Travel Guide | A 3-Day Weekend Itinerary in Asheville, NC

This spring break, Ncincilili Titi and I decided to drive up to Asheville, North Carolina for a quick getaway to the mountains for some fresh air and breathtaking scenery. We had less than 72 hours to explore all that Asheville had to offer, including state and national parks, breweries, and different foodie spots. We had such a fabulous time in Asheville that I wanted to share with you our itinerary for the trip for those who are planning on going to Asheville in the future.

Day 1 (Thursday)

We left around 8 am from Columbia, South Carolina, heading towards Asheville, but we ended up stopping in Greenville for a quick bite to eat. We stopped at Stax Omega for a quick breakfast, and we were not disappointed. Titi got an huge omelet while I got my usual chocolate chip pancakes with a cold glass of milk. We then stopped at DuPont State Park to do some hiking to capture some waterfalls and get our steps in for the day.

We actually got lost on the trials😂😭. We eventually stopped another hiker for directions because we kept walking in circles for miles and couldn’t find our way back to the car. Listennnnn Ava was so over our little adventure and I was too by the end of it, but I’m very happy that we did the hike because we got some gorgeous views and it was relaxing to be in nature.

3 hours and 5 miles later, we checked into our AirBnB (this was our first time using AirBnb, crazy right?) in Swannanoa, NC which is about 20 minutes from downtown Asheville. The price was pretty cheap, and it allowed pets (which was hard to find in Asheville) so it worked perfectly for our trip. We then ended our night in downtown Asheville to grab dinner at Tupleo Honey, where we got the best fried chicken we’ve ever had! Literally the whole meal was delicious from drinks to the mac n cheese and mashed potatoes on the side! I highly recommend you stopping here for one of your meals in Asheville. You also get a ton of food so plan ahead for having left overs for the next day.

Day 2 (Friday)

Friday came a rainy morning so unfortunately, we weren’t able to go horseback riding like I had initially planned, but that’s alright because we still had a great day nonetheless. Our first stop was HOLE, which is a local homemade doughnut shop, that has the best doughnuts that I’ve ever had. It’s the cutest little shop, and I love that they do everything in plain view of the tables. You actually get to see them knead the dough, put the doughnuts into the hot oil, and season them based on the four flavors of the day. There’s no glass or anything between you and the employees cooking, which I love that so much! HOLE’s is definitely a place that you need to stop by for breakfast one day.

Next stop was downtown Asheville, the heart of the city, with amazing food options and adorable/unique stores to pop into. I knew that we had to stop by Three Dog Bakery to get Ava’s some doggy treats. The bakery is set up like a true bakery with a glass display with different dog treats; they also offer other things like shampoos, harnesses, dog blankets, and other things. So far Ava has gobbled everything that we bought her so unfortunately no pictures, but she was a happy camper! We then stopped by Bee Charmers to do a little honey tasting at their Honey Bar. You get to taste any of the honeys that are sold in Bee Charmers before you make a purchase, which is great. We ended up buying a jar of the Ghost Pepper honey for Titi, which has a little kick (aka heat) to it and has an actual pepper chilling in the honey.

After an hour of walking downtown, we later drove to the NC Arbetorum, but unfortunately it was still scattered rain so we decided to just go shopping at the outlets down the street instead. Then after walking around the Asheville Outlets, we headed to our chocolate history tour that I booked for us at 4 pm. We toured with the French Broad Chocolate Factory for their 30-minute tours that they do daily. It was a really neat tour and a great chance to see how they make their own chocolates in house.

After the Chocolate Tour, we headed back out to Highland Brewing Distillery for another tour at 5:45 pm. Originally, I had booked the chocolate tour for Thursday, but because we got lost in DuPont State Forest we actually arrived too late to go on the tour. Thankfully they let us reschedule for the following day. The Highland Brewery does a complimentary 45-minute tour that through the entire facility where you can learn about the process of making different alcoholic beverages. You also get to sample beers at the end of the tour. I’m not a beer drinker (Titi is haha), but I had a great time learning more about the process about making beer and the history about the company.

At the end of the tour, we headed back downtown to continue walking around and shopping. There’re so many great little shops that you can pop into and spend hours downtown that I wanted to go back! I eventually got hungry and didn’t have any more leftovers from Tupleo Honey so we stopped at Farm Burgers. I ended up ordering a chicken burger with cheddar cheese with sweet potato fries and a chocolate milkshake, which were delicious. Beware though that you will have to wait in line at Farm Burgers, sometimes up to 30 minutes, just to order!

Day 3 (Saturday)

It’s finally sunning in Asheville, so we booked our horseback riding trials at Sandy Bottom Trial Rides for 11 am. It’s about a 30-minute drive from Asheville, but well worth the distant because on the ride you get to some incredible views of the mountains. Since it had rained the day before, the skies were crystal clear and breathtaking to say the least. This was the coldest day of our trip but add a few layers on and wear a pair of gloves and you’ll be fine. If you’ve never ridden before, they do give you directions on how to navigate the horses, but honestly they were pretty chill.

I’ve actually taken a horseback riding class in my undergrad days in college so I do have experience riding and it was a very chill ride for all levels. My horse, George, didn’t like when any horses passed him, and I was so the most experiences (besides the tour guides) that we had to be in the back. He was a little spicy is all 😂. We only did the 1 hour since Titi has never gone riding before, but he loved it so much that we’ll definitely be back for the longer trial rides.

Our next stop on our road trip back home was Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park, which is a breathtaking monolith ledge that visitors can walk up to see the 75 mile panoramic views of Hickory Hut Gorge and Lake Lure. Listen, make sure you put the right clothes on and bring a water bottle with you because it’s a long way up full of stairs. They do have elevators for anyone who wants to use it, but dogs aren’t allowed on the elevator (only service animals are allowed on). This means for us we had to walk up to Chimney Rock with Ava in tow. It was quite windy when we climbed up, but the views were crystal clear and stunning. It’s well worth the trip up, and I would highly recommend doing one of the trials that are offered.

We were heading back to South Carolina and we were feeling a little sore from our morning horseback riding, so we opted to just head back on home instead.