There’s so many things to discover in Downtown Asheville! For a small town, it has a delightfully cosmopolitan vibe. You’ll find a wide variety of merchandise, galleries, museums, bookstores, pubs, and fine to casual dining, to satisfy most any guest’s tastes. AND one of the greatest concentrations of Art Deco Architecture in the country!
Browsing through/window shopping along Haywood Street, Biltmore Ave, Lexington Ave, Wall Street, and Grove Arcade shops is always fun. A few of our favorite shops are Four Square and Mobilia (furnishings), Malaprops (books/cafe), Jewels That Dance, Mast General, and the Bee Charmer. But there’s too many interesting ones to list – it just depends on our mood or our quest.
There are seasonal (~late May through September, or so) outdoor favorites like Saturday evening’s Shindig On The Green (Pack Square), or Friday evening’s Drum Circle (Pritchard Park), or Downtown After Five summer concerts add to a great community street vibe and interesting people-watching.
Pause to watch some outstanding buskers performing, hop on a LaZoom Comedy tour, or check out the Fine Arts Theater for a film, the aSHEville Women’s history museum, or the NC Stage Company’s latest production.
We will be highlighting many of our favorites and new discoveries in Our Asheville Guide blog in the coming months. Plus some tips that we’ve found useful in our 12 years of visiting Asheville at least monthly, and as we discover even more as we merge in as permanent residents this year. One tip I’ll point out here and now – parking in downtown can be challenging, especially on lovely weekends. Give yourself time to park and get to your venue or reservation – or enjoy downtown earlier on a weekend day before decks fill up – or take an Uber or Lyft, or ART bus ride into town if you’d rather skip the hassle. We do some of all of these, depending on what our downtown errands or fun look to be for the day.
https://youtu.be/lDZp68zjfTc