Asheville, North Carolina is a great destination for families with small children. It offers a lot: an eclectic, arty, urban vibe combined with affordable accommodations and eats, easy access from many major cities, plenty of parking, and of course: the majesty of the mountains that surround the town. Summer is great time to visit the area, and of course fall is even better (if you can find a room in peak leaf season!).

We attended a wedding in Asheville, NC in late May. Although I’m from Western North Carolina, it hadn’t occurred to that Asheville might be a perfect vacation spot for a family like ours! Since the wedding was on the Sunday before Memorial Day, we had time to enjoy the area.

As I mentioned, Asheville is a great town to visit with kids because it offers ease of access with an urban and arty city center that is simple to navigate. We stayed in a condo near the city’s center and found that to be ideal. We had all the amenities that make life with a baby easy: the kitchen, dining area, and washer and dryer were especially helpful. But we were only steps to the restaurants, shops, museums, and bars.  We didn’t have to use our car in town at all. It was really the best of both worlds.

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Feeding Scribble lunch on the floor of the condo; it was great to have a kitchen so we could
prepare meals and I could store milk and clean my pump parts!

We mostly enjoyed spending time with family, but we had some opportunities to get out into the city.  It was fun to people watch and to see all the street performers (playing cigar box guitars and wearing the traditional costume of suspenders, handlebar moustache, fedora, James Joyce wire-rimmed glasses, while crooning ladies donned the customary June Carter-style dress and Zooey Deschanel bangs). Baby enjoyed his first glimpse of barflys at the Thirsty Monk, a beer bar located downtown with a massive list of beers on tap and in the bottle.  Since the pub also serves meals, we were able to get in with baby and a stroller!


Left: Checking out the bar scene;  Right: This pictures makes me nervous for his college years…!

We also visited the Battery Park Book Exchange, which is a wine and dessert bar located inside a used book store! The place is reminiscent of Hogwarts on the outside, and a Parisian cafe on the inside.


Making a ruckus in a quiet bookshop; also note that we forgot a blanket to use as a sunshade extender and had to use a tablecloth! Parenting is nothing if not an exercise in improvisation…

We enjoyed a very memorable lunch sans-baby at Chai Pani, an Indian restaurant in the center of the city.  Living in a rural area, the only time I get curry is when I make it myself, so this was a real treat for me!

We had one late-night dinner at the Noodle Shop, a small Asian fusion restaurant right on the edge of Pack Square in the center of town.  We got there at nearly 10 PM, baby in tow, and the staff didn’t blink an eye! Scribble had his first dumpling here.

One place that I can’t help but mention is the new Farm Burger restaurant.  We didn’t eat here on this trip, but the original restaurant is located in Athens, GA, my adopted hometown. All the food is local to the area and extremely affordable.  It is good food that makes you feel virtuous.

The wedding itself was located at the NC Arboretum, which would be a great daytrip for a family with children. The arboretum features a Bonsai garden, as well as easy trails for hiking, even with a stroller.

O T H E R  D A Y T R I P S :

Since we were in the area for a wedding, we didn’t spend all of our time sight-seeing. But since I’m from the area, I am familiar with a lot that the area has to offer. If we were to go again, there is a ton I’d like to do.

– For example, the Biltmore Estate offers lots of activities for families. Just walking the grounds is wonderful. They also offer bike rentals so that you can explore the estate that way. Of course you can always tour the house itself, but this may not be a fun activity with small children. It has been years since I took a tour of Biltmore and I remember it being very interesting, but also crowded, sometimes cramped (the Biltmore is the largest house in America, but the hallway in the servant’s quarters was narrow!) and it was necessary to stand the whole time. Good for tween kids who are interested in history, but perhaps not for toddlers.  The Biltmore has a winery and children are allowed to tour it along with the adults.  If your baby likes to be worn, you might attempt it!  Here is the Biltmore’s site for planning a trip with children.

– There are a ton of breweries in the area, and most allow children on their tours.  We didn’t have the time to check them out, but here are a few of note on this site.

– Most centrally, if you’re going to be in Asheville, you must make the time to get out in the mountains! I grew up in this area and have fond memories of camping, hiking, rafting, and swimming in the area’s rivers and lakes. From Asheville, it is easy to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are a lot of paved trails on the Parkway if you’re not interested in carrying a baby up the side of a mountain, and the views from the parkway itself are, of course, unparalleled!

– If you are interested in hiking, the options are endless; there are far too many options to list here.   Western NC is home to the country’s most visited national park: The Great Smoky National Park. The nearest entrance into the park is in Cherokee, NC. Directions can be found here.  A popular spot to visit with children is Cade’s Cove, because it offers the chance to tour a preserved historical settlement, and has flat paths for walking and biking (good if you are carrying a baby!). But if I were to go back I would check out Cataloochee, another preserved settlement where the Forest Service has recently reintroduced an Elk population into the wild.

If you’re willing to go farther afield, consider a trip to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest . It is a bit of a haul from Asheville, but it is one of the country’s last and best old growth forests.  We used to take my siblings here when they were still small enough to be carried in a backpack!

On the way home; a pitstop in the Nantahala Gorge to watch the kayakers battle the river