Asheville, North Carolina Parks and Monuments photography wildlife wine and wineries

View from Inn on Biltmore Estate

a lawn chairs on a road

Biltmore Estate is the 8,000-acre private estate of the George W. Vanderbilt family in Asheville, North Carolina with its centerpiece 250-room Biltmore House described as America’s largest private residence. The mansion and estate grounds were built between 1889 and 1895. The house opened to the public in 1963. The entry fee into Biltmore Estate is a whopping $60 per adult for one day. Visit two days for $70.

The Inn on Biltmore Estate is a luxury hotel located on a hill above Antler Village on the Biltmore Estate private grounds. Antler Village offers Biltmore Winery, Cedric’s Tavern brewpub for dining and beer, an ice cream shop, souvenir shop and live music on weekends.  Antler Village is about a 10 to 15 minute walk downhill from The Inn. Hotel shuttle service runs between the Winery and the Inn. The four-star hotel commands luxury hotel rates starting around $400 to $500 per night.

Biltmore Inn dining

On my day visit to Biltmore Estate in early June, I walked up the hill from Antler Village, past the vineyards and lawns to the Inn on Biltmore Estate.

Antler Village   Biltmore Inn

Biltmore inn lawn chairs   Biltmore Inn view

The views from The Inn on Biltmore Estate are a sight to behold on a clear day. The bustling city of Asheville is nearby, interstate freeways carve through the valleys in this transportation hub of western North Carolina, but all that seems a world away when gazing out at the mountains and forests of Biltmore Estate. Only the sound of gunshots in the distance, a hunter I assumed, carried noise from the outside world onto the estate grounds. Looking over the hotel activities, sporting clay shooting with a shotgun is mentioned as a guest activity and that might have been what I heard. The sound was loud, but sounded like it was coming far from the hotel.

Biltmore Inn lobby   Biltmore Inn lobby seating

On a Sunday at lunchtime, the hotel restaurant and bar were lively with diners.

The hotel has an outdoor pool. There were guests swimming, so I snapped a photo of the garden surrounding the pool.

Biltmore Inn outdoor pool   Biltmore Inn patio

I spent time on the hotel patio outside the lobby watching a red tail hawk soar above the Inn, occasionally landing on the roof tower to observe its surroundings. I am a lover of wildlife and I watched that hawk for several minutes. Red tail hawks are common to California too.

Biltmore Inn hawk-1   Biltmore Inn hawk-2

When I was at the front entrance of the Inn talking with a bellman, he told me the red tail hawk is a resident of the hotel. He had seen the hawk dive down and scoop up a bunny in the hotel driveway garden four days earlier.

Biltmore Inn entrance

The Inn at Biltmore is an exclusive hotel in a special place. The luxury market segment room rates make this hotel exclusive.

A new hotel is currently under construction in Antler Village, scheduled to open in December 2015. Village Hotel on Biltmore Estate is priced at a much lower hotel market segment with rates in the $140 range for dates next January. Rates for The Inn at Biltmore drop to $200 to $300 per night in January.

Village Hotel on Biltmore

George W. Vanderbilt was a young man of the world with sufficient money to build an American castle in his own North Carolina kingdom during America’s Gilded Age. He had a grand vision and connections to some of the finest architects and designers in America to create that vision.

The Inn on Biltmore Estate and the soon to be open Village Hotel on Biltmore Estate allow guests to immerse themselves in the Vanderbilt estate to admire more than a century of landscaping created from Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision for the grounds of Biltmore Estate in the hill country of western North Carolina.

View from Biltmore Inn

Loyalty Traveler Road Trip Orlando to Knoxville June 4-9, 2015

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