Asheville, NC Visitor Center

Tourist & Relocation Information Guide

Join Us in a journey across our incredible city and learn what travelers discover every day: That no other place offers the natural beauty and unique experiences of Asheville.

Come to our mountains, where we will reveal to you a botanical paradise. You will see 43 mountain peaks that reach 6000 feet, including Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern United States. You will find breathtaking valleys and the powerful rivers that rush through them. Hike or bike the miles of trails and discover cascading falls in the many state and national parks that nestle among them. Planning your visit to our majestic mountain ranges has never been easier.

With so much to experience in Asheville, we are sure that we will be welcoming you back.

Click Below and Jump to Categories

• Map of Downtown Asheville
• Asheville General Information
• Music
• Sports
• Film & TV
• Famous Residents
• Points of Interest
• Sister Cities

Asheville General Information

The city is known for the lavish Biltmore Estate, which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Other notable architecture in Asheville includes its Art Deco city hall and other unique buildings in the downtown area. The Montford neighborhood and other central areas are considered historic districts and include Victorian houses. Asheville and the surrounding mountains are also extremely popular in the autumn when fall foliage peaks in October. The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway runs through the Asheville area and the grounds of Biltmore Estate. Biltmore Village is a section of the city adjacent to the estate, where workers stayed during its construction. It is currently home to small trendy shops.

The Asheville Citizen-Times is Asheville's daily newspaper which covers most of Western North Carolina. The Mountain Xpress is Asheville's award-winning alternative newsweekly, which covers arts and politics in the region. The Asheville Daily Planet, an Independent weekly newspaper serving Greater Asheville, is published Wednesday mornings by Star Fleet Communications, Inc..

Asheville is served by Asheville Regional Airport in nearby Fletcher, North Carolina, and by Interstate 40, Interstate 240, and Interstate 26. A milestone was achieved in 2003 when Interstate 26 was extended from Mars Hill (north of Asheville) to Johnson City, Tennessee completing a 20-year half-billion dollar construction project through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Work continues to improve Interstate 26 from Mars Hill to Interstate 40 by improving U.S. Route 19 and U.S. Route 23 and the western part of Interstate 240. This construction will include a multi-million dollar bridge to cross the French Broad River and is not slated to start until 2008.

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Music

Live music is a significant element in the tourism-based economy of Asheville and the surrounding area. Seasonal festivals and numerous nightclubs offer opportunities for visitors and locals to attend a wide variety of live entertainment events.

Asheville is host to numerous clubs and performance venues. Outdoor festivals, such as Bele Chere and the Lexington Avenue Arts & Fun Festival, feature local music. One of the most popular annual events is "Shindig on the Green," which happens Saturday nights during July and August on City/County Plaza. By tradition, the Shindig starts "along about sundown" and features local bluegrass bands and dance teams on stage, and informal jam sessions under the trees surrounding the County Courthouse.

DJ music, as well as a small, but active, dance community are also components of the downtown musical landscape. The town is also home to the Asheville Symphony and the Asheville Lyric Opera and there are a number of bluegrass, country, and traditional mountain musicians in the Asheville area.

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Sports

The Asheville Tourists are a minor league baseball team in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. They are a Class A team in the South Atlantic League and have been a farm team of the Colorado Rockies since 1994. The Tourists play home games at McCormick Field. The park opened in 1924. It was renovated in 1959, and renovated again for the 1992 season. McCormick Field seats 4,000 fans, and is often joked about because of its scoreboard, which reads "Visitors" in the guest slot and "Tourists" in the home slot.

Area colleges and universities, such as the University of North Carolina at Asheville compete in sports. UNCA's sports teams are known as the Bulldogs and play in the Big South Conference. The Fighting Owls of Warren Wilson College are respected for their mountain biking and ultimate teams. The College is also home of the Hooter Dome, where the Owls play their home basketball games.

Asheville is home to societies that offer club sports anyone can join, including Asheville Rugby, Asheville Lacrosse Club, Asheville Track Club, and the Asheville Ultimate Community. The Asheville Lightning Junior Olympic Team is open to boys and girls from 6 to 18 can participate.

Due to its location among the tallest mountains of the eastern United States and receiving 80-100 inches of annual rainfall, Asheville is a major hub of whitewater recreation, particularly whitewater kayaking, in the eastern US. Many kayak manufacturers have their bases of operation in the Asheville area [citation needed] and some of the most distinguished whitewater kayakers live in or around Asheville, including Shane Benedict, Woody Calloway, Robert Pearson, Al Gregory, Pat Keller, Buffy Bailey Burge, Andrew Holcombe, Tommy Hilleke, Andria Baldovin, Anna Levesque, Whitney Lonsdale, Maria Nokes, Katie Hilleke, Jennifer Cribbs and Molly Malone. In its July/August 2006 journal, the group American Whitewater named Asheville one of the top five US whitewater cities along with Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Chico/Oroville, California; Boise, Idaho and Washington, DC.

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Film & TV

Although the area has had a long history with the entertainment industry, recent developments are cementing Asheville as a potential growth area for both film and TV. The Asheville Film Festival is now in its third year, and the city is an annual participant in the 48 Hour Film Project. The city's public access cable station URTV began airing programs in the spring of 2006. Notable films made (at least partially) in the area include: Searching for Angela Shelton, Last of the Mohicans, Being There, My Fellow Americans, The Fugitive, All The Real Girls, Richie Rich, Conquest of Canaan, Hannibal, Songcatcher, Patch Adams, The Journey of August King, Nell, Forrest Gump, Mr. Destiny, Winter People, Dirty Dancing, Bull Durham, The Private Eyes, The Swan, The Clearing, and 28 Days. Locally produced films include: Vance, The Devil's Courthouse, Inbred Rednecks, Sinkhole, The Nudger, Ether, Brother Cellophane and For Catherine, as well as a number of forthcoming projects such as Moon Europa, Golden Blade III: Return of the Monkey's Uncle and Asheville, The Movie. Local film-production groups include: Tabula Rasa Studios, B-clip Productions, 207 Pictures, A Viewpoint Productions, Blue Ridge Motion Pictures, Ironwood Media Group, Harrow Beauty, and Buried Pictures.

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Famous Residents

• Harry Anderson (1952- ), actor and magician, currently residing in Asheville
• Hobey Ford, puppeteer, based near Asheville
• Charles Frazier (1950- ), author, born in Asheville and graduated from UNC-A.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), author
• Zelda Fitzgerald (1900-1948, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, died in a fire in an Asheville mental institution
• Roberta Flack (1937- ), singer, born in Asheville
• Eileen Fulton (1933- ), actress, born in Asheville
• Warren Haynes (1960- ), musician, spent his formative years in Asheville
• Stephen Leicht, NASCAR driver, born in Asheville
• Andie MacDowell (1958- ), actress, currently residing in Biltmore Forest
• Robert Moog (1934-2005), pioneer of electronic music, inventor of the Moog synthesizer
• Robert Morgan (1918-2004), pilot of the "Memphis Belle," the famed WWII B-17 bomber
• Shirley Hemphill (1947-1999), actress, born in Asheville
• Robert Pressley (1959- ), retired NASCAR driver, born in Asheville
• Artimus Pyle (1948- ), musician, currently resides in Asheville
• Angela Shelton (1972- ), actress and producer
• George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862-1914), entrepreneur, original founder of the Biltmore Estate
• Charles Vernon, musician, an Asheville native
• Roy Williams, University of North Carolina basketball coach, grew up in Biltmore Forest

• Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), author, born and raised in Asheville at home pictured above
  
  

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Points of Interest

• Biltmore Estate
• Biltmore Village
• Botanical Gardens at Asheville
• North Carolina Arboretum
• Vance Monument
• Pack Square
• Blue Ridge Parkway
• Thomas Wolfe Memorial
• Asheville Urban Trail
• Riverside Cemetery
• Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center
• Smith-McDowell House Museum
• Richmond Hill Inn

Sister Cities

• San Crist�bal de las Casas, Mexico
• Vladikavkaz, Russia
• Karpenisi, Greece
• Saumur, France
  
  

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