Was surprised at the quality of the art, quilts and woodworking in the folk art center. But that…read morequality comes at a price. Everything was a bit expensive as well. But we enjoyed the wide variety of items!

The Folk Art Center is one of the stops on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A lot of the Parkway is still…read moreclosed and this is the last stop at the moment as there are barriers preventing you from going north. The Folk Art Center is free to visit. Sometimes when I visit, you can see people working on their crafts. They were during my most recent visit. The building is accessible for everyone. The first floor has restrooms, the Southern Highlands Craft Guild shop and a Blue Ridge Parkway shop and an information desk. The second floor showcases the art. I love seeing all the different types of art from the quilts to woodworking to basket weaving. I enjoyed the stained glass and a canvas that was woven. It was quite unique. I enjoy the rotating exhibits as it is different each visit. Outside there are some trails if you want to explore nature.

The Mountain Gateway Museum is located in Old Fort, NC. It is easy to find from I-40 and has a…read moreparking area. Admission is also free. The museum is branch of the NC Museum of History in Raleigh. This branch of the museum focuses on Southern Appalachian and Western North Carolina history. The museum is in a 1936 stone building. You will find artifacts, photographs, and lots of material to read about mountain life and the people who live there. Some of the exhibits and permanent and other exhibits rotate in and out. The staff is very friendly and will add more background information as you explore. After you explore the museum, make sure to walk through the two log cabins outside to get a feel for what life would have been like in the 1800s. Mill Creek is behind the museum.

This is a very interesting small museum. They have visiting exhibits and some that stay. There were…read moresome interesting letters, photographs and tools. There are 2 log cabins on the property moved here with a nice history. You can walk through those. There is a stream running alongside of it which makes a lovely place to sit or have a snack. There is no fee, just donation, and no one asks for one. They have a few items for sale and I bought a hand tatted doily for $5 and a cute sized honey for $3. I think it's important to visit places like this that help support a community. There is a large antique store across the street that is worth a walk through.

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.

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.

We stopped at the gatehouse after exiting the Biltmore estate. It was during Christmas time and the…read moreseasonal displays were very nice. The shop is filled with home goods, ornaments and Biltmore related items but the whole atmosphere came off as quite pretentious to me and the prices reflected that. I did find an adorable little plushie gargoyle that I thought my niece would love but based on my overall experience, I decided against spending any of my hard-earned money here. The staff was technically welcoming but not in a warm or genuine way. I felt like I was being more closely observed than assisted and the older, stiffer employees created an uncomfortable environment. After looking around upstairs, I came down and started perusing the shelves but as soon as I looked up from what I was doing and a staff member saw me she said " your husband is in the restroom". I don't know if that comes off as weird in writing as it felt in person. I didn't ask where my husband was and I wasn't looking for him. I don't know if it was because he was the only non-white person I saw while we were there, but it didn't give the feeling that they were trying to be helpful. The shop is somewhat visually appealing but overpriced overall and definitely lacking the warmth that would make it a place I would ever return to.

Helpful service and great items. Can't wait to come back. They also even answer the phone and are…read morepatient while answering questions. True hospitality.

This was a nice repurposed space with a few galleries and shops. We weren't necessarily looking for…read moreanything but my wife liked a necklace from artist Alice Scott and purchased it. She asked for some time to polish it, so we wandered around the area and came back to collect it. The garden area was kind of small but hey, you're really there for the art. Looks like the pandemic has changed their operating hours but you're pretty safe coming on a Friday or Saturday.

Great place to shop for handmade local ceramics, jewelry, clothing and sculpture. The chair arch in…read morethe garden is a must see. Friendly people with beautiful working studios. Highly recommend.

We had a little bit of a wait to get one of the last tastings of the evening before the Luminere…read moreevent. We got to sample any 5 wines on the menu. I thought they were all pretty good! The wine host was friendly and knowledgeable. We had a fun tasting!

Only -1 stars because being tourists we found out that they weren't running their complimentary…read moreshuttle until April and they expected all people visiting to have their own car and Ubers can't get close to drop off. It says it's a 3 mile walk and they don't recommend it but I swear the walk to the winery had to have been at least 5-7 miles, glad we didn't try and walk. Came here for the complimentary tasting! They just upped the tasting to 7 wines and you got to choose which you wanted to try which was nice. Didn't wait long in line and the worker pouring for us was very nice. Small pours, but the variety was great. Gift shop was huge and bought snacks and bottles to bring back home. Fun activity to do with friends!

Really amazing farm with native plants and edibles. Bradley is terrific, and it's amazing to see an…read moreoperational farm so close to Asheville.

I love exploring Asheville's River Arts District at every opportunity, but I must say, Cotton Mill…read moreStudios are some of my favorites. Several studios extend throughout this old, repurposed mill, beautifully adorned with a geometric mural and small sitting gardens along the outside. But it's the inside that is like opening up a present on Christmas morning, any and all artists will find something they enjoy here, the gallery is very diverse. +Christie Calaycay: traditional metalsmithing techniques [piercing, forming, forging, hard soldering, textural hammering, and riveting]. Emphasizes organic qualities & natural appearance. Jewelry meant to ground & connect the wearer to nature/environment. +Andy Herod: screen printing, acrylics, aerosol stencils, guache, watercolor, wood working and drawing. +Nancy Hilliard Joyce: matte acrylic hues, various hand-made papers & touches of oil colors. +John Mac Kah: Paintings as experiences! +Metal and Thread: Textile work {Derek Dominy: fascination with the formation of various alloys}. +Victoria Pinney: Oil paint & waxing to create abstract works. +REVOLVE: Studio [inside a gallery!] They were doing an exhibit with works from a local university during my visit. +Akira Satake: Ceramics!! His work evokes the hand of nature. +Barbara Zaretsky {of CLOTH Fiber Workshop}: handcrafted decorative textiles for home and wardrobe. Plant based dyes! AND, in addition to all the fabulous artists, the various textiles, the incredible building... they have an incredible coffee and pastry shop, sharing quarters with Akira Satake {some of his ceramics are used to hold pastries and even cream!} So, the ultimate dream comes true at The Cotton Mill, you can oogle over incredible art, while sipping on a fabulous tea or coffee.

We parked more centrally located by the Wedge building but walked all around the area and made it…read moreover to this building. There's definitely a mix of artists and an exotic boutique. The reason I'm not giving this a higher rating is because a lot of the art didn't grab us as much as in some of the other nearby galleries. In one place, the artists didn't even look up to acknowledge us when we entered and departed. Weird. It looks like pre-COVID, they also had events with live music here. This looks like a cool building, but all in all we enjoyed some of the nearby galleries better.