Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains: Asheville to Knoxville

Arrive in Asheville

Asheville Regional Airport to your hotel in downtown Asheville

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Asheville
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

Fly into Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), about 25 km south of the city, in time for the evening briefing: plan to land by about 3 pm (the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary). A driver meets you at arrivals for the half-hour run into town. Asheville sits where the Swannanoa River meets the French Broad, ringed by the Blue Ridge, and its downtown is compact enough to cover on foot. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: what to pack for the summits, how the bear-watching morning works and how the days are paced. Then a short walk through downtown in the evening light, past the Art Deco City Hall, the Grove Arcade and Pack Square, to a welcome dinner together at a downtown restaurant we name when we confirm your dates, with Southern Appalachian cooking on the menu.

Compris

• Pick-up at Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk through downtown Asheville
• Welcome dinner

Biltmore and the River Arts District

Asheville to the Biltmore Estate, then the River Arts District

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Asheville
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at one of the estate's restaurants, then time at Antler Hill Village. Any winery tasting is optional and paid by you on the day. Mid-afternoon we drive along the French Broad to the River Arts District, old brick mills and warehouses turned into working studios, many of them reopened after the 2024 flood and some still rebuilding. Your guide takes you to see potters, glassblowers and painters at work.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Biltmore admission at opening: the house, the gardens and the Conservatory
• Sit-down lunch on the estate
• Antler Hill Village (any winery tasting is optional and self-paid)
• The River Arts District studios with your guide

The Parkway to Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell

Asheville north on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell, then back to Asheville

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Asheville
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a picnic we bring from Asheville, eaten at an overlook. In the afternoon we turn up NC 128 into Mount Mitchell State Park, where a short, steep paved path leads to the summit platform at 2,037 metres, the highest point east of the Mississippi, with spruce and fir around you and the ridges falling away in every direction. We come back down the same road, with stops at the overlooks we passed in the morning light, and are in Asheville by late afternoon.

Compris

• The Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville to Mount Mitchell with stops at the overlooks
• The Craggy Pinnacle trail at Craggy Gardens
• Picnic lunch on the Parkway
• Mount Mitchell State Park and the summit platform

Cherokee and the Nantahala Gorge

Asheville to Cherokee, the Nantahala Gorge, then Bryson City

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bryson City
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

We check out after breakfast and drive west about an hour and a quarter to Cherokee, on the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. At the Museum of the Cherokee People you follow some 11,000 years of history in these mountains, from the first hunters through the Cherokee syllabary to the removal of 1838 on the Trail of Tears and the families who stayed. Just outside town is the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and its Mountain Farm Museum, log buildings moved from around the park, where elk often graze in the fields.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Cherokee. In the afternoon we drive into the Nantahala Gorge, so steep the sun reaches the river only around midday, and walk from the footbridge where the Appalachian Trail crosses the river at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, watching the rafts and kayaks come down.

Soir

We reach Bryson City, a small railroad town on the Tuckasegee River, by late afternoon; the evening is free.

Compris

• The Museum of the Cherokee People in Cherokee
• The Mountain Farm Museum at Oconaluftee
• Sit-down lunch in Cherokee
• A walk in the Nantahala Gorge with your guide

Activités en option

• Guided half-day rafting on the Nantahala River in season (late spring to early autumn), paid on the day

Over the Smokies by Kuwohi

Bryson City to Newfound Gap Road and Kuwohi, back to Newfound Gap, then Gatlinburg

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Gatlinburg
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

A short morning walk past the Bryson City depot, where the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad starts its excursions, then we drive into Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Cherokee and climb Newfound Gap Road through hardwood forest into spruce and fir. Just below Newfound Gap we turn onto the Kuwohi road, aiming to reach the summit car park early, before it fills, which in October it does by late morning. Kuwohi, called Clingmans Dome until 2024, is the highest point in the Smokies at 2,025 metres; a steep paved path of about 0.8 km leads to the observation tower and its long view over ridge after ridge of blue haze. We drive back down to Newfound Gap for our stop on the Tennessee state line, where the Appalachian Trail crosses and Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park in 1940.

Après-midi

Then we wind down into Tennessee to Gatlinburg for a sit-down lunch.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free: the Sugarlands Visitor Center, a walk along the river, or a rest before tomorrow's early start.

Compris

• Newfound Gap Road across the Smokies with stops at the overlooks
• Kuwohi summit path and observation tower
• Newfound Gap and the Rockefeller Memorial
• Sit-down lunch in Gatlinburg
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park parking tags

Activités en option

• In June, an evening at Elkmont for the synchronous fireflies, only if the park's lottery parking passes allow it

Cades Cove at dawn and Laurel Falls

Gatlinburg to Cades Cove, Townsend and Laurel Falls, then back to Gatlinburg

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Gatlinburg
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

The one early start of the week: we leave Gatlinburg about an hour before sunrise (about 6:45 am in October, 5:20 am in June; the exact time is confirmed with your dates) and follow Little River Road to Cades Cove, a broad valley ringed by mountains where farming families lived until the park was created. We enter the 18 km one-way loop as it opens at sunrise and the mist lifts off the fields, which is when black bears, white-tailed deer and wild turkeys are out. Your guide drives at walking pace and stops when there is something to see, always at a safe distance, and we eat a packed breakfast at a pull-off. Then come the log cabins, the Primitive Baptist and Methodist churches and the Cable Mill, before the cars build up mid-morning.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Townsend. On the way back we walk the paved trail to Laurel Falls, a two-tier waterfall in the forest, about 4 km there and back.

Soir

We are in Gatlinburg by mid-afternoon for a rest before the farewell dinner.

Compris

• Cades Cove Loop Road at sunrise with your guide
• Packed breakfast in the cove
• The John Oliver Cabin, the cove churches and the Cable Mill
• Sit-down lunch in Townsend
• The Laurel Falls trail
• Farewell dinner in Gatlinburg

Knoxville and home

Gatlinburg to downtown Knoxville, then McGhee Tyson Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

After a later breakfast we leave the mountains and drive about an hour and a quarter to Knoxville, on the Tennessee River. Your guide walks the group from Market Square, the city's old market place now ringed by cafes, along Gay Street with its theatres to World's Fair Park, built for the 1982 World's Fair. The gold-glass Sunsphere still stands over it, and from its observation level, when open, you look back east to the line of the Smokies you have just crossed.

Après-midi

Lunch is your own choice in the city before the half-hour drive to McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS); book a flight leaving after about 3 pm to see Knoxville, or we go straight to the airport. Your guide sees you to the airport and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you are carrying on to Nashville, about three and a half hours west by road, or to our Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans trip, we can drop you downtown instead.

Compris

• Walk through downtown Knoxville: Market Square, Gay Street and World's Fair Park
• The Sunsphere
• Drop-off at McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) or downtown Knoxville