episcopal Church so that all offerings could go directly to charity. Love that. I also wonder if that is still the case? If you know, comment please!

The only thing I had to compare the Biltmore to was Hearst Castle on the central coast of California. I loved visiting that amazing place, but the entire time, despite the best efforts of the docents to clean up the story, I kept thinking how this was all made as a testament to a man. His wealth and his influence. I still enjoyed our visit but the man himself seemed somewhat shallow and far from humble.

I had a very different feeling at the Biltmore. But first, let’s talk more about the hotel.

The entrance to the Biltmore Estate is directly across the street from the Bohemian. It’t about a 3 mile drive from the gate house up to the home itself. The concierge at the hotel added our Biltmore admission to our room charge, and at $50 for a two day pass, it was a much better deal then through the Biltmore.

Our room wasn’t quite ready, so we left our bags and headed out to a lovely little spot for lunch, The Well-Bred Bakery and Cafe. I highly recommend it! Great food and lovely patio to sit outside and enjoy.

We then headed up to the estate and chose our first day to be all about the grounds. There are over 8000 acres to explore, and we meandered past the conservatory and the formal gardens and then out to the less manicured hiking trails and bass pond.

Even though it was too early for many of the flowers to be in bloom, the grounds were spectacular. I have a weird fondness for gardens in the dormant times, and especially in the early spring when you can almost feel the blooms getting ready to burst forth. There’s something about the restrained energy that I relate to.

Speaking of restrained energy, I think Amanda was about ready to hurl something at me for all the walking we did, but it was truly a lovely afternoon. We spent the better part of 3 hours just meandering and chatting with nobody to bug us or ask us to find anything or loan them money or drive them anywhere. So that was amazing.

We left the grounds and headed back to the hotel to clean up for dinner and check out our room. It was “perfectly appointed”, as the travel guides say, and had everything we needed and some things we DIDN’T (who puts a scale in a hotel room? NO THANK YOU;).

After all of our walking, we both decided Italian sounded good, so we called ahead and made reservations at a place Amanda had found on Yelp, Chiesa, and it DID NOT disappoint. We shared an appetizer, main dish, and dessert. Everything was very high quality and delicious. My favorite was the savory mushroom and leak bread pudding (it was their special so I don’t think they always have it) and it was just an overall amazing experience. MAKE RESERVATIONS. It’s a tiny restaurant and they’re very popular, for good reason. Definitely want to visit there again!

After a great night’s sleep, I meandered around the Biltmore Village by myself, just taking in the sites, including the incredible church, and then we met up for our breakfast. Because we are Marriott Elite members, breakfast was included with our stay and it was SO good! I consider myself somewhat of a hotel breakfast snob, but the food here was fresh and delicious.

Then it was time to head to the house and do the tour!

The walking tour is just about 2 and a half hours long and there are lots of steps. There are elevators available for the first 3 floors but for the top floor, you must be able to climb the steps. There is a lot of walking so if any in your party have mobility issues, this is definitely a consideration.

I also would not recommend this to anyone with “normal” young children. Now, if you have those angelic type of young children where they really don’t run and touch everything when you say don’t run and touch everything, you’ll be fine. And by the way, congratulations! But otherwise, maybe consider making this a 10 and up trip or leave them with a responsible care giver to run amuck in the gardens. Which actually ARE totally kid friendly.

Definitely spend the $10.95 on the audio wands. As you enter each room, you press the corresponding number and hear historical information about the art, the furnishings, and about the family.

I found George and Ethel’s story to be a beautiful, if somewhat tragic one. George, the sensitive, art loving introvert and Ethel, the orphaned heiress, meeting in Paris, quickly falling in love and coming back to his lavish estate to have their one child, Cornelia. Sadly, they would live in the house as a family for less than 20 years before George’s death and the great depression would move them to open the home to the public.

The estate was then, and is now, self-sustaining and George had a deep love of forestry and agriculture . The landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed Central Park in NYC), has always been fascinating to me and there simply aren’t words to describe the work he did at the Biltmore. In researching more about him, I found he also designed several outdoor spaces right here in Atlanta. Sometimes I just adore the internet.

Lately, humanity has been somewhat discouraging to me. Touring the Biltmore reminded me of what we are capable of as people, not just because of the design and craftsmanship, but because of the way we can treat one another. George paid his workers well, cared for the land, and he and Ethel invested themselves in the community around them. The tour made me wish I had known them. I think we would have been friends. (well, probably not really, but I like to imagine these kinds of things. I feel I would have been a hoot at their parties).

I will definitely be returning to the Biltmore again soon. I now have this fantasy about taking one of the horse back riding tours and also want to go at Christmas to see the house all lit up. I hear it’s spectacular. I am kind of glad I saw it the first time in an “ordinary” season. No great blooms in the garden, no grand Christmas trees in the halls. Just the home, the way it would have been on a normal day in March. As the first adventure of the Gap Year, it did not disappoint.