During our vacation to the Gatlinburg area, we put aside a day to go to Asheville, NC to visit the famous Biltmore Estates, located about 2.5 hours from Gatlinburg. I must say the drive there was picturesque to say the least with mountains on each sides of the road most of the way.
I will preface by saying to try and get discount tickets either from a website or from eBay. We did that and saved about 15 bucks per ticket which are quite expensive.
The parking area is quite a walk to the actually estates, however, the walk through the nature trails are very serene and open up to a glorious view of the entire front area of Biltmore Estates. It's a perfect photo op.
The actually mansion itself has a self guided tour by way of a headset or you can read the many plaques throughout each room describing its story. The place was truly majestic and very elegant to say the least. The tour is laid out nicely and will take about 2 hours or so to tour the entire area. I will warn those with small children that it is all steps so strollers will cause you to use your arm muscles to carry up and down the spiral staircases. They do have an old, small elevator, however, they were not always monitored by employees.
They also have an attached courtyard with gift shops, a restaurant, and a small food stand selling hot dogs, and sausages along with chips and sodas. The restaurant was packed and the food court had limited seating with a large crowd gathering. I was somewhat disappointed in the eating area. We had to wait for 30 minutes until a table opened and it was ballpark prices on the food as well.
After lunch we proceeded down to the Winery which was about another 1 mile drive from the estate. The winery was a pleasant surprise and very calming compared to the hustle and bustle of the entrance to the mansion itself. We were able to taste several of the Biltmore wines and take home a bottle or two for ourselves. The employees at the winery were extremely nice and even gave us tips of what to see on the way back to Gatlinburg.
We were lucky enough to visit Biltmore during the opening of a small petting zoo. The kids loved to see and pet a variety of animals from horses to sheep. And the people there were more than happy to talk about the animals and allow us to pet and interact with all of them.
As we left Biltmore I was torn about my experience. It certainly is a place to witness in person, however, it is not something I would go back again and again to see. As with all places, there could be improvements: Lower ticket prices, more seating, and better selection/price of lunch items.
From journal Gatlinburg Worth the Drive