Couple travel

Asheville was beautiful. We stayed in Weaversville, a nearby town. The town was safe, although many people were not friendly and did not take well to the large tourist culture. Would recommend staying in Asheville or Mills River in the future. However, Weaversville was gorgeous. Asheville is known for their food, so prepare a large restaurant budget! Some favorites of mine were Biscuithead, Sunny Point Cafe, 131 Main, and Luella's BBQ. Grandfather mountain and Pigsah forest make excellent day trips, but spend plenty of time downtown, and at the art galleries/exhibits! Several microbreweries that I didn't go to, but have heard raging things about! We did stop at Sierra Nevada for the food as well. We drove down and having a car is a necessity, although most parking is paid. We spent about $2500 between shopping, lodging, and eating out- which we did usually at least twice a day. Overall would absolutely recommend!

Solo travel

I did a housesit outside of Asheville, NC for 2 weeks. I can’t recommend Asheville enough! So many things to do - art tours, hikes, the Biltmore, shopping, AMAZING food. If you are love the outdoors, art, and food, you will love Asheville. An ideal destination to be solo because of the extremely friendly locals. Easy to make friends. I was there in spring but I’d recommend any time of year, as they have a mild climate.

Asheville is overall pretty safe as we have a lot of tourists and people everywhere looking out for eachother. After the hurricane here things have changed slightly but safety is not a factor. The homeless population here is noticeable and sometimes there are characters that make you feel uneasy. But I have never had an unsafe interaction with anyone here.

Asheville is safe in general if you’re not out where you shouldn’t be after dark. There isn’t reliable or widespread public transport. Since the hurricane, there’s been an uptick in crime and many areas are unsafe to explore or unreachable due to the nature of the destruction. Asheville and surrounding areas are great for hiking and other activities like this but areas where you can do these things are limited right now, so it’s good to plan where you are going and be prepared for things to look different than usual.