Our final stop on our honeymoon road trip was Asheville, NC! We arrived in the evening and immediately checked into our hotel the Cambria. It was a great location, right in the heart of downtown. We easily walked to restaurants, shops, and breweries. Our first night we walked around to see what was near us and find something to eat. We quickly learned reservations are a MUST in Asheville, practically everywhere was booked or a long wait time.
We spent our first entire day there exploring. We went to brunch at Early Girl Eatery and it was so delicious! Then we walked around all the shops and the flea market. Then we happened upon this amazing used book store, Battery Park Book Exchange, that was also a coffee/wine bar — it was basically heaven for me! Brice found a beautiful hardback of my favorite childhood book, Alice in Wonderland, and bought it for me. So romantic!
We dropped off our newly bought items at the hotel and headed out to some local breweries. Our first stop was Twin Leaf Brewery. The atmosphere was great and so was the beer! After trying a few different beers we headed to our next stop, Asheville Brewing. We grabbed some beers and ordered pizza to go with it. All was delicious and I’d definitely recommend both locations. We wanted to stop at a few more but unfortunately neither one of us planned very well for the massive temperature drop that occurred as the sun went down. Freezing our little behinds off we headed back to our hotel bar.
Grabbing more layers we headed up to the rooftop bar called Hemingway’s Cuba and managed to snag some seats by a fire pit and enjoy the rest of our evening! We ordered more local drinks and sat in the bliss of this beautiful place.
Our final full day in Asheville was spent at the Biltmore Estate and it was well worth it! This place came highly recommended to us and I’d been wanting to go for months. We bought our tickets well in advance (which I highly encourage since only so many are allowed in at once). We woke up bright and early to get there and I’m so glad we did because getting to see everything will take you a full day! Walking up to the home was like a fairytale. It is the largest home in America and it looks like something from Downton Abbey or Bridgerton.
We had about 30 min before our tour time started so we ventured to the shops and restaurants next to the home. We got some coffee and breakfast sandwiches that were delish! Then we began our tour of the home! It was all decorated for Christmas so I felt extra giddy with excitement! The home is incredible and has so many amazing parts to it. I won’t share every single photo but below are some of my highlights.
After our tour we walked down to the gardens to explore more and it was all beautiful! Even in November! I can only imagine the array of colors in the springtime there. Once we were done we headed back over to the shops cause we wanted some merch. Due to covid regulations only so many were allowed inside at a time so we waited in line for a while. If you plan to eat lunch or dinner at one of the many Biltmore restaurants I highly encourage you make reservations! Most actual sit down restaurants were booked solid. There are however, cafe and kiosk types of places too.
Buying a ticket into the Biltmore also means you get a complimentary wine tasting. So we got in the car and drove to the other side of the estate and reserved a time for our tasting. You do not have to book this ahead of time, you simply go up to the winery and scan a QR code that will prompt you to pick a time. I was a little worried we wouldn’t get a time since we didn’t book it first thing. However, there was no issue at all; we got over there around 2pm and were able to have our tasting at 4pm. Since we had time we decided to put our names on a wait list for a restaurant close by.
We walked around and checked out more of what the estate has to offer. It is all incredibly beautiful and backs up to the Blue Ridge Mountains. After our lunch we got some ice cream from their creamery that is made with products from the Biltmore Farm; it was amazing! It was finally time for our wine tasting, and it did not disappoint. After getting to try multiple wines we proceeded to buy nearly a dozen bottles of different wines. We figured, why not since we are on a road trip! Plus it made a great Christmas gift for my sisters.
We felt like we had seen as much as we could and were completely exhausted. We headed back to our hotel and enjoyed dinner at Hemingway’s Cuba in the restaurant. The next morning our last stop on our way out was a delicious bagel place called Bruegger’s Bagels. Then, sadly it was time for our honeymoon to end and we headed back home to Texas. It took two full days in the car and we stopped in Jackson, Mississippi to break up the drive. Our trip was unforgettable and we loved every second of it!