I could probably give you a thousand reasons why we picked Asheville, North Carolina as our favorite Girl’s Getaway for the launch edition of our website, but I was forced to whittle this list down to just ten. I would love to hear your list of Asheville, NC favorites in the comments below!

1. Asheville NC has it all… all the good stuff that’s needed to make any girl’s getaway a success, whether your group is into adventure, historical attractions, shopping, spas, nature, culinary delights, arts scene, festival fun, or farmers markets – Asheville has it and it’s wonderful!
2. Adventure: To be honest, only adventure activity I would be brave enough to try is the swinging bridge in Grandfather Mountain Park. But hey if your girl’s getaway involves adrenaline then Asheville is the place to be. You can choose from rafting down the French Broad River, booking a bike tour, going on a hike, exploring the Linville caverns or trying some mountain climbing, indoors and out.
   

   French Broad Rafting Expeditions – Morning & afternoon whitewater rafting trips. Located 26 miles from Asheville.
   

   BlackBear Adventures Bicycle Tour – Specializing in cycling tours along the Blue Ridge and Natchez Trace Parkways.
   

   Mount Mitchell – A hike of great heights, the highest peak east of the Mississippi.
   

   Linville Caverns – North Carolina’s only show cavern. Located 75 miles from Asheville.
   

   Climbmax – offers a women only climbing night and both indoor and outdoor mountain climbing thrills.

3. Historical Attractions: Sitting on 8,000 acres of pristine gardens, beautifully kept parkland and forest, Biltmore Estate is the Grande Dame of Asheville. In fact everything about Biltmore Estates is grand, I realized this as we very slowly drove along the winding road through Biltmore, past the dappled woods and over babbling brooks (this place makes me channel old dead poets, sorry) until you are, at last, presented with fabulous mountain vistas surrounding an estate that Ritchie Rich would be proud to call home.

   We were lucky enough to visit Biltmore during its Festival of Flowers which is held annually from early April until mid May. Glowing with the bright green light of spring and bursting with fields of tulips made the gardens one of the highlights of our visit. Of course the star attraction of our girl’s getaway to Asheville was Biltmore’s 250 room chateaux, built by Georges Vanderbilt in the late 1800’s. This was not just any historical house tour where you get to see a few select rooms and the rest is off limits to guests, this house is huge and you get to see all of it from the basement kitchens, to the luxurious living areas all the way up to fourth floor servants quarters.

   We recommend paying the extra fee for the audio tour, it gives you some great background information about the guests and people that worked and lived at the estate. I would also recommend planning an entire day to explore the estate, we had only scheduled a half day and we had to tear ourselves away.

4. Shopping: Usually our girl’s getaway involves lots of shopping and we discovered to our delight that Asheville had plenty of retail therapy to offer our group. We found tons of great looking stores that offer beautiful local handicrafts, gourmet foodie things and fabulous fashions. We would recommend visiting: the Biltmore Antique District, Grove Arcade, Woolworth Walk, the River Arts District, and Historic Biltmore Village. We also had a great time checking out Biltmore Estates wonderful selection of shops in its Stable Area, we loved the Carriage House shop with its great selection of local wines, food and home accessories and we drooled over the displays in the Confectionary shop, a definite must-see for chocoholics!