Asheville Tours and Local Experiences

The Wortham Center is Asheville’s downtown home for performing arts, a multi-venue setup where you can catch everything from sharp theatre pieces and dance shows to live music and comedy. It features a classic 500-seat main theater that’s perfect for both nationally touring acts and local productions, along with smaller black box and studio spaces for experimental performances and workshops. The center’s vibe is intimate and welcoming, making you feel like you’re part of the show rather than just a spectator. Plus, it’s right in the mix downtown with easy access to great restaurants and after-show hangouts.

Asheville Retrocade is West Asheville's dedicated classic arcade bar at 800 Haywood Road, packed with restored vintage arcade cabinets and pinball machines alongside a full bar. Tokens get you unlimited play on dozens of games from the 80s and 90s, making it the top retro arcade experience in Asheville NC for nostalgia trips and group nights out.

The WNC Nature Center is a 42-acre wildlife park on Gashes Creek Road in East Asheville, and it's all about the animals of the Southern Appalachians. Black bears, red and gray wolves, cougars, bobcats and river otters live in big wooded habitats, plus red pandas, and the new Gateway to the Southern Appalachians area was just finished this year. It's open every day from 10 AM to 4:30 PM, with last admission at 3:30. Adult tickets run $16.95 plus tax, kids 3 to 12 are $12.95, 2 and under get in free, and City of Asheville residents pay less. Active duty and retired military get in free, and the ticket window is cashless. The calendar stays busy, with monthly behind-the-scenes Wild Walks, Wolf Howl nights in the fall, a stuffed animal Critter Check Up in December, and Brews & Bears after-hours nights with beer and live music on second Fridays in summer.

Asheville Yards is an independent concert venue at 75 Coxe Avenue occupying the former Rabbit Rabbit site, a restored industrial space with raw energy, a capacity of around 600, and a reputation for booking adventurous, cross-genre lineups. From Americana and folk to punk and electronic, the stage draws national acts and emerging artists alike. Food trucks and craft beer on tap round out the experience.

The Blue Ridge Orchestra is Asheville's all-volunteer community orchestra, playing classical and film music concerts across Western North Carolina for 25 years under music director Dr. Emily Mariko Eng.

Hickory Nut Gap is a working family farm out on Sugar Hollow Road in Fairview, east of Asheville, and the same family has been farming it since 1916. They raise 100% grassfed beef plus pasture-raised pork and chicken, and the farm store and butchery is where you stock up on all of it, along with local goods and prepared food. Fall is when the farm really comes alive. Weekends bring hay rides and pony rides by donation, with the money going to Project HNG. Wednesday through Sunday the kids, and plenty of grown-ups, hit the culvert slides, the trike track, the sound silo and the creek with its little rope swing. Local apples, farm-pressed cider and pumpkins fill up the store in September. The calendar stays full out here. Monthly Big Barn Socials, barn dance shows with live music and a two-step instructor, stargazing nights, birding walks and Sunday morning qi gong all happen on the farm, so grab tickets early for the bigger nights.

Urban Escape Vehicles rents campervans and Class B RVs out of East Asheville, and owner Melody King started it for people who love van life but aren't ready to buy a van. The fleet runs from two custom Ram Promaster vans at $145 and $167 a night to a Winnebago Travato and a Mercedes Boldt with a shower, toilet and TV at $287 and $350 a night. Every van comes stocked with linens, towels and kitchen and camping gear, plus power for laptops and phones, and they fit in a regular parking space. Rentals start at three days, and pets are welcome.

Downtown Asheville's ACT has been staging productions since 1946, making it the oldest continuously operating theater in the city and second oldest in North Carolina. Two stages: the Heston Mainstage (approx. 309 seats) and the 40-seat 35below black box. Programming spans musicals, dramas, comedies, a Readers Theatre series, and youth productions season-round.

LaZoom runs comedy bus tours of Asheville on its purple bus, leaving daily from the LaZoom Room at 76 Biltmore Avenue downtown. Since 2007, its performers have mixed scripted sketches, costumed characters and real local history across four tours. Hey Asheville is the city comedy tour through downtown, Montford, the River Arts District and the South Slope, with a brewery stop, for ages 13 and up. Lil Boogers is the kids' version, with family-friendly skits and Asheville history, from $29. Ghosted is the after-dark haunted comedy tour for ages 17 and up, and Fender Bender puts a live local band on the bus for three brewery stops, 21 and up. Back at the LaZoom Room, the house improv troupe, The Extra Virgins, plays Sunday Service comedy shows.

North Carolina Stage Company is a professional theatre at 15 Stage Lane in downtown Asheville, founded in 2001 by Charlie and Angie Flynn-McIver. It stages contemporary plays and classics in an intimate space with Actors' Equity performers, and has hosted world premieres like Curvy Widow and Brave New World. The 2026 to 2027 season opens with Misery from October 14 to November 1, followed by Changing Same from November 4 to 15. It's a nonprofit, has been honored by the American Theatre Wing, and readers of the Mountain Xpress have often voted it best local theatre. Matinees run on Fridays and Sundays.

The Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center shares the story of the Swannanoa Valley from 223 West State Street in downtown Black Mountain, a 1921 brick firehouse designed by Richard Sharp Smith, supervising architect of the Biltmore Estate. Founded in 1989, it covers the social, cultural and natural history of the valley through exhibits, archives and programs. Through December 2026, the Valley at War exhibit honors the valley's veterans. The museum also leads guided Rim Hikes and Trails Less Traveled hikes, historic driving tours, and Haunted History walking tours of downtown Black Mountain. It's open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm from March through December, and Saturdays only in January and February.

Black Mountain Escape is an escape room company in the basement of 103 Black Mountain Ave in downtown Black Mountain, about 15 minutes from Asheville. It has three themed rooms, each for up to 8 players. USS McKoy, the most popular, puts your crew aboard a WWII destroyer in the North Atlantic with crewmen missing and vital intel at stake. Out of Time centers on a time machine found in the basement of Black Mountain's oldest building, and Vanishing Act takes you backstage in the workshop of magician Fritz Franco. It's open Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 9:40 pm, and the per-person price drops as you add players. Birthday groups can use the courtyard before or after a game for pizza.

Two Trees Distilling is a craft distillery and tasting room at 17 Continuum Drive in Fletcher, about 15 minutes south of Asheville off Interstate 26. It makes small-batch whiskey, bourbon, flavored whiskeys, vodka and moonshine with Appalachian grains and mountain water, and it's the distillery behind Tim Smith Spirits from the Discovery Channel show Moonshiners. Free tastings run daily, with six flavors to sample, plus craft cocktail specials and bottle sales seven days a week. It's open Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 7 pm, Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 8 pm, and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. Asheville Media Group listeners voted it Best Distillery in 2023 and 2024.

The Moogseum is the Bob Moog Foundation's interactive museum at 56 Broadway Street in downtown Asheville, telling the story of the pioneer who invented the Moog synthesizer in 1964. Hands-on exhibits let you play theremins and synthesizers, see how electricity turns into sound, and study a re-creation of Bob Moog's workbench, across more than 100 years of electronic music history. It's open daily from 11 am to 5 pm. Kids 7 and under get in free, and kids 15 and under need an adult with them. Audio tours narrated by Michelle Moog-Koussa, the foundation's executive director, add more of the story. From November 12 to 16, 2026, the Minimoog Through the Ages exhibit covers five decades of the instrument.

Oak and Grist Distilling Company is a small-batch, grain-to-glass artisan distillery in Black Mountain, just east of Asheville. Using locally grown and malted barley, they craft whiskey and gin that capture the flavors of Western North Carolina, and their covered patio overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains is one of the best spots for sipping award-winning craft spirits near Asheville.

JuneBug Retro Resort is a 50-acre outdoor music venue in Weaverville, north of downtown Asheville. Live bands play americana, rock, and folk on a vintage 1953 Ford flatbed stage by the creek with rotating food trucks.

The Asheville Art Museum sits at 2 South Pack Square in downtown Asheville and has welcomed visitors since 1948. It collects and shows American art of the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on Western North Carolina, including Studio Craft, Black Mountain College and Cherokee artists. Current exhibitions include West Coast Glass, Warp, Weft, and the Grid, On the Lathe and The Art of Paper. The museum also has a hands-on Wells Fargo ArtPLAYce for kids, Perspective Cafe and a museum store, and it's open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Experience the best of the mountains all in one place! Enjoy six unique hiking trails, 75-mile panoramic views, and the tallest waterfall in any North Carolina State Park.

Asheville Pinball Museum is a hands-on arcade at 1 Battle Square in downtown Asheville, in the 1924 Battery Park Hotel building across from the Grove Arcade. Owner T.C. DiBella opened it in 2013, and the main floor now has 40 playable pinball machines, with 40 classic video games in the back room. One $17 admission covers unlimited play for the day, and anyone tagging along who isn't playing gets in free. Each machine has a placard with its history and how many were made, and the oldest tables, some from the 1930s, are on display only. It's a favorite rainy-day stop for families with kids old enough to work the flippers.

the Asheville Museum of Science (AMOS) offers an engaging and hands-on science experience for visitors of all ages. AMOS features interactive exhibits spanning geology, biology, paleontology, physics, and environmental science, including the notable Teratophoneus dinosaur skeleton and the Colburn Hall of Minerals. The museum's highlights include a STEM lab, tree climb, terrabox topography simulator, fossil dig, toddler nest, and rotating special exhibits focused on current science topics.

The Salt Spa of Asheville is a salt cave spa at 473 Hendersonville Road in South Asheville, open Wednesday through Sunday by appointment only. It bills itself as the first salt spa in North Carolina, now 15 years in, with a Himalayan Salt Cave for salt therapy and a Wellness Salt Room lined with Himalayan salt on the walls and floor. Massage in the salt cave runs $190 for 60 minutes or $280 for 90, couples massage starts at $380, and the Wellness Salt Room is $130 for an hour. Upgrades include deep tissue, hot salt stones and a far infrared chakra mat, and the menu also covers Reiki, sound healing and frequency therapy.

Valhalla Indoor Axe Throwing is Asheville’s premier indoor axe throwing venue located inside Asheville Mall at 3 South Tunnel Road, Suite E12. Featuring six axe-throwing lanes, Valhalla offers a thrilling experience perfect for beginners, leagues, parties, and corporate events. The venue can accommodate groups up to 40 people and offers flexible booking options including full space rentals for larger gatherings. Guests ages 10 and up can participate, making it a family-friendly location with safety rules including mandatory closed-toe shoes. Besides axe throwing, Valhalla features additional entertainment options like air hockey, shuffleboard, video games, and Pop Golf in a lively, social atmosphere. Ages 10+ can throw axes. Must wear closed toe shoes.

The Biltmore Estate is the Vanderbilt family's 250-room Biltmore House and the 8,000 acres of gardens and grounds around it in Asheville. Beyond the house tour you can walk the gardens, taste award-winning wines at Biltmore Winery, and shop and eat in Antler Hill Village. The estate has three places to stay overnight and restaurants that run from casual cafes to fine dining. In the evenings, Luminere is a light experience on the estate grounds.

Asheville Salt Cave & Spa is a salt cave and spa at 16 North Liberty Street, just north of downtown Asheville. The 550-square-foot cave holds 30 tons of pink salt and stays at 70 degrees, and silent 45-minute Community sessions on a recliner or floor cushion run $27 Monday, Tuesday and Thursday or $42 Friday through Sunday. There's also a Turkish-style Hammam steam room for private sessions for up to five people, plus therapeutic massage, hot salt stone therapy, an aromatherapy salt glow and couples massage inside the salt cave with tea and chocolate.

The Amazing Pubcycle is a 15-person, pedal-powered party bike with motor assist that rolls through downtown Asheville from 130 College Street. The 1.5-hour full Pubcycle tour costs $25 per person and makes two 15 to 20 minute stops at local bars, and the shorter 40-minute Nomad ride just cruises the downtown streets. Riders pedal, sing along and wave at the crowds, and it's a popular pick for birthdays, bachelorette parties and group nights out.

Hood Huggers International is a Black-led community organization and tour company in Asheville's historic Burton Street neighborhood in West Asheville, founded by DeWayne Barton in 2015. Its Hood Tours tell the story of African Americans in Asheville, past, present and future. The 90-minute walking tours cover downtown's East End Valley Street, The Block, the YMI Cultural Center and Stephens Lee, or the Burton Street community, its Peace Garden and a community center that was once a segregated elementary school. Driving tours visit Shiloh, Southside, Burton Street and East End. Tours run at 10 AM, 1 PM and 4 PM and are booked online, with private group tours by request. Many of the sculptures in the Peace Gardens & Market, which he and his wife started in 2003, are Barton's work.

Asheville Food Tours is the original walking food tour of downtown Asheville, locally owned and run since 2009. Guided tours visit local restaurants, bakeries and shops for tastings and stories about Asheville's food scene and history. Tours usually meet at the Grove Arcade, Twisted Laurel on College Street or the Kimpton Hotel Arras, and your guide confirms the meeting spot before the tour.

Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar is a used and rare bookstore and champagne bar at 1 Page Avenue in the historic Grove Arcade in downtown Asheville. More than 10,000 books fill two floors, from Civil War and U.S. history to art and design, award-winning fiction, classics, first editions and signed copies. The bar pours champagne by the glass, bottle or flight, plus wine, beer and literary cocktails like the Great Gatsby, with cheese and charcuterie boards, paninis, salads and soups, and you can carry a drink while you browse. Thomas Wright opened the shop in 2009 and moved it to the Grove Arcade in 2011.

Asheville Ales & Tales is a theatrical pub crawl company in Asheville's South Slope. Each walking tour visits four local pubs, with a character-led story unfolding between stops. The lineup includes Appalachian folklore in Cryptids & Creatures, a Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery in Watson's SOS, and a seasonal retelling of A Christmas Carol. Actor David Doersch leads the performances, while Cat Doersch manages bookings and tour details.

Asheville Free Walking Tours offers locally guided, tip-based walking tours of Asheville, starting at Pack Square in downtown. The two-hour Downtown tour runs every day, and From Flood to Flourish, a River Arts District tour about the area's recovery, runs Wednesday through Saturday. The company also runs ghost tours, pub crawls and escape rooms, and you pay your guide what you think the tour was worth.