Before you go

• Book early: In keeping with Asheville’s laid-back personality, many restaurants don’t require—or, like the insanely popular Chai Pani, don’t even accept—reservations. For other places, however, such as the award-winning Neng Jr.’s and Cúrate, it’s crucial to book well in advance, particularly on weekends. Likewise, many tours and curated experiences require reservations.
• Need to know: Downtown Asheville is neatly contained within a walkable square mile, but be aware that the terrain is very hilly. For those who like pedaling, bicycles and e-bikes can be an efficient and eco-conscious way to get around. With The Flying Bike, you can rent e-bikes to choose your own adventure or take an e-bike tour of downtown. Asheville Trails and Taps offers urban guided bike tours as well as mountain and gravel bike tours in the surrounding mountains.
• Insider tip: To find and support locally owned Asheville businesses during your stay, be sure to snag a $25 Go Local card, which offers discounts at the more than 600 shops and restaurants in its directory.

What to pack

• Daypack: Whether you’re doing a downtown brewery crawl or taking a picnic hike on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a sturdy daypack is an Asheville essential.
• Water bottle: Like many forward-thinking cities, Asheville is working to reduce single-use plastics, so be sure to bring your own reusable water bottle.
• Trail shoes: Instead of packing bulky hiking boots plus a pair of sneakers for your urban-wilderness adventure, dress like a local and opt for one pair of lightweight, multipurpose trail shoes, like the ones made by Asheville-based company Astral.

Two Eco-Friendly Days in Asheville

Day 1: Savor Asheville’s local flavor and take a sunset hike

Morning

• Start your first day in the Land of the Sky (or Paris of the South, or AsheVegas—just a few of Asheville’s nicknames) with a cold-pressed juice, organic coffee, and a healthy breakfast bowl at Green Sage Cafe. All three of the locally owned chain’s locations are Green Restaurant Association certified, but the downtown eatery is a perfect starting point for exploring the city. If you’re in town on a Saturday, head to the Asheville City Market, hosted weekly downtown on Market Street by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, for European-style pastries, locally roasted coffee, fresh juices, handmade cheese, and artisan granola.
• Continue eco-conscious explorations of downtown with stops at a few favorite local shops. Nest Organics is a quiet respite filled with sustainable lifestyle, home, and children’s items. At East Fork, a certified B Corporation, buy locally made ceramic dinnerware in fun colors like Gumdrop and Yuzu. Then pay a sweet visit to the tasting bar at Asheville Bee Charmer to sample honey from local and international hives.

Midday

• Head to the lively Haywood Road strip in West Asheville to grab a lunch of shrimp and grits or a veggie melt at the locally beloved Sunny Point Cafe. Walk off the calories in the restaurant’s huge vegetable, herb, and flower garden, then amble across the street to the community garden at 12 Baskets Cafe. A program of the nonprofit Asheville Poverty Initiative, 12 Baskets prevents food waste by rescuing high-quality, uneaten food from local restaurants and caterers and serving it for free to community members in need of a meal.

Afternoon

• Make the short jaunt over to the River Arts District—known locally as the RAD—and take the ticketed walking tour at French Broad Chocolate Factory and Cafe, another certified B Corp, to learn about sustainable cacao sourcing and the chocolate-making process. Yes, tastings are included.
• The lower part of the RAD near the French Broad River is still recovering from catastrophic flood damage from Helene, but be sure to visit the colorful art and craft galleries, working studios, and shops in the upper part of the neighborhood. A good one to check out is There There, a locally owned shop focusing on sustainably made wearables and home goods from Asheville makers.

Evening

• Before the sunlight fades, hop on the Blue Ridge Parkway just outside of town to get a quick breath of mountain air. Helene caused many road closures along the BRP, but the 1.3-mile loop trail that begins and ends at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center just minutes from downtown is an easily accessible, foolproof option for a pre-dinner adventure.
• After working up an appetite on the trail, head back downtown to The Market Place for a bacon-infused Benton’s Old Fashioned and Appalachian-inspired cuisine made from locally grown and foraged ingredients. If you have a hankering for oysters or a chilled seafood tower, The Lobster Trap is a good bet. Executive chef and owner Mike McCarty helps promote environmentally responsible fishing and aquaculture operations around the U.S. through the James Beard Foundation’s Smart Catch program.

Day 2: Picnic in the mountains and visit historic Biltmore Village

Morning

• Greet the morning with a coffee, an ancient grains farmhouse skillet, and a side helping of birdsong in the on-site garden at Liberty House Cafe just north of downtown.
• Stop by The Rhu bakery to pick up your pre-ordered picnic basket full of fresh sandwiches and other goodies before heading out for a two-hour driving tour (or a day-long biking tour, if you prefer) through the mountains on the self-guided Farm Heritage Trail. Farmland conservation is key to preserving Western North Carolina’s natural environment and local food system, so visiting the trail’s conserved family farms and vineyards to shop for fresh, seasonal produce, wines, cheeses, meats, and other goods is a win-win for everyone.

Midday

• Time your stops along the Farm Heritage Trail so you arrive at the Long Branch Environmental Education Center right at lunch hour. Settle in at a table near the trout pond to enjoy your picnic and whatever other edible treasures you’ve picked up along the way. Afterward, hike the wilderness and farmland trails and explore the organic gardens, passive solar structures, and other sustainability and environmental design features of this 1,400-acre, 50-year-old ecological sanctuary and land trust.

Afternoon

• Spend the afternoon learning about the area’s amazing botanical diversity with a leisurely walk through the gardens and exhibits at the North Carolina Arboretum. Hike the easy mile-long Bent Creek Trail along the river to view the National Native Azalea Collection, visit wildflower and Bee Campus USA pollinator exhibits and explore one of the nation’s best bonsai collections.
• Carve out a little downtime with a cold drink at Devil’s Foot Brewing Co.’s The Mule taproom. The local farm-to-can soda company (which has a full bar in its taproom plus food trucks on site for snacks) is committed to lowering waste through its Full Fruit Life program, which shares the organic fruit zest, pulp, and other usable byproducts with other local craft food and beverage producers.

Evening

• For dinner, unearth one of West Asheville’s hidden gems at Taqueria Rosita, an Oaxacan taqueria that flies under the radar inside quirky dive bar The Odd. Chef and owner Luis Martinez sources the heirloom corn for the eatery’s tacos and other dishes from independent, Indigenous farmer collectives in Mexico. For a more refined dinner, venture downtown to Posano, which offers seasonal cuisine that happens to be 100 percent gluten-free (there’s even a dedicated doggie menu on the patio for the fur babies). It helped pioneer sustainability in Asheville’s restaurant industry by claiming the title of the city’s first Green Dining-certified restaurant in 2012.
• Just south of downtown at the entrance to the famed Biltmore Estate, historic Biltmore Village was essentially wiped out by massive flooding during Helene. But the resilient neighborhood is rebuilding, and you can support its recovery by ending the evening with snacks and a beer or cocktail in one of those revived spaces. Hillman Beer and its in-house restaurant have reopened, as have French Broad River Brewery and its pizza restaurant, as well as next-door neighbor Eda Rhyne Distilling Co. The local spirits maker has a cozy tasting room serving fernet and nocino made on-site from wild herbs foraged in the surrounding mountains.

If you have three days

All of the above, but add…

• While spending a full day touring the Biltmore Estate’s palatial 250-room historic home—relaxing in its gardens, sampling the vintages and bites at its winery and restaurants, and hiking its many trails—eco-conscious travelers can learn about the estate’s award-winning commitment to sustainability. Following founder George Vanderbilt’s vision of environmental stewardship for the property, the estate launched one of the nation’s first forestry management programs. Today, it has its own solar fields and biodiesel program, grows much of the food for its restaurants and supports an employee-led corporate social responsibility team focused on sustainability initiatives.

If you have four days

All of the above, but add…

• Take a yoga hiking tour or dive into guided forest bathing with Asheville Wellness Tours. For more time on Asheville’s beautiful, ancient rivers, take a kayak tour with a certified naturalist at Hike Bike Kayak Asheville. Bird lovers can learn about the region’s ornithological wonders with Ventures Birding Tours.
• As one of the world’s most botanically diverse regions, Western North Carolina’s fields and forests are home to a smorgasbord of edible plants and fungi. Learn how to truly live off the land with a guided foraging tour from one of Asheville’s favorite colorful characters, Alan Muskat, and his No Taste Like Home tour company. Or visit French-trained chef, bluegrass musician, and author Susi Gott Seguret at her family’s rustic home in the mountains outside of Asheville for her Appalachian Culinary Experience, which includes a foraging hike and a lesson on how to cook what you find, followed by a shared meal with wine, stories, and music.