Asheville, United States: Self-Guided Walking Tour

Looking for things to do in Asheville? This city in western North Carolina brings together American art, historic architecture, creative spaces, distinctive churches, and native Appalachian landscapes. Its downtown museums and landmarks make Asheville rewarding to explore on foot, while nearby gardens and mountaintop views add a strong connection to the surrounding region. Neywo has a free audio guide for Asheville with 43 narrated places.

What to See in Asheville

Asheville Art Museum

On Pack Square, the Asheville Art Museum focuses on American art from the 20th and 21st centuries, with particular attention to the cultural heritage of Western North Carolina. Its collection and exhibitions include regional and national artists, Studio Craft, the legacy of Black Mountain College, and the work of Cherokee artists.

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

Also on Pack Square Park, this museum preserves the legacy of Black Mountain College, the experimental school that operated in the mountains near Asheville from 1933 to 1957. Changing exhibitions, performances, publications, and public programs make it both an archive and an active creative space.

The college’s influence also connects Asheville with nearby Black Mountain, a separate destination in the North Carolina mountains.

Thomas Wolfe House

The Thomas Wolfe House is a state historic site and museum in downtown Asheville. Built in 1883 in the Queen Anne style, it began as a boarding house called the Old Kentucky Home. Thomas Wolfe’s mother, Julia, bought the property in 1906, and Wolfe arrived there when he was six.

The house became the setting for Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe’s autobiographical novel. The dining room, front porch, and family rooms connect the preserved building directly with the world of the book.

First Baptist Church

The domed First Baptist Church has marked downtown Asheville since 1927. Designed by Douglas Ellington, an architect trained in Paris, it combines Renaissance inspiration with Art Deco geometry and Beaux Arts planning.

Its polygonal form is particularly striking. The colorful roof tiles shift from green to red in different light, while orange brick, terra cotta trim, and decorative natural motifs give the exterior a distinctive character.

Basilica of Saint Lawrence

The Basilica of Saint Lawrence is the only minor basilica in western North Carolina. The downtown church was completed in 1905 and received its basilica designation from Pope John Paul II in 1993.

Its most remarkable feature is the elliptical dome, which spans 58 by 82 feet and is reputed to be the largest freestanding elliptical dome in North America. The Spanish Renaissance Revival design also includes stained glass, Italian marble, wood carvings, terra cotta panels, and statues created by the Daprato Statue Company in Italy.

Cathedral of All Souls

In Biltmore Village, the Cathedral of All Souls was built in 1896 by George Washington Vanderbilt II as the parish church for the community he developed near Biltmore Estate. It served local residents for nearly a century before becoming the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina in 1995.

The building remains an active congregation and an important part of Biltmore Village’s history.

Congregation Beth Israel

Congregation Beth Israel has been part of Asheville’s Jewish community for more than a century. Its story began in 1899, when members formed an Orthodox congregation called Bikur Cholim. After a fire destroyed its first building, the congregation completed a second synagogue in 1924 and adopted the name Beth Israel in 1950.

The current building on Murdock Avenue dates from 1969 and was fully renovated in 2018. It is an independent, traditional egalitarian congregation.

Botanical Gardens at Asheville

The Botanical Gardens at Asheville offer ten acres of native Appalachian woodland beside the university campus. More than 750 species native to the Southern Appalachians grow along the trails, including trees and wildflowers.

The garden began in 1961 on eroded, abandoned timberland. Its first plantings went in during 1964, and more than 5,000 plants were transplanted during the early years, including specimens rescued from land threatened by development. Admission is free, and the garden is supported by memberships and donations.

Overlook Castle

Perched on Sunset Mountain, Overlook Castle offers commanding views over Asheville. Fred Loring Seely built the European-style stone castle between 1912 and 1914 after receiving ten acres on the mountain summit from his father-in-law, Edwin Wiley Grove.

The property now covers about six acres. Its stone walls and turrets give it the appearance of a castle transplanted from a Scottish hillside.

Asheville’s Creative Galleries

Several downtown galleries reveal the breadth of Asheville’s contemporary and folk-art scene.

American Folk Art & Framing has presented contemporary Southern folk art since 2001. Its collection includes work by nearly forty self-taught makers, with paintings, folk sculptures, face jugs, and wild-clay pottery. The gallery also operates a custom framing studio and hosts exhibitions and art openings.

Blue Spiral 1, founded by John Cram in 1990, occupies three connected floors and presents more than 25 exhibitions each year. More than 120 artists are represented across media including painting, glass, ceramics, wood, metal, and fiber. Its programme includes thematic group shows and solo presentations.

Ariel Gallery is an artist cooperative run by its exhibiting members. Since 2002, it has displayed raku pottery, turned wood vessels, handwoven textiles, contemporary jewelry, ceramics, glass, fiber, and metalwork. Because the artists manage the gallery themselves, the collection changes continually.

The Haen Gallery, founded in 2006 by Chris Foley, connects contemporary art with the natural world. Its artists work in a range of media, with sculpture and Appalachian landscapes among the gallery’s particular strengths. Indoor and monumental outdoor works extend the experience beyond the walls.

Asheville Pinball Museum

Across from the Grove Arcade in the downtown historic district, the Asheville Pinball Museum offers a hands-on alternative to a conventional museum visit. More than forty pinball tables are in working order, along with classic video games. The collection traces the evolution of pinball from early mechanical tables to later arcade machines.

Wortham Center for the Performing Arts

The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1992 and expanded in 2019. It now contains three venues: the 500-seat Diana Wortham Theatre, the intimate Tina McGuire Theatre, and the flexible Henry LaBrun Studio.

The nonprofit’s Wortham Presents series brings music, dance, theatre, spoken word, and other performances to Asheville throughout the year. Past performers have included Bela Fleck, Pilobolus, Paula Poundstone, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Explore Asheville with a Self-Guided Walking Tour

Neywo’s Asheville audio guide includes three walking tours, with 22 narrated stops across the routes:

• Pack Square, Art Deco Domes and a Boarding House Novel — 2.14 km, 68 minutes, and 8 stops. The route includes the Thomas Wolfe House, First Baptist Church, Asheville City Hall, Pack Square Park, Asheville Art Museum, the Young Men’s Institute Building, St. Matthias Episcopal Church, and The Orange Peel.
• E.W. Grove’s Downtown: Flat Irons, Arcades and a Basilica — 1.31 km, 57 minutes, and 9 stops. It covers the Downtown Asheville Historic District, Asheville Female College, the Flat Iron Building, Flat Iron Statue, The Bon Marché Building of Asheville, North Carolina, Arcade Building, Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville, Harrah’s Cherokee Center, and Asheville Masonic Temple.
• North Asheville: Native Gardens, a Synagogue and a Mountaintop Castle — 5.22 km, 100 minutes, and 5 stops. This walk visits the Botanical Gardens at Asheville, Congregation Beth Israel, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Overlook Castle, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages. Download Neywo and explore Asheville as the city unfolds around you.

Asheville is one destination within North Carolina and the United States, making it easy to continue discovering the state and country beyond the city.