Visiting America’s Largest Home
As we mentioned in our Asheville travel diary, we spent a whole day visiting the Biltmore estate. We’ve visited many castles and palaces through our travels previously, but we were not prepared for just how massive the property itself was!
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After driving through the front gate, it was a good 2 mile drive before you actually arrived at the house. We paused to take a few photos out front before heading inside for our pre-reserved time slot for a self guided tour. I definitely recommend purchasing the audio guide. Without it the tour would not have been nearly as interesting.
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This happened to be the first weekend that the house was decorated for Christmas. It was really cool to see all of the trees and how each room had its own distinct theme. My favorite item was probably the large gingerbread house on display in the kitchen. It smelled delicious!
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The house is obviously huge, but did you know it has it’s own bowling alley and indoor swimming pool?! The library was someplace I could definitely see myself spending a lot of time if this were my house.
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After our tour of the house, we grabbed a bite to eat at an outdoor cafe before getting back in the car and driving several miles further into the property to Antler Village. This is where the winery is as well as a couple of hotel and more shopping.
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The winery offers free tastings of 6 wines from a rather large available list. And honestly, they probably would have let you taste more than that if you wanted. This is understandably a pretty popular destination, and they kind of move you through pretty quickly, so it’s not exactly an informative or relaxing experience, but hey- it’s free! Our parents wanted to try one of the wines that wasn’t offered in the tasting, as they were considering purchasing some to bring home, so we moved over to the bar seating area and ordered a couple glasses. There is a large store where you can purchase the wine, many of which are exclusive to the property, as well as lots of other gift and food options.
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After our wine tasting, we did a little shopping, picked up a few bottle of wine, and headed back to our hotel where we promptly ordered truffle fries!
If you’d like to see more of our day at Biltmore, check out our travel vlog below!
-Ash xx