I have been there before on two occasions. The schedule on the website is incorrect, they close…read moreat noon on Saturday. This museum is a labor of love. I'm very grateful to visit here and connect with the history of such brave and patriotic men.

Was a very informative museum with very informative displays. Love the uniforms and weaponsread more

I feel like my experience was a Mandela Effect with how mirrored my memories were of the place, on…read moretop of the scenery changing so much over the years. I wish more of the historic buildings were either cleaned and open, or memorialized for viewers to really get a full experience of history walking into these refineries.

We had a good time learning about the history of the Copper Basin. There was a short movie and then…read morethe friendly curators spent time talking with you about the artifacts and history of the area and mines.

Amazing foundation continues important work of preserving Appalachian Mountain heritage. Land was…read morepurchased with royalties from book sales. This is a collection of about 16 cabins and other buildings. All are in use for varying purposes. The weaver, Sharon Grist, was the only craft person around. She was dying some hand spun yarn out back and showed use her three looms she has working. Really nice naturally dyed yarn and some of her weaving for sale. thevillageweaver@windstream.net While it would have been nice to see more activity, I can understand that this isn't really their focus. The tour is self guided with a very nice guide book. If you are into this sort of thing this is an amazing treasure. Everyone was super friendly.

Stopped in after hiking at Tallulah Gorge state park. It's about a 15 min drive from there and…read moretucked away, not able to see from the road. I thought the set up of the museum and tour were fantastic. I happened on a day when a school was touring and they had a working blacksmith and musician. The exhibits in the cabin are fantastic and the artifacts are well displayed. I liked that the tour takes you on a trail to each cabin so you get a bit of a workout. They had a nice gift shop and clean bathrooms. Tour took me about 90 minutes. Only thing I would caution is to make sure you can walk on slightly steep inclines. I also liked that while it focused on Appalachian culture it didn't shy away from highlighting the impact of the Indian Removal Pact that impacted the region. Highly recommend.

This is a wonderful train experience for all of those train lovers out there. It is located in the…read morecenter of cute town of Bryson City. I have taken the train twice now, once in the summer and once in the winter, and both experiences were great! In the summer you can ride in the open air car (cheapest option), which I highly recommend. You get to sit facing outward and see the scenery go by without turning your neck. During the winter, they decorate the train for Christmas and it is great! They also do a "Polar Express" themed train. We didn't ride on it for that, but it looks super cute for the family! The prices are fair and they give a 20% discount on the whole order (up to 8 people I think) for veterans (Thank you for your service!). All of the prices are online and range from $48/$50 pp to $110 (first class) I think. But check the website out for more info. I have only ridden the train that goes to Dilsboro. Both times have been really fun. You leave at 10:30am, get there around 11:45, explore the town, get lunch and/or a beer, and then head back after ~1.5-2hr, and get back to Bryson around 3/3:30. Wonderful way to spend the day. We want to go back and ride the train to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, but that train operates in the summer months. Overall, great experience and if you want to take a scenic train ride this is the place to do it!

BLUF: A very impressive collection of Lionel model trains including a train layout with a few…read moretrains running. Although I like to joke that I am an LGB G scale purist, I was impressed by this collection of model trains which are mostly O gauge trains from Lionel. The display cases are nicely displayed and labeled and the plexi-glass was super clean. Plus, this is a massive collection! While many people will enjoy watching the trains zip around the large layout and pushing the buttons for the interactive layout, my husband loved looking for items from the B&O railroad while I enjoyed looking at models of my favorite locomotives. It was really cool to see models in this collection of some of the greats like Norfolk and Western J-611 and Union Pacific "Big Boy." For kids the museum offers a scavenger hunt but I think my husband and I would have had fun doing that ourselves! Admission to the museum is included with a train ride on the GSMR. We were able to visit the museum the day before our train ride by showing our ticket to the staff at the gift shop. We appreciated their flexibility in letting us visit the museum a day ahead of our train ride so we weren't rushed.

This place is a real hidden treasure. This huge model train museum/exhibit started out as three…read morehobbyists' escape. It features a walk-through representation of the surrounding area including Brasstown Bald (Georgia's highest peak), Blairsville, Cleveland, Dahlonega, Gainesville, and parts of Atlanta. The tour includes a brief history of the model train and then a walk through of the train exhibit.

Horribly run business. We checked the website for hours, which confirmed that they are open for…read moretours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1:30. We drove for over 45 minutes with an excited toddler to see the railroad, only to find that it was closed with no notice. Three cars were waiting outside, with several children left disappointed. If it's too much hassle to update their website, they could at least leave a note on the door indicating that they are closed.

What a wonderful view and experience! Definitely think it's a tourist spot and well worth going to…read moresee. Reasonable price to get in. Staff were super friendly and welcoming. I was very blessed to have gone on a beautiful sunny, clear day. The pictures don't do it justice so you'll have to just go check out Brasstown Bald yourself :)

Came to Brasstown Bald Observation Tower for the views and it was a sight to see! It's not everyday…read more(at least where I live) that you can stand in such a high place and be able to see mountains spanning across 4 different states. The entry fee was 8 per adult (kids are free) which also includes a van ride to the overlook. Or you can choose to hike which wasn't a long hike but steep from what I saw. A must do for anyone visiting the area! Ohh... and make sure you watch the little movie at the top, it's very cool to see how one place is its own little world in different seasons and the history behind the place.

This was a great place to stop in for a while and walk around to learn about the Cherokee people…read more It was appropriate for any age. It's easy to access and get through. You can go as fast or as slow as you'd like through it. Such good information!

On our recent visit to Great Smoky Mountains, husband decided to come here since we were in the…read morearea, and it was an interesting pit stop! We were able to secure admission tickets via Viator, which meant we could use our Viator credits to buy tickets! Woohoo. The experience was informative, educational, but a bit underwhelming. We're glad the Cherokee people are able to maintain their history thru this museum, and we even brought home a souvenir from their gift shop. It's worth a visit if you happen to be in the area, and there's a burger restaurant down the road from the museum that serves delicious burgers with a view of the river!

A interesting mind provocative experience for things that go bump in the night. I was surprised by…read morethe level of evidence and thought put into the experience. Definite a must stop to scratch that itch. Well done.

This place is really fun and really cool. It has been showcased in many travel shows and Sasquatch…read moreand cryptids shows, either on YT or podcasts, as well as regular cable networks. The museum is small but it is full of great information. It is true that any of the evidence here could be fabricated and false, but what if it is real? I have not seen any Big Foot, but I have had other experiences that are similar, and for that reason I cannot say this is fake. I don't know if this place will make you a believer or an investigator, but there are plenty of resources here to get won your way. Definitely worth a visit.

Tiny but mighty! There are a few rooms here with interactive exhibits for kids. My 4 and 5 year…read moreolds could have spent a lot of time here even though at times it felt a little tight. There's a small climbing structure that my kids kept coming back to, which was a favorite. A lot of the exhibits focused on the earth. I think it was sort of lost on my kids, but the exhibits were fun to interact with. You can't really avoid the shop.

Very underwhelming, for a city known for tourism this is probably the lamest science center I've…read morebeen to. It's like 3 rooms total, all of them in basically the same space, there's probably a whole like 4 or 5 things for the kids to do that they can probably do within 30 minutes. The admission price should be like $5 for what it's worth. The lady at the front told me there was a bunch of hands on activities for babies and I'd say there was like three. The first room was a tiny room with a virtual earth, that if you touch the screen it says it will move but it doesn't work, everything else in that room is just reading/writing (made for tweens and up) and not very fun or engaging. Then there's a room full of rocks behind glass displays, not very exciting or hands on for kids (even as an adult, I felt like it was boring). There's one little section in the room where the kids can brush sand off rocks, but it was nothing special. The room with the bikes is the coolest room, but it's very small and like I said there's barely anything to do. You can look at different bikes on display, they have like 2 or 3 interactive things you can do to learn about how bikes work which take a minute to do. The there's a tiny jungle gym kind of thing that's sub-par, a water play area that's also sub-par and a sand pit where you can look for fossils which I guess would have been fun if my child was a bit older, but for little ones like mine, there wasn't much. He had a very tiny section in the corner he could play with and then he got bored. I guess I'm a bit spoiled because we live in the Triad and we have 3 of the best children's museums. It's guess it's a good thing to do to kill time if you literally have nothing else to do with your kids in Asheville but if I knew what it would be like I probably wouldn't do it again.

I want to say this has been one of the highlights of my family trip. When your 16 yo his 17 yo best…read morefriend and wife all agree on this fact it says something. As adults we have this tendency to say "if I knew then what I knew now, I'd have paid more attention in school!" Well here's your chance. This tiny aquarium will impart more knowledge in a short visit than you probably take in most months if you take advantage of it. The interns and owner (a former teacher) are committed to answering questions. The things they are studying and sharing are amazing. If you go in and you want to learn and ask questions this will be an experience you won't forget. Think of the best science teacher you ever had, having an opportunity to show the world what she loves to talk about... and that is what you have here. Do yourself a favor, go, enjoy and learn!!

We went awhile back to see Charlotte and were sorely disappointed. Hearing of her death today…read morereminded me I had forgotten to write a review. This location is privately run and not for educational purposes. More like going to a friends house to see their pets. Please consider going to an aquarium run by scientists for educational purposes.