A thirty-mile drive south to Flat Rock will bring you to the Flatrock Playhouse (http://www.flatrockplayho...) where dramas, comedies, and musicals are shown April through December. Also in Flat Rock is the Carl Sandburg Home. This historic site consists of a 22 room house, barns, sheds, rolling pastures, walking trails, two small lakes, ponds, flower and vegetable gardens, and an orchard.
A thirty-mile drive west to Waynesville during the last weeks of July will bring you to Folkmoot (http://www.folkmoot.com/), a festival of song and dance staged by performance groups from around the world.
The town of Brevard, an hour drive southwest, hosts the Brevard Music Festival (http://www.brevardmusic.o...) each summer. Lasting almost two months, a variety of musical events ranging from grand operas and symphony orchestras to Broadway musicals and pop concerts as well as renowned guest artists are featured.
A 45 minute drive north brings you to the Hot Springs Resort and Spa (http://nchotsprings.com/). Reserve the jacuzzi-style tub of your choice, all individually enclosed and private. Bring a bottle of champagne and spend an hour or two. Hot Springs also has a few campgrounds and is passed through by the Appalachian Trail.
The Cradle of Forestry (http://www.cradleofforest...) is located about 20 miles southwest of Asheville off U.S. Highway 276 in the Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania County. Visitors will find a number of hiking trails in the area. Open 9AM-5PM, mid April through the end of October. $5 for adults, 16 and under free.
A popular tourist attraction is Chimney Rock Park (http://www.chimneyrockpark.com), located 25 miles about a 30 minute drive southeast of Asheville in scenic Hickory Nut Gorge. It's a privately owned park not part of the US system with a fairly high admission fee $14 for adults as of 2009, but the views are incredible and there are six different hiking trails, ranging in difficulty from easy-to-moderate to moderate-to-strenuous. Open all year.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee and is the country's most visited national park. A variety of trails for hikers of any age or skill level are available.
Gorges State Park (http://www.ils.unc.edu/pa...) is approximately 45 miles southwest of Asheville, located in Transylvania County and joins the North Carolina/South Carolina state line. Gorges State Park has over 80 inches of rain a year making it a temperate rain forest. The plunging waterfalls, rugged river gorges, sheer rock walls, and concentration of rare and unique species makes this a wonderful park to visit.
