A Day at the Biltmore Estate — To Make Much of Time

UPDATED: 1/22/2023

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I’ve toured many houses of historical interest over the years – from presidents’ abodes (places like Mount Vernon, Highland, Montpelier, and the like) to private residences like Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, or The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. While all have a lot of appeal and interest, none can hold a torch to the extensiveness of both the Biltmore house as well as its extensive estate. I recently blogged about a long-weekend I spent with my mom in Asheville (read it here), and we easily spent an entire day (10+ hours) exploring Biltmore.

To understand Biltmore, you must first understand the breadth of the estate and the size of the house. The house was completed in 1895 and is the largest home in America even today with a whopping square footage of over 178,000 sq feet split into 250 rooms, including 43 bathrooms in an era where any indoor bathrooms were uncommon. The estate includes the home, gardens, a shopping village with winery, and more.

Biltmore was developed by George Vanderbilt. George first visited the Asheville area in 1888 at the age of 26 and fell in love with the idea of building his home there. The following year, he began work to bring his dream to life. The extensive home took six years to build, and was finally completed in 1895. Three years later, George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in Paris, and after a European honeymoon, the couple settled into their home, giving birth to a daughter, Cornelia, in the home just a short time later in 1900. The home remained a fully private residence until 1930, when the family decided to begin opening the house for public tours to help the economy during The Great Depression.

My favorite spots were the library, which is basically my fantasy library come-to-life, the beautifully designed 7-story-high formal dining room, the indoor swimming pool in the basement along with fancy individual dressing rooms for both men and women, and really all the small rooms in the basement that kept the house running – the wash room, the drying room, the refrigerator room, the pastry room, etc. When it served as a private home, to keep these spaces maintained, at any given time, Biltmore usually had about 24 staff members, half of whom were dedicated to the kitchens. Another 300-400 workers assisted on the estate outside of the house. While the house is beautiful, such opulence can feel a bit appalling at times; on the other hand, it was evident that an entire economy emerged from this estate and benefited the local community.

The view off the back of the house is picturesque, and looks as if it was pulled from the canvas of a 19th century Romantic landscape and placed by design to complete the atmosphere.

After lunch, I grabbed coffee from a cafe near the restaurant, and we headed to the garden down the hill from the house. Oh yeah, I should mention – there are a lot of hills. I would highly recommend visiting when the temperature is nice out. We had a fairly warm fall day with temperatures hovering around 80 degrees and definitely worked up a sweat!

The garden is pretty in a predictable and orderly way – very much landscaped and symmetrical, which is impressive in its own right. What I enjoyed even more, though, were the multi-room greenhouses at the base of the garden – filled with an array of orchids, which I find endlessly fascinating, and other tropical plants. Off to the side of the greenhouse are myriad paths that lead down to a lake and boat house, which are worth exploring.

To check out Antler Village, which is about 5 miles away, we hopped in the car. Still on the estate (and included in our tickets), Antler Village has Antler Hill Barn (housing goats and chickens), various workshop areas (including a blacksmith demonstration), restaurants, shopping, a small museum, and the winery. There are also various hotels on the property located in Antler Village. We elected to stay in downtown Asheville ourselves.

In Antler Village, we toured some old farm equipment that goes back to the 1700s, got some ice cream from the creamery (delicious!) and sat in the center of Antler Village, finally cooling off some and listening to the sound live music coming from the bandstand. The village also houses a museum that has revolving exhibits on the family. At the time we visited it featured Biltmore family weddings and included a recreated wedding dress and a couple of veils.

Finally, we visited the winery for a free (well, included in admission) we enjoyed sampling wine in their tasting room before purchasing a few of our favorites in the attached shop. We ended the day by once again finding seats to listen to the live music in the center of the village before calling it a day at sunset.

In Antler Village, we toured some old farm equipment that goes back to the 1700s, got some ice cream from the creamery (delicious!) and sat in the center of Antler Village, finally cooling off some and listening to the sound live music coming from the bandstand. The village also houses a museum that has revolving exhibits on the family. At the time we visited it featured Biltmore family weddings and included a recreated wedding dress and a couple of veils.

Finally, we visited the winery for a free (well, included in admission) we enjoyed sampling wine in their tasting room before purchasing a few of our favorites in the attached shop. We ended the day by once again finding seats to listen to the live music in the center of the village before calling it a day at sunset.

If you’re thinking of planning a trip, check out these Biltmore estate tips.