Things to do nearBiltmore

George Washington Vanderbilt II began construction on Biltmore in 1889, working with architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted to create an estate that rivaled the great country houses of Europe. Hunt modeled the house on the chateaux of the Loire Valley, incorporating a steeply pitched roofline, carved limestone facades, and a 375-foot-long facade that remains staggering in scale even by modern standards. Olmsted, who also designed Central Park, shaped the surrounding landscape with a rambling approach road, naturalistic forest plantings, and a series of formal gardens that transition gracefully from structured geometry to open meadow.

Inside, the house holds 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces, along with a bowling alley, indoor swimming pool, and a library stocked with thousands of volumes that Vanderbilt personally collected. The collection of art and antiques throughout the rooms spans centuries and continents, with pieces by Renoir, Sargent, and Pellegrini displayed alongside tapestries, carved furniture, and silver.

The estate's winery, housed in the original dairy complex, has grown into one of the most visited wineries on the East Coast, producing wines from both estate and regional grapes. Seasonal programming, including candlelight Christmas tours and summer concerts on the grounds, gives the estate a living quality that keeps it from feeling like a museum. Biltmore remains in the hands of the Vanderbilt family's descendants, a fact that lends it an authenticity and continuity rare among historic properties of its scale, and reason enough to make the journey to Asheville.