If you want to see Shenandoah, the full drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP), Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and the Biltmore, here's your itinerary! Short version below and detailed version below that. Two days were travel days and 9 days of sight seeing. We spent 4 days driving the BRP and 2 days at Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP).
Our YouTube video on this trip starts May 5th 2023 (will be released 5-5-2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP5h3-RnEjQ
Day 1: Fly into Charlotte, NC: We landed about 5pm so we spent the night in a hotel nearby.
Day 2: Drive north to Front Royal, the northern end of Shenandoah. You have time to visit Monticello and an orchard if you like.
Day 3: We spent the whole day driving thru Shenandoah, stopping at overlooks and spending the night at a Days Inn at the end.
Day 4: Started driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway BRP at 8am and stopped for the night in Roanoke, VA.
Day 5: Continued the drive on the BRP stopping at Fairy Stone State Park along the way and at the end of the day stayed in Boone, NC
Day 6: Finished the BRP and stayed the night at the Baymont Inn in Cherokee.
Day 7: We spent today exploring Great Smoky Mountain National Park GSMNP including Clingman's Dome and stayed the night in Cherokee.
Day 8: Today we drove to Cataloochee to see a herd of elk that live there and stayed the night in Cherokee.
Day 9: Drove to Asheville today stayed the night at a Baymont Inn there.
Day 10: Visited the Biltmore today and drove to Charlotte afterwards and we flew home on Day 11.
Here are the details of what we did each day so you can better assess if this plan works for you.
Day 1: Thursday: We Left work on Thursday and headed for the airport excited to be on our way! We landed in Charlotte, NC about 5 pm picked up our Dodge Avenger and headed for Mooresville, NC. We checked into the Wingate hotel and then went to Duckworth Sports Bar & Brew Pub. We had the Smokehouse Philly and a regular Philly steak & cheese. It was ok – not killer. Also had a Mocha Stout and an Oatmeal Porter. Then we went to Target and got a cooler, some water, and cheese sticks for the road tomorrow. The room was very nice – it even smelled good.
Driving to Front Royal, Va and visiting Monticello
Day 2: Friday: We were awake at 6 am and had the free breakfast at the hotel which was eggs, bacon, a Danish, and hot tea.
The destination today is Front Royal, VA. It is a full day of driving with a stop at Monticello and Carter’s Orchard. We left around 8am and plugged the address of Monticello in the GPS. It said we would arrive about 1pm so I called ahead and made our reservation to tour the house at 2:10.
When we got to the grounds of Monticello we got a BBQ sandwich on site. Then walked around the gardens and at our reserved time toured the house. Very interesting about all the modern innovations they used during the building of the house.
Carter’s Orchard
After Monticello we left for Carter’s Orchard which is practically next door. This was fun. We picked apples and I spotted a mouse in one of the trees and we took its picture. We also got some cider and apple butter, and apple cider donuts. Tasting the donuts I could not have told you there was any apple flavor but I did like them and ate most of them for snacks on the road. They were a good hold-me-over snack. We left about 5 pm which was none too soon because we still had a couple of hours to go and it would be dark before we arrived. It was quite a ride as some of the roads were very very dark and it was difficult to see. But the stop at the orchard was worth it! We loved eating fresh apples every day.
We got to the Holiday Inn in Front Royal, took our stuff up to the room and went to Houlihan’s which was a restaurant attached to the hotel. We had meatloaf and a skinny Margarita and a salad with chicken and fruit and 2 beers. We went back up to the room and I washed all the (Fuji) apples we had picked with shampoo so we could eat them each day. Stayed in room 527. It was a very nice, clean, quiet room.
Day 3: Saturday: Had breakfast at Houlihan’s. We had the low carb omelet which was 3 eggs and bacon and cheese. Then we left for Shenandoah National Park, stopped at a lot of overlooks and went into Skyland Lodge to check it out.
We stopped at more overlooks and went into the Big Meadow Lodge and had lunch. It was about 1:30. We had a chicken club wrap and tomato soup and hot tea and the French dip and tomato soup.
After that we were on our way and we finished the drive thru Shenandoah. We left the park around 4:30 and checked in at the Days Inn Room 127 in Waynesboro. We went to dinner at 6pm at the Green Leaf Grill. We had lasagna and a Virginia Apple Bold Rock Hard Cider and a crab cake sandwich and a warm beet salad and a couple of beers.
Days Inn comments: Not much bathroom counter space. 2 people’s stuff won’t fit there. It is a quiet room since it is on the back end. We got a 1 king bed room but now that I see it is hard to find a place to put the second piece of luggage – I should have gotten 2 queens. This was my least favorite room of the trip.
Day 4: Sunday: We ate at the Shoney’s next door to Days Inn. We had the breakfast buffet which was good and left for the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) by 8am.
1st stop is to see the old Farm community buildings (Humpback Rocks). It was really cold outside. Next stop was Wigwam Falls and a bunch of overlooks. We couldn’t find some stuff I had noted and the James River Visitor center was closed – for what reason we don’t know. The reflections in the water we were hoping for weren’t that good – so this may be a better visit in the afternoon. Then we went looking for lunch which was not easy in this area. We finally found a place called Scotto’s in Glasgow – it was a wild ride getting there on a twisty turny road with hairpin turns. We had sandwiches. Got to Peaks of Otter Lodge in early afternoon. This is a really pretty area and the reflection in the water was very good. I wouldn’t mind coming back here. There is a restaurant and gift shop there also.
Then we continued on and ended up in Roanoke. We are staying in the Best Western in Room 303. The restaurant we wanted to go to turned out to be closed on Sunday – didn’t know till we got there – so we ate at Shaker’s in the parking lot of the mall near where we were staying. Between the two of us we had ½ rack of ribs and sweet potato and broccoli and a southwest chicken salad. We brought a piece of key lime pie back to the room. The room at the Best Western was very nice. At some point we went to Target and got me a scarf and a pair of gloves since we heard the weather would be very cold by the time we got to Great Smoky Mountain National Park(GSMNP).
Day 5: Monday: We ate breakfast at the Best Western – scrambled eggs, sausage, and danishes. This will be day 2 of our 3 day BRP drive. My day to drive. We went to Fairy Stone State Park. It is a fairly small park but had cabins that looked nice. The first part of the road after turning off the BRP was wild. Steeply down and twisty turny – it seemed like just a one lane road with no yellow line down the middle. When we met cars going the other way I couldn’t believe we both fit. Later in the trip to the park there were 2 deer in the road but fortunately I saw them soon enough to stop. We hoped to find fairy stones here but had no luck. The place you look for the stones is down the road (about 3 miles) from the part of the park where the cabins are.
From here we left and went to Mabry Mill. We got a sandwich here – there was too long of a wait for lunch at the cafe (at least an hour) so we got the sandwich to go. Nice area but the trees that would have reflected in the water had already lost their leaves. We left and looked for the Poor Farmers Market but missed it. We stopped at Mayberry trading post. It was a small place with items that looked like they had been there since the 70s – but I did buy a jar of apple butter there made somewhere locally.
We left and stopped at several more overlooks. Cumberland Knob visitor center was closed and I was looking for a bathroom. Found the Blue Ridge Trading Post just in time – only 30 minutes or less until they closed and they had a bathroom. It would be getting dark soon & we thought maybe we should leave the BRP. I plugged in the address of the LaQuinta in Boone and when we got to our exit (441?) we saw that the BRP was closed there for repairs.
We arrived at the LaQuinta Room 226 in Boone and asked for a recommendation for dinner. They said Dan’l Boones Inn. It was an interesting place. You wait to be seated (there was a line) and then they bring the food to you on a cart and its all you can eat. We had fried chicken, salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, coleslaw, gravy, apple sauce, and dessert. Strawberry shortcake, banana pudding, chocolate cake.
Day 6: Tuesday: We got up and ate breakfast at the LaQuinta – boiled eggs, no meat and yogurt and a Danish.
This is our last day to drive on the BRP as the southern end of it is near Cherokee, NC.
Stopped to see Moses Cone, Julian Price, the Viaduct visitor center, and then Grandfather Mountain which was one of the highlights. First we ate lunch and then we crossed the mile high swinging bridge. We didn’t have time for Linville Falls. It was getting late so we decided to leave the BRP early (in hindsight we don’t think it helped very much). We took 276 after Pisgah – wow another steep downhill curvy road like going to Fairy Stone.
Got to the Baymont Cherokee around 6pm. Around 7pm we went to a restaurant named Paul’s and had a fried chicken dish.
Day 7: Wednesday: Ate breakfast at the Baymont – no eggs, no meat were available. So I ate French toast with cream cheese and yogurt to get some protein.
Drove to GSMNP. Saw elk at the Oconaluftee visitor center. Took pictures and then went inside to ask about travel distances to the things we wanted to see and went to the Sugar Land visitor center. Got lunch there – grilled cheese sandwiches.
Then we went to Clingmans Dome. You can potentially have 360 views up here. But this day we found ourselves inside a cloud (this means you could not see a thing – just white cloud) It was soo windy! And really cold. We could only see what was close to us. Ice and snow on trees – everything else was white – couldn’t see the landscape.
Then we went to Cades Cove – people drive between 2 mph and 5 mph there looking for wildlife. An 11 mile loop takes 2 or 3 hours depending on how many stops you make. We saw horses and deer and wild turkeys. By the time we got out of there it was time to leave to drive the 2 hours back to the hotel.
Took pictures of elk again at the Oconaluftee visitor center.
Day 8: Thursday: Breakfast: Had 2 pieces French toast with cream cheese at Baymont and yogurt. Took an extra yogurt and ate it around 9am at Cataloochee.
Drove to Cataloochee to see the elk. It took a couple of hours to drive there. Just the dirt road portion was a little difficult because it was narrow and there were blind curves. Arrived a little after 9am and saw at least 3 males. 2 were big ones and only 1 of them appeared to have a herd of females. Took pictures of those and the stream there and the buildings.
Headed back to the Oconaluftee Visitor center but stopped in Maggie Valley at a restaurant called Maggie Valley Restaurant (owned by a family with the name Carver) on the way back to have lunch. I had turkey and dressing and Michael had meatloaf.
Then we drove back to Oconaluftee Visitor center and stopped at Mingus Mill. And after that went to the farm museum at the visitor center. Then we went to Mingo Falls. There was a family here who let their 3 kids climb all over the rocks endangering their lives.
Then we went to Cherokee Coffee which used to be Tribal Grounds. We both had a zombie slayer but mine was just coffee and not expresso. So good – it was spicy. We sat out back by the river and enjoyed the cool air. Had KFC for dinner.
Day 9: Friday: Staying tonight at a Baymont Inn room 318 in Asheville
Went to Peter's Pancake & Waffles at 7 am and had 2 eggs, bacon and 2 pecan waffles.
I started driving the BRP from Cherokee North to Asheville and saw more pretty fall colors. Then on some of the rock cliffs we saw icicles hanging down. Then around another curve it looked like glitter was falling from the sky – but it was really ice crystals. Then around another bend there were white trees and the ice turned to snow! We must have been almost at 5,000 feet when we saw this (near Licklog). We saw a rainbow too but there was never an overlook where we could get a picture.
We got to Asheville and I discovered I did not like driving there. Especially in a low sporty type car like we had. I couldn’t see well enough to parallel park. One way roads. Lots of car traffic and foot traffic.
We ate lunch near our hotel at the Corner Kitchen. I had some kind of multiple meat ( I think it was pork shoulder, bacon, and ham)pate called terrine and the plate was called the Ploughman’s lunch I think. A salad w/goat cheese, dill, cheddar and Havarti cheeses on the side, and crab and corn chowder soup and a homemade ginger ale– pretty good. Dessert so yummy. A brownie with peppermint ice cream. The Baymont put is in room 106 but after hearing road noise and a baby cry I asked for another room and we went up to 318. That night we went to Tupelo Honey and I had trout with cauliflower with cheese and trout had capers and a great sauce. And I had another ginger ale – a number 5 which they warned me about (said it was hot) – but no, not so hot.
Day 10: Saturday: Ate at the Baymont Inn for breakfast and left for the Biltmore. Toured the house at 9 am and had hot chocolate. Then toured the gardens and for lunch we went to the Bistro at Antler Village. I had a wood grilled duck pizza with mozzarella. Wow – so good. Then we did the wine tour and tasted the Pino Grigio and a Riesling and the Christmas wine.
Then we did the 2 hour drive to Charlotte left around 4pm and got there about 6:15 to the Renaissance – was really nice there (room? 427 maybe – it was on the 4th floor). We ate at the hotel which wasn’t very good. I had Bison short ribs which was fine but the beans that came with it were a little hard/dry. Even the pecan pie wasn’t great. Tasted like it might have been frozen – or at least like the pecans were a little rancid.
Then we did the 2 hour drive to Charlotte left around 4 pm and got there about 6:15 to the Renaissance – was really nice there (room? 427 maybe – it was on the 4th floor). We ate at the hotel which wasn’t very good. I had Bison short ribs which was fine but the beans that came with it were a little hard/dry. Even the pecan pie wasn’t great. Tasted like it might have been frozen – or at least like the pecans were a little rancid.
Day 11: Sunday: Had breakfast at the Terrace Café. I had a chocolate covered cherry latte – so good – and they made heart shapes with the foam and cream. Had eggs, bacon, and blueberry pancakes. This is the day we flew back home from Charlotte, NC.