Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Biltmore - Asheville, NC

Headphones are a necessity. No doubt about it. And the mannlicher? Wow. I leaned as far as I could across the Dutch door into the den and slobbered all over the floor. That gun cabinet was something.

Something else I learned in a side tour concerned the electrical wiring. At the time of construction it was not yet determined whether AC or DC would be adopted as standard in the industry. That being the case the mansion was wired for both. When you consider the enormity of the structure, the number of rooms involved and the state of the industry at the time that was quite a decision to make. Another tidbit of information concerned the bathroom plumbing. They had early flush toilets but not plumbed sinks. Seems it was only proper for servants to bring fresh water to the occupant for washing. Aristocratic don't you know.

If you have a canoe go in the summer, you can put in on the French Broad River at Bent Creek and paddle right on through, for free.

Well you need to bring a sammich, they won't feed you, but Ingles is way cheaper than the carriage house food.

Place is pretty awesome and to anyone who digs architecture and/or history it's worth going, at least once.

BTDT, the winery tour too, I skipped the flower gardens, the ice cream was good there too (biltmore dairy). Then I did 6 mile paddle trip the french broad river the next day.

it's a go if you're in the area

Wife drug me there a couple of years ago and I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Asheville is a pretty place and has a chitload of good restaurants in every price range. The restaurant at the Farmer's Market is great for lunch.
John

Great place to visit and even after quite a few tours of Biltmore there is still much more to know. Asheville is a great place to visit with excellent fly fishing in the area.

Cool place, was there in 2013

It is interesting to see what was built, in the time it was built, and with the technology at the time.
Take the behind the scenes tour (extra) and see the inner workings of the place
Beautiful country and lots of other things in the area.

Biltmore is fantastic. Do NOT arrive mid-afternoon because that won't give you enough time. Seriously, make sure you're there in the morning and plan on taking or buying lunch there.

The wine is not great, regardless of what RWE thinks. But it's fun to take the wine tour.

The Biltmore House is well worth the time to visit. I've been a couple of times and would go back in a second. I haven't been able to get a look into what one of the guides called the gun room yet. Supposedly it is off the great dining room and was a room the gents retired to after dinner for smokes and drinks. I'm not sure about that but that was the story I was told. If it is anything like the rest of the house, it will be awesome.

Asheville, NC is noted for its craft breweries too. There are 21 different craft breweries in the Asheville area. If you like good beer, you can find it in Asheville and timing the visit to the Biltmore with their Annual Craft Beer Week might be worth looking into.

All this. Well worth the time and if you do the extra tours it will take all day at the house.

We stayed here http://www.bohemianhotelasheville.com and would do it again.

Family has lots of mountain property 5 minutes from Biltmore. Been in the tree for well over 220 years. All my kin before me were raised in the area mountains and grew up on the grounds of the estate and the town of Biltmore. My Grandfather ran the downtown Army-Navy Store so deep roots and great memories.

Having said the above, I highly recommend the trip. Should you decide to go I can send you a list of things to see and do. 60 miles down the road is Greenville, which is also a great little town to visit.

FWIW the highest point on the East Coast is about 45 minutes from Asheville. Big mountains!!
David

Bull to the Shiit! Ain't no way your tightass dropped the coin to do any of the above mentioned things. You eat Baloney and frozen pizzas on vacation.

This. It's simply incredible to see and the Christmas decorations are over the top.

A BIG YES!! They do a special Christmas package. Anytime is a good time...Christmas is very nice. I've been 5 times. I'm about ready to go again. The estate is in continual renovation. Every several years new wings or rooms are opened up. The fireplace is awesome. The library is extensive...rivaling college libraries. I think the gentleman had and read volumes in 9 different languages. If you go, take one of the guided back-stage tours. They will point out lots of interesting facts and details in the structure that one would never have noticed the significance.

Did I say It is a great visit?

Biltmore is nice, been there several times,,,,, side tour of the roof is good, winery is good,,, just roaming the grounds is good
you need a couple of days to really soak it in

I agree about the roof tour. Can you imagine what that placed must have looked like when first finished with its sandstone white walls, royal blue slate rood, and gold plated trim?

I was there in the early 1950's and it was impressive. I remember the huge pipe organ they had. I also seem to remember it was a working farm at the time and they made ice-cream that was delicious, but any teenager would like fresh ice cream. I can't imagine what kind of tourist enterprise it is today.

My wife and I went last October.
It was really interesting.
I too was drooling at the glimpse into the gun room.
What I picked up on was that what's there now is only a token amount of the firearms that were there in it's heyday!
Next time I'll want to take one of the more 'in depth' tours.

Not just that, but can you also imagine standing on the deck and knowing that when you looked in any direction you owned all the land you saw. IIRC over 125k acres early on. Eventually most of it got sold off, what remains is a small fraction of the original estate.

In 1914, Edith Vanderbilt sold approximately 86,700 acres of the estate’s forested mountain land, known as Pisgah Forest, to the federal government, creating the Pisgah National Forest.