Biltmore House - Asheville, NC Review

Living within 65 miles of Asheville NC we are Season Pass holders at the Biltmore House, the largest home in America. Every time we visit Biltmore we learn something new about the home and grounds.

The tour of the Biltmore House is superb. Visitors can pay $8.00 extra for the audio tour, and I highly recommend it. It is just short snippets one wouldn't otherwise learn during the self tour of the mansion.

It is simply astounding to think as you go on the tour that people actually lived in such a way. There are antiques everywhere, including a chess set and table that originally belonged to Napolean Bonaparte.

Equally interesting to me was the other part of the house, the section where the household help lived and worked. Vanderbilt put many modern things in the house, including an indoor swimming pool with underwater lights and a bowling alley.

The grounds of Biltmore are stunning. It is well groomed as well as looking natural, so much a part of the landscape being native plants.

I would not recommend the house tour for small children. It can take a couple of hours to do the tour taking your time, and there are three flights of stairs to climb and go back down. Children would get bored quickly on this tour. There are other areas of the estate children would enjoy, including the farm where they can pet some of the animals.

There are elevators for handicapped guests to be able to tour the home.

There are several excellent restaurants on the estate. There are also several gift shops as well.

If you are going to visit Biltmore, set aside an entire day to explore. You won't regret it!