Biltmore House Road Trip - House & Gardens - Day 1

How I spend my summer vacation: Biltmore House Road Trip

For the longest time my wife has wanted to see the Biltmore House, a mansion built near Asheville, North Carolina by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and still stands as the largest privately-owned home in the United States. Even though the last couple of summers things came up that prevented me from keeping my promise to take her there this summer we were able to go on what I like to call our "Biltmore House Roadtrip"

According to Mapquest the trip from Allentown, PA to Asheville, NC should take around 10 hours, if driven non-stop. That was a bit much to do non-stop so we decided to stop at a couple of places on the way down and on the way back.

I used to do a lot of caving in my younger days so I enjoy visiting different commercial caves whenever I can and this Road trip gave me several opportunities since we drove through Virginia to get to Asheville, North Carolina.
The itinerary of the visits we decided on was in the order as follows:
Day 1
Shenandoah Caverns - in Shenandoah Caverns, Virginia
Day 2
Dixie Caverns - Salem, Virginia
Biltmore House - Asheville, North Carolina
Day 3
Biltmore House - Asheville, North Carolina
Day 4
Great Smokey Mountains Railroad - Bryson City, North Carolina
Smokey Mountain Trains - Bryson City, North Carolina
Day 5
Chimney Road - Chimney Rock, North Carolina
P. Buckley Moss Museum - Waynesboro, Virginia
Day 6
Grand Caverns - Grottoes, Virginia

Day 2 - Biltmore House
From Dixie caverns we drove down to Asheville, North Carolina. Man did we hit some rain storms. One so bad we had to pull over to wait it out. Even so we got to Asheville early enough that we were able to check into our motel and then head over to the Biltmore Hourse.

They have a special deal at the Biltmore House that you can get into the grounds after four o'clock and still have your ticket to use for the next day, so that's what we did. It was like getting a two day ticket for the price of one.

Kathy went nuts over the gardens, being a gardener herself. I thought the gardens looked a little rough so I asked around and found out that they hadn't had much rain there except for the day before. Ten-to-one I bet the rain they got then was the storm we drove through getting there.

We didn't go in the House today, but will do that tomorrow since you have to get an assigned time to be able to get in. So what we have in this video is some of the videos and pictures from the gardens and the outside of the house.


For more info on the Biltmore House goto:

http://www.biltmore.com/visit/

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Biltmore
• House
• Asheville
• North
• Carolina
• mansion
• garden
• gardens
• George
• Washington
• Vanderbilt

[mattlocke06]

Watching this makes me feel like running on the beach in slow motion for some strange reason?

[hiramcook]

:-)

[Thereviewtouch]

Nice video place looks amazing! But I kinda miss all your fire and kool survival type things just wondering when your gonna post A new video? Thanx and good job

[TheKrimsonKat]

I can't believe I've lived next to the Smokies and never been there. This makes me want to go now.

[pyroman675]

man that garden is HUGE! man. imagine weeding all those gardens

[deezynar]

That little shack sure is a dump, eh? Haha

Dad spent his life making all the money and the kids spent it.

Regardless, the place is one of America's architectural treasures.

I hope you two had a great time.