Our Holiday Inn Asheville Vacation

Hey again! Its been only a month since our last getaway to Aruba, so we took a family trip to Asheville, North Carolina & brought Noah this time! To be honest, when I think of vacation locations, this would not have been at the top of my list but maybe it should have been. 

You see, Asheville is a very pretty, artsy city in western North Carolina.  Reminds me of a cross between Seattle & Portland. It's pretty famous for the Biltmore Estate built by the Vanderbilt family (as in Cornelius, & Gloria, and Anderson Cooper) but it also has a great downtown with lots of vegetarian + local dining options, a brewery community and lots of art galleries. I also like that it has lots of Vegetarian places to visit!

Once again, Holiday Inn surprised us with something way out of the expected. The Holiday Inn Asheville Biltmore-East was a mix of local charm along with tons of nature!  Right off the bat, one thing I really liked at the Holiday Inn Asheville Biltmore-East was the staff - super friendly & always willing to help.... and I'M NOT kidding they all knew my name! Even the man cleaning the pool!

Our room was all the good you expect from Holiday Inn rooms - clean & efficient - with a fridge and a microwave (even though my family no longer uses microwaves anymore) it was nice. We were one of the first to trial a new room called an H4 which is designed especially for families with kids traveling. One especially nice feature was the rolling desk which could be used as a long table between the beds. We DEF used that.

One of the really super neat things the hotel is doing, like many of the businesses around town, is partnering with local farms & vendors to supply farm-to-table and + fresh foods. The town and hotel are also very vegan-friendly which was a pleasant surprise considering that I am trying to stay on a fairly vegetable heavy diet.  Aside from lots of vegetarian places right near the hotel, the Holiday Inn staff surprised us with a beautiful amenity basket filled with local goods! How cool was that?! We actually had them ship it back tour apartment in NYC.

So what is there to do? .....Well of course we took a day to visit Biltmore Castle – amazing!!  The tour goes through the house, the gardens & the grounds and though it's rough to get a 2 1/2 year old to appreciate this amazing architecture, it was neat to see...I mean, 43 bathrooms & 65 fireplaces?!?! Woah. Def recommend!  - We even got to ride in the original elevators, which were the first ones installed in a private home and the oldest Otis elevators in operations (with the original equipment).

Nicely situated in the mountains, Asheville is right in the center of a ton of hiking, amazing greenery and rustic activities. We were hoping to get to see Chimney Rock but the elevator wasn't working so instead we took Noah to the Western NC Wildlife Center – a wildlife preserve & conservation just a few miles from the hotel. This wildlife center was huge and well worth the visit! We loved our trip & would love to return again sometime in the new future.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Holiday Inn. The opinions and text are all mine.