These are just a few of the amazing amenities offered at Headwaters at Banner Elk!
*Professionally Staffed Gate House for controlled access and peace of mind
*The Point Clubhouse with views of NC, TN, and VA mountains featuring a fully equipped fitness room, game room, gourmet kitchen, 14 seat state-of-the-art theater and 2,000 s.f. of outdoor decks
*Two spring-fed lakes with picnic areas and fishing piers
*Tennis court with 20 mile view
*The Sunset Amphitheater for concerts, lectures, weddings and other special events
*The Lakeside Park with covered picnic pavilion with mountain stone fireplace Read more….
Don’t miss Winterfest this weekend, Jan 8th-10th 2010. Live music, bathing beauty, big air contest, village rail jam, cardboard box derby, food cookouts, demos, ski beech sports sale and more!
Biltmore Estate is open Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Days. Estate is open 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. daily. Admissions Gate and Welcome Center 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. Monday–Thursday, 8:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Friday–Sunday. Biltmore House Front Door closes at 3:30 p.m. Monday–Thursday and at 4:30 p.m. Friday–Sunday. Hours on Christmas Day are 11 a.m-6 p.m.
One hundred fourteen years ago this Christmas Eve, George Washington Vanderbilt first opened Biltmore House to family and friends. Vanderbilt’s legacy for legendary hospitality lives on today and especially during the holiday season when Biltmore House is elaborately decorated for Christmas, offering guests a glimpse of what it may have been like to be one of his guests during that special holiday season in 1895. Known for being one of the largest holiday displays in the Southeast, Biltmore House and the surrounding 8,000 acres of the estate will celebrate its annual Christmas at Biltmore.
As in years past, the event will feature 100 decorated Christmas trees; hundreds of wreaths and bows; hundreds of poinsettias; 30,000 lights in the house with another 150,000 lights used around the estate; 10,000 feet of fresh garland; and more than 25,000 ornaments. Biltmore House’s holiday centerpiece, a 34-foot Fraser fir, spends the holidays in the 72-foot high Banquet Hall, adorned with lights and surrounded by hundreds of brightly packaged gift boxes. The Biltmore House front lawn will glow with a lighted 55-foot Norway spruce, surrounded by eight “islands” of smaller lighted trees and nursery shrubs.
Reservations are not required or available for the daytime celebration. TIP: Saturdays are the busiest day. If you can only visit on a weekend, arrive early Sunday morning. The estate welcomes about 275,000 visitors for the Christmas season.
Late fall is a beautiful time to enjoy the mountains. The summer folks are gone, the winter crowd is not here yet and the views are getting crisper and crisper. Hiking trails are not busy, nature is especially enjoyable, and the leaves are mostly gone so the view is spectacular. Driving the Blue Ridge Parway is as enjoyable as ever. Don’t forget your sweaters as the weather is already chilly.
Visiting the mountains over Thanksgiving Weekend is quite enjoyable and you can even get an early start on the holidays and choose and cut a Christmas Tree to take home with you.
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