The Best North Carolina Vacation Packages Leave Room for New Biltmore Attractions
In selecting their North Carolina vacation packages, many visitors to the Asheville area are leaving room on their itineraries to take in the wide array of new attractions at the world-renowned Biltmore Estate.
With a grand opening on May 20, 2010, Biltmore’s new Antler Hill Village provides many new exhibits and activities including dining and shopping, a new exhibition space, a village green featuring live entertainment, and an outdoor adventure center.
Many North Carolina vacation packages include visits to Biltmore, and the Antler Hill Village will be open to guests as part of the daily admission to the estate.
Specific Antler Hill exhibits and activities include The Biltmore Legacy, a facility that showcases slices of life on the estate by displaying archival letters, photos and drawings, as well as provides a theater with a film that shares the Vanderbilt family story through today. Visitors can also see Edith Vanderbilt’s car, a 1913 Stevens-Duryea Model C-Six. The Antler Hill area also incorporates estate’s Winery, a village green and bandstand with live music in the afternoons, an outdoor adventure center with an expansive choice of unique ranging from horseback riding to Land Rover excursions, and farming demonstrations at the Antler Hill farm.
And vacationers who want to beef up their North Carolina vacation packages with shopping and dining options, Antler Hill offers the Traditions retail specialty store, Cedric’s Tavern for informal dining, the Creamery dairy bar, and The Mercantile store with Appalachian crafts, dry goods and old-fashioned candy.
In conjunction with the grand opening of Antler Hill Village, enhanced tours of the Biltmore House begin, and provide an excellent way for visitors to complement their North Carolina vacation packages in a special way.
Self-guided tours will include more stories about the Vanderbilt family and several new features of the house and the Vanderbilt’s lifestyle. Guests will see displays of vintage clothing, storytelling and period props on the first and second floors and the basement, including items recently acquired by Biltmore’s museum services team from the Brooklyn Museum in New York and elsewhere across the country. Visitors will also be able to walk into the Bowling Alley and see George Washington Vanderbilt’s fully furnished walk-in closet.
A new specialty guided tour called the Family and Friends Tour has a theme of gracious hospitality, taking in the Louis XVI Room, the Tower Suite, the Artists’ Suite and the Fourth Floor. This tour will showcase the lifestyle of the Vanderbilts and their guests, as well as the daily lives of the servants and the work they performed behind the scenes. It will also include mannequins costumed in antique clothing identified with specific people including author Edith Wharton, Vanderbilt’s niece Gertrude Vanderbilt at Christmas 1895, and Vanderbilt’s friend Willie Field.
For more information on incorporating Biltmore into your North Carolina vacation packages, call 800-411-3812 or 828-225-1333.