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.
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.
  
  
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.
  
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.
  
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.
  
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.
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.
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.
Loyalty Traveler Road Trip Orlando to Knoxville June 4-9, 2015
- Orlando to Knoxville road trip in 1,100 miles–my outline of destination articles.
- Daytona Beach, Florida – Babes, Bikes and Speed at Daytona Beach
- Jekyll Island, Georgia from historic country club to State Park This article was accidentally published when I had only described the Jekyll Island Causeway. Rather than delete it, I left it posted and the story of the transformation of Jekyll Island from historic country club to Georgia State park continues in the post below.
- Jekyll Island, Georgia History and Jekyll Island Club Hotel
- Best Western paid me $11 for my Georgia hotel night
- Georgia Sea Turtle Center and Hospital, Jekyll Island, Georgia
- Westin Jekyll Island, Holiday Inn Resort and Quality Inn Jekyll Island
- Savannah, Georgia Historic Buildings and New Hotels
- The Brice, Savannah, a Kimpton Hotel
- It’s Tybee Time on Savannah Georgia’s Barrier Island beach
- Fort Pulaski National Monument and Civil War history in Savannah region
- Tall Trees at Congaree National Park, South Carolina
- Footloose and roaming Asheville, North Carolina
- Biltmore Estate is more than a Gilded Age mansion, Asheville, NC
- The Inn at Biltmore, Asheville, North Carolina
- Asheville Vibrant Craft Beer Scene
- Chasing Waterfalls in DuPont State Forest, Western North Carolina
- White squirrels, black bears and waterfalls in Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
- Appalachian Highlands on Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
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