Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina - November 1st, 2021

We took a break from the Blue Ridge Parkway and camped two nights in Asheville at Mama Gertie’s Campground. There are many things to see and do in Asheville, but we concentrated all of our time at the Biltmore Estate. It’s been about thirty years since the last time we visited. Our memories were that we did not allocate enough time to see it, so we intended not to make the same mistake this time.

On Sunday, we didn’t stop at any of the overlooks from Mount Mitchell to Asheville. The fog stayed with us the whole way. We reached Mama Gertie’s Campground in the early afternoon. Then the sun came out. That’s OK. The early arrival gave us time to take showers and get our laundry done before dinner.

Mama Gertie’s is built into the hillside. The smaller rigs were in the sites in the lower section. Each site was a separate terrace to make them level, as the road and hillside were pretty steep. Mid-sized rigs were in a single terrace midway up the slope. The large rigs were up on top, in a large flat area. The sites on top have a great view out over the valley. Some of the sites had private decks with rocking chairs or porch swings facing the view. There was even a community deck where everyone could go to relax and enjoy the views.

Having a small rig, we were, of course, in the lower section. However, we took a walk after dinner up the steep road to the top. The scenery from the top was fantastic. The sites up on top are ideal settings. However, it might be a little challenging driving your rig up the steep and narrow road to get to them.

We spent all of Monday at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. Our general admission tickets that we purchased ahead of time online had us scheduled for the 11:15 self-guided tour of the house. The grounds opened at 9 am, so we arrived shortly after 9. The estate is 8000 acres. We started by driving the three miles from the entrance gate to the parking lots by the house. Tours of the house don’t start until 10 am, so we were able to get a spot in the A parking lot. It is a short walk from there to the house.

Right next to the house are the formal gardens and conservatory. For about an hour or so, we wandered through the gardens. The walled garden was an explosion of color and patterns. The rose garden was past its prime for the season, but there were still some nice blossoms to see.

The series of pools in the Italian garden were filled with fish and lily pads. Inside the conservatory were models of the estate buildings set among the variety of textures and colors of the exotic plants.

Since we would probably be inside the house during lunch time, we headed over to the Bake Shop for hot drinks and pastries. We split a cherry turnover and a triple berry tart. They were delicious. It was very relaxing sitting there, eating our treats, with soothing classical music playing in the background.

The self-guided tour of the house is rather extensive. The tour takes you through over forty of the 250 rooms in the house. They give you a hand-held device with recordings explaining each room. The device was more like a phone than a tape recorder. Signs in each room displayed a number which you entered on the keypad of the device to start the recording for that room. Then you held the device up to your ear like a phone to listen. Right Buddy (RB) liked the device so much better than headphones or reading signs. She doesn’t like wearing headphones and reading signs doesn’t let you look around the room while you’re taking in the information. We spent almost two hours inside the house and found it rather fascinating, and that’s from two people who really don’t like museums.

There are just so many details inside and outside the mansion. The skill and mastery of the craftsmen who built and decorated the place are some of the best in the world. Being a woodworker himself, Left Buddy (LB) took a special interest in all of the woodwork inside the house.

After the tour, we were ready to sit down and have something to eat. We decided to drive over to the Antler Hill Village, a few miles away, but still part of the estate. Along the way, we stopped at the Bass Pond to check out the boat house. There are paths from the house that lead over to the pond through some informal gardens, which was our original plan, but we lost our motivation to walk it after the house tour.

Antler Hill Village contains shops, restaurants, a hotel, a demonstration farm, a playground, and the winery. There is also a small museum called the Biltmore Legacy that is about the lives of the Vanderbilt family, George who built the estate, his wife Edith, and their daughter Cornelia.

For a late lunch, we bought BBQ from the Smokehouse food truck. Our pulled pork came with hushpuppies. LB had the sandwich, while RB had the platter so she could also have some slaw. We both had RC Cola to drink. We can’t remember the last time we had RC Cola. RB’s mom was a big fan of RC Cola. They were the first company to come out with a diet cola, called Diet Rite.

We then walked around the village, walked through the Biltmore Legacy, and checked out the demonstration farm. There were not a lot of demonstrations going on at the time, so we didn’t hang out there for long. It was now after 3 pm and our wine tasting reservation was not until 6 pm. The wine tasting is part of the general admission ticket to get onto the estate. We were tired and didn’t really feel like exploring the Deer Park which was the part of the estate we hadn’t seen yet. We walked over to the winery entrance and asked if we could move up our wine tasting time. There was an opening at 3:40 pm, just twenty minutes away. Perfect! We sat down and relaxed for those twenty minutes.

The wine tasting entrance takes you through the wine barrel tunnels to reach the winery shop. Even though you have a timed entry, there is still a short line to wait in before they give you a place at a wine tasting bar. There was a list of twelve wines to choose which five you wanted to taste. There were six whites, one rose, and five reds. RB is more of a white wine and rose fan, while LB prefers red. We tasted each other’s choices so we actually tasted nine instead of just five wines. We actually settled on our top three, two whites and a red. So we purchased a bottle of each. Our picks were the Limited Release Sémillon, the Limited Release Orange Muscat, and the Christmas at Biltmore Red Wine.

After the wine, we decided to have ice cream for dinner and call it a day. So we walked over to the Creamery in the Antler Hill Village. LB had a chocolate malt. RB had a waffle cone of mint chip and chocolate. Yes, we are that predictable.

It was time to head back to the campground. We thought we would cover more of the estate than we did, but we still felt we experienced most of it. You can absorb only so much in one day. We’ve learned over the years not to push ourselves past our limit. You can’t see and experience everything. Life is not that long.

Check out our related video: Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia & North Carolina

(RB)