Last week Jon (my boyfriend) and I took a three-day trip to Asheville, North Carolina! We had such a great time, so I wanted to share our experience with you guys (and let’s face it, I needed somewhere for all of our pictures to go lol)! If you’ve never considered visiting Asheville, it should definitely be on your radar!
Since I have a little less than a month before I move to Durham for PT school, we decided that we wanted to take some sort of trip before then. This was our first solo trip! Now money definitely doesn’t grow on trees and we are both broke college students, so when planning, we knew that we wanted to stay somewhere in North Carolina. Neither of us had ever been to Asheville before, and we thought that it would be the perfect time of the year to explore the mountains. Asheville is known for its scenery and good food, and it definitely lived up to the hype!
Okay so on to the good stuff, the deets (and lots of pictures):
Sunday, June 24th
Our plan was to wake up early Sunday morning and head to Asheville, but of course that didn’t happen lol. We ended up sleeping in, and left Greensboro for Asheville around 1pm.
It was about a two and a half hour drive (not bad at all), so we got to Asheville around 4pm. It was such a cute little town, and everyone was super nice. We checked into our Airbnb, and we were so satisfied with the space. It was called “The Cozy Room“, which was the perfect name. The room was exactly as described and extremely clean. It was very cozy (as expected), and really felt like home. Our host also left many thoughtful touches (wine, notes, snacks, and coffee), which made our stay that much more enjoyable. We were in a quaint and quiet neighborhood only about 15-20 minutes from downtown Asheville, and very close to a grocery store, restaurants, and an outlet mall.
After unpacking a bit, we headed to Pisgah National Forest to explore some of the trails. Our Airbnb was only a few miles (if that!) from the trail we wanted to hike, which was one of the reasons why we chose it (the national forest was practically in the neighborhood!). Jon and I aren’t very experienced hikers, so we used an app called AllTrails to find trails near us. I really liked the app, because you could filter and sort the types of trails you wanted to see (by difficulty, rating, things to do/see, etc.), and you could see lots of pictures and maps. Since it was already 5:00, we chose to hike the Hard Times Road Trail. It was an easy 7.9 mile out and back trail, and we hiked about 4 miles of it.
The hike was nice, and so so beautiful. We almost had a run in with a black bear (we booked it as soon as we saw it lol), but we now know that they are usually not harmful. After our hike, we went to dinner at White Duck Taco Shop. These tacos were to die for, and so affordable (only a little less than $4 per taco). Jon got the Spicy Buffalo Chicken, Steak and Cheese, and Bangkok Shrimp tacos, and I got the Bangkok Shrimp, Fish, and Thai Peanut Chicken tacos. We also ordered Chips and Queso to share.
After dinner, we headed back to our room and ended the night with wine and The Incredibles. We are children at heart, what can I say?
Monday, June 25th
After waking up and getting dressed, we had brunch at Sunny Point Cafe. The food was delicious. I had the Mighty Good Breakfast (MGB), and Jon had the Cuban Sandwich.
After brunch, we headed to New Belgium Brewery for a tour. The tour was FREE, and really fun. There were even free beer samples! It was so cool to learn about the history of the company, and to see how the beer is produced and packaged. And our tour guide was great!
Sliding down this big red slide was probably one of my favorite parts!
After the brewery tour it started raining, so we headed to the outlet mall for a bit before dinner. We had dinner at a French restaurant called Bouchon, and it was no lie some of the best food we have ever had. Jon had Poulet Cordon Bleu Bouchon (chicken cordon bleu), and I had Ravioli de Homard Nantua (lobster ravioli). Jon’s meal came with the best fries and a yummy red pepper aioli, and I’m pretty sure I ate most of them lol #noshame. Bouchon also served bread (seriously my favorite thing at restaurants), and had the cutest little lounge upstairs (we relaxed there while waiting to be seated).
We went back to the Airbnb after dinner and crashed. It had been such a long day! We knew we had to check out early the next morning, and we also planned to hike again before heading back to Greensboro, so we wanted to be well-rested.
Tuesday, June 26th
We checked out of our room around 10:30am, and stopped at Waffle House for breakfast before heading to the NC Arboretum (it was right down the road from our Airbnb).
All of the plants and flowers were so pretty. Our favorite part was probably the Bonsai Exhibit.
After leaving the Arboretum, we headed to Dupont State Forest. It was about a 40-minute drive south from our Airbnb, but so so worth it. It was pouring during our whole drive, but luckily it stopped and the sun decided to come out and play as soon as we made it there. Asheville has lots of waterfalls, so our main goal was to see as many as we could. We probably hiked a total of 6 or 7 miles and got to see three waterfalls:
Hooker Falls
Triple Falls
High Falls
We had never seen waterfalls like this in person, and they were honestly so breathtaking. The pictures don’t do them justice at all! It was super hot and humid, but these views were worth it. After our hike, we headed back to Greensboro (and saw such a pretty rainbow):
So I think that about sums up our trip! I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and if you are ever in Asheville, you should definitely check out the restaurants and trails I mentioned! I will leave a few tips for saving money while traveling below if you are #ballingonabudget like us!
Tips to Save Money When Traveling
- Stay at an Airbnb! Most of the time, Airbnb’s are much cheaper than hotels, especially if you choose to book during the week instead of on the weekend.
- Drive your own vehicle if possible. That way, you will avoid expensive Ubers and Lyfts.
- Bring snacks with you! Jon and I went grocery shopping before our trip, and picked up water, snacks, and stuff to make wraps (for our lunches) so that we wouldn’t spend too much money on food while in Asheville. The snacks also came in handy during our hikes. We only ended up eating out for breakfast and dinner.
- Find some free activities to do!
Overall we had the best time, and will definitely be visiting Asheville again in the future! Hope y’all enjoyed this post (:
(this post is not sponsored at all, all opinions are my own)
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