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- Awards and Accolades
- Asheville’s Draw
- Word Around Town
By Chris Dixon, The New York Times
“Asheville is an Appalachian Shangri-La. This year-round resort town, tucked between the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, draws a funky mix of New Agers, fleece-clad mountain bikers, antiques lovers and old-time farmers. And what's there not to like? Charming yet surprisingly cosmopolitan for a town of about 73,000, Asheville has a Southern appeal all its own. There are lazy cafes and buzzing bistros, Art Deco skyscrapers and arcades reminiscent of Paris, kayaking and biodiesel cooperatives and one of the world's largest private homes — the Biltmore Estate, a French Renaissance-style mansion with 250 rooms. No wonder so many locals first started out as tourists.”
By Gene Sloan, USA Today
“Nightlife and art scene make Asheville, NC, the most happening town in the Blue Ridge…The transformation is turning Asheville, long a hub for leaf peepers who invade each fall to view the mountain colors, into a year-round escape with plenty of local color downtown.
Like Santa Fe, the town is becoming a counterculture capital that rivals that western artsy enclave for sheer numbers of yoga centers, massage therapists, organic product markets and vegetarian eateries.”
By Harry Shattuck, Houston Chronicle
“In a sense, this is a city of contradictions: It's a favorite retreat for retirees but also a playground for 20-somethings, hip enough that ‘Men's Journal’ magazine named Asheville one of America's 50 best places for singles. It's a haven for hikers, bikers, mountain climbers, white-water rafters and other adventurous souls but ideal, too, for a lazy, romantic interlude.
It's fast emerging as a center for young musicians — folk, jazz, hip-hop, indie rock — and it showcases high-quality resident ballet and opera companies. Devotees of gourmet cuisine arrive from all over America, but the strong emphasis is on locally produced ingredients. It's home to America's most visited winery — on the Biltmore Estate — and to Green Man ales.
If there is a common bond, it's an Ashevillian flair for creativity and individual expression in music, food, art, design and a freewheeling zest for life.”
By Diana Mehl, PanachePrivée
“Surrounded by the singular beauty of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville has long been a mecca to artists, writers, and nature lovers. The stunning Art Deco buildings of its downtown, the Gilded Age elegance of the Biltmore Estate, the rich legacy of its Appalachian craft industry, and above all the timeless beauty of the area’s magnificent mountains and forests imbue the city with a proud architectural and cultural heritage that is steeped in history.
But with a revitalized downtown, broad array of hip restaurants and wineries, cutting-edge art and music scene, state-of-the-art spas and world-class golfing, mountain-climbing and white-water rafting, Asheville is also firmly grounded in the twenty-first century. It is this fortuitous blend of the old and the new that has made Asheville one of the most vibrant and charming cities in America.”
By Mark Anders, Outside Magazine
“You can learn a lot about a town from the stickers on locals' cars. One that's always nice to see: KEEP ASHEVILLE WEIRD. An island of liberal alternative culture, the town attracts artists, musicians, and, of course, plenty of outdoor funhogs. Cradled in a lush green bowl anchored by 5,721-foot Mount Pisgah and surrounded on all sides by the Appalachian Mountains, Asheville serves up more than 2,000 miles of hiking and mountain-biking trails and some of the nation's finest whitewater creeking. In downtown's compact grid, infused with art deco brick buildings, it's not uncommon to see a ‘suit’ in deep confab with a natty dread about the past evening's mountain-bike ride at Cane Creek. Live-music venues host a regular lineup of top-shelf bands (recently, the Smashing Pumpkins announced an artists-in-residence extended-stay performance at the Orange Peel Social Aid & Pleasure Club), and every July the town hosts Bele Chere, the Southeast's largest free outdoor festival, with some 70 bands. Though the population of surrounding Buncombe County has swelled to 222,174, prompting an anti-development backlash, the city retains its small-town vibe. Don't worry: Asheville will still be plenty weird by the time you get there.”
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