Category — Asheville NC

I typically don’t write hotel review on my blog. If people want to read reviews, there are plenty of review websites like TripAdvisor or Hotels to read about.

However,  I also know that as a parent who loves to travel, I love to hear about personal experience from other travelers on their stay – what to do, where to eat and where to stay. These are main things when we plan our trip.

So here is our own experience at Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites – Asheville Downtown during our stay in Asheville.

Price:

I got the hotel room from Priceline.com for a very good price for less than $70 per night. It’s a great discount while the listing price on their website is over $120 per night for the same period. If you haven’t tried priceline, give it a try.

Location:

The hotel is located a couple miles from downtown area. Even though, the hotel name is Asheville Downtown. You can’t really walk to downtown.. Ok.. You might but it will be a really really long walk.

With that being said, there are plenty of other convenient factors to make this hotel a great location for family.

First of all, it’s next to Fiddlin’ Pig restaurant. And there are other restaurants and fast food places right around the corner.

Second of all, Ingle grocery chain is right across the street. For family who travels with kids, we all know how important having access to grocery store is for parents. You never know what you might forget.

Room:

The hotel room is very NICE. I was very impressed with the room decoration and cleanliness. It’s nothing fancy like a 5 stars hotel but it’s simple and decorate in the transitional style. The hotel is in a really good shape. I think they just opened only a few years ago.

There are also other amenities that make it a great option for family. A small refridgerator will help keep drinks cool. A microwave will help heat up food in the morning or a quick meal when kids go hungry. Also free high speed internet helps keep mom & dad in touch with the world. Just make sure to bring your network cable.

There are plenty of storage space for our family of 4 to put our clothes in the dresser and hang it up. Another great plus is a curve shower curtain to give more room in the shower.

Hotel Service & Facilities

I normally don’t put too much weight into a hotel pool. Most of the time, when we travel we would be out all day with hardly any time to spend in the hotel. But this trip, I’m glad the hotel has the indoor pool to give the kids something to do after a long day.

An indoor pool is nothing fancy. It’s a small heated indoor/outdoor pool. Unfortunately, it was too cold to try the outdoor part. I don’t know if it was too cold that the heated water still seemed too cold or they didn’t heat it up. But my kids didn’t have a problem jumping back and forth between a jacuzzi and the pool to warm themselves up.

We didn’t have much contact with hotel staffs throughout our stay. They were very professional and courteous whenever we talked to them.

Overall

We were very happy during our stay there. I would go back there for another stay in the future.

Disclaimer:

In light of current FTC ruling, I want to make sure that I follow whatever blogger’s rule there is.

This post is based solely on my experience and my opinion without any outside influence. I have NOT given any discount from Holiday Inn. I paid for the hotel bill from my own pocket. They probably don’t even know that I wrote about this post.

Being a frugal parent and trying to save on family travel, I always a big fan of packing lunch and cooking dinner to save on restaurants during our vacation. BUT, there is always an exception to any rule.

Our recent trip to Asheville was one of the exception. After a quick research on best places to eat, I was overwhelmed by the amount of options for this small town. I literally have to plan my meals around restaurants and yet still couldn’t fit it all in. So my next trip will have to be longer so I can try out all those recommended restaurants.

With the busy schedule of the conference we were able to fit in 3 restaurants that are worth writing about. I mean we did eat out more than 3 meals but some other meals were our typical fast food joints to save time.

Noodle Shop

Our first great meal was at the Noodle Shop on Pack Square. We found this noodle restaurant during our Asheville Photo Walk and I made up my mind there and then that we had to come back and had dinner there. And we were not disappointed.

Mr. Rojo ordered Pad Thai and I had to say it was by far the best Pad Thai I have had in a while. If you love Pad Thai from normal Thai restaurant in your neighborhood, you might feel a bit disappointed. This Pad Thai is not a dish that leads with sweet taste like American Pad Thai that you normally get. See!! there is this misconception that Pad Thai is this sweet and a bit saucy dish.. But no!! Real Pad Thai doesn’t even look red. It has a combination of salty and sweet taste. And they have nailed it.

I order the noodle soup which came out the size of the big bowl that can probably feed our whole family. We ordered pork egg noodle dish for them. And it was amazing!! Too bad, we were too full to finish it all. I wish I live there so we can order take out all the time!

Tupelo Honey Cafe

The next morning, we headed out early to one of the favorite breakfast place in Asheville – Tupelo Honey Cafe. I didn’t know that they opened at 9AM but it was a perfect timing for us. We waited a bit for them to open with a long line of customers. I mean it has to be good, right? For people to wait for them to open. Talking about no-pressure here.

Once we got inside, we got seated right away. If we were about 20 minutes later, we would have to wait probably another 30-45 minutes. It was nice to see the local farmer delivered the fresh produce right there and then. Now, that’s fresh!

The menu is extensive and I would love to go back again to try other dishes. But alas, I could only eat one dish at a time. I settled for Petunia’s Pain Perdu – a New Orleans style french toast.. Oh.. My.. Word.. It was amazing! Now, I’m not one of the foodie blogger so don’t expect me to explain in detail with words that will make your mouth watering. I could only show you the picture and hope that it will do justice.

Mr. Rojo ordered the Country Breakfast and we ordered Sweet Potato Pancakes for the kids. If I didn’t finish all my food, I would probably eat more of the pancakes as well. It was delicious and good and healthy. I love healthy food. Make me don’t feel so bad eating out so much after all.

Fiddlin’ Pig Bluegrass Barbecue

OK. I think we missed out on this restaurant because we went there too early. Since I had some schedule to keep, we had to rush for a dinner on the last night. The Fiddlin’ Pig normally has live music starting at 6pm from Monday thru Saturday. And I think they are known for that because when we got there, all the great tables were reserved. But since we knew we wouldn’t be able to stay we wouldn’t mind sitting in the corner. Next time, we just have to try out the fun Bluegrass music.

We are not barbecue buff so I wouldn’t know much about what is what. So when they brought out Mr. Rojo’s order of barbecue ribs we were a bit concern because the meat looked a tad red to his liking. It turned out they smoked the ribs so that’s how it looks. Who knew!

The food is nothing special to write home about BUT the dessert was so divine. We ordered Brownie and Ice Cream and I almost didn’t have a chance for a bite when I took Mr. Z for a quick bathroom break.

Now are you hungry yet? Because I am and I can’t wait to go back to try more restaurants. I mean I already have more to add to my list..

Check out other travelers’ Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

A couple weeks ago we went to Asheville for my first Blogger conference at Type A Mom Conference. We signed up for a sponsored blogger tour to Biltmore Estate Blogger tour on Sunday. I was so glad we did that tour. It was one of the highlighted for me.

Today, I will just post some of my favorite pictures during the tour of the house. There is no photography or video allowed inside the house. So I could only take picture of the outside and the Stable cafe. Enjoy.. I will do more detail post later. Promise!

The exterior of the Biltmore. Amazing!!

Another view of the Biltmore estate

Gorgeous mountain view from the balcony. Just imagine!

The clock at the Stable – it houses cafe and shops. Did someone say shopping?

Now, this is the reason why I didn’t get any garden shots.

And this is the reason why my kids ran wild

The view from Stable cafe

Detail.. detail.. everywhere…

Perfect visit. Wish we will be back soon.

Check out other travelers’ Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek