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Downtown Asheville Guide |
| More Downtown: Beer & Brew Pubs | Shopping | Galleries | Urban Trail | Grove Arcade | Restaurants | Dancing & Live Music | Basilica of St. Lawrence | Thomas Wolfe Home | Architecture | Bookstores | Asheville Art Museum | Coffee Shops & Bakeries | Wine Bars | Lexington Gateway Mural | Downtown After 5 | Orange Peel Club | Downtown Fall Photos | Pack Square Park | Jackson Building | Civil War Sites | Colburn Earth Science Museum | Downtown Photos | Chocolate Tour | Asheville Tourists Baseball |
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Asheville's lively downtown has great architecture, interesting museums, 200 locally owned stores including 15 antique shops and 30 art galleries, 50 restaurants, 10 coffee shops, 10 breweries and a dozen nightspots with live music or dancing (see links above for guides on each). There are many festivals and events downtown, including Bele Chere, Shindig on the Green, Downtown After 5, and the weekly Drum Circle. Enjoy a festival or have a picnic in Pack Square Park. The Asheville Civic Center & Thomas Wolfe Auditorium and The Orange Peel host many major concerts and events.
For a walking tour, take the Urban Trail. For a zany bus tour of Asheville landmarks, check out LaZoom Tours.
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Asheville NC Downtown Tour
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Fine art, gifts, fresh food, crafts, and more at the Grove Arcade city market with dozens of locally owned shops and restaurants. |
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Take an evening stroll down
Wall Street. |
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Vance Monument marks the
center of town. |
Follow the 1.7-mile Asheville Urban Trail with wonderful sculptures. |
40 galleries showcase work of hundreds of local artists. See our Gallery Guide. |
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Browse more than 200 shops, including Mast General Store. |
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Drum Circle every Friday night in warmer months
Looking down Haywood Street at the intersection with Battery Park.
Looking for outdoor adventure? Ride zip lines on a canopy tour near downtown with views of the skyline and mountains. Read about Asheville Zipline Canopy Tours.
Take an electric bike guided tour in downtown and nearby neighborhoods. Read about Electro Bike Tours.
 Downtown Asheville Shopping
Grove Arcade: This renovated historic building is worth a visit to admire the architecture alone, but it's also a wonderful place to wander, shop or visit galleries. The dining options range from Chicago-style hot dogs to frozen custard, wine bars to coffee shops, upscale restaurants to sidewalk cafes.
Haywood Street: From chocolate to contemporary furniture to wigs, you can find it all on Haywood. See the works of 150 artists at Woolworth Walk, browse Malaprops Bookstore and get your craft supplies at the Earth Guild.
Wall Street: This picturesque side street features a mix of unique shops and some great restaurants like Early Girl and Market Place.
Broadway & Biltmore This street changes name at the monument, with Broadway to one side of Patton Avenue and Biltmore to the other. It is lined with local institutions like Mast General Store and Blue Sprial I gallery, along with many restaurants with outdoor dining.
Lexington Avenue: It's described as "funky and eclectic" and "hip and happening." The street has adopted the motto "where world culture meets counter culture." Eclectic it is: watch glass blowing at Crucible Glassworks, enjoy lunch at a French bistro, get vintage clothing at Hip Replacements, and find many of the grittier stores of Asheville.
See a map of downtown. |
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More Downtown Photos
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Downtown has become a hotspot not only for tourists, but for locals as well. On any given evening Downtown Asheville hums with life as people stroll the streets shopping, dining at a variety of eateries, and being entertained by the diverse mix of culture, music and art that have led this city center to be dubbed the "Paris of the South."
One of Downtown Asheville’s greatest attributes is that there are so many things to do. Not only that, they are easy to get to. Downtown Asheville is so compact that you can park and walk to everything. |
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Tips for Parking in Downtown Asheville
New for 2013! A 412-space public parking deck downtown behind the new Aloft Hotel. Enter from Biltmore Avenue or from the entrance above at 60 S. Lexington Ave. |
PARKING GARAGES
The easiest solution to parking is using on of the four city parking decks. In all city parking garages, parking booths are attended Monday-Friday, 10 AM-7 PM. During these times, customers may pay for hourly parking and also pay parking citations. During other hours, payment is made when exiting from the garages using the exit pay-in-lane stations. Both the attendants and stations accepts coins, cash, validation tickets, and Mastercard or Visa credit cards. The reasonable amount is a flat fee and depends on the garage as listed below.
- Civic Center Parking Deck is entered from Haywood or Rankin (550 spaces)
- Rankin Avenue Parking Deck is entered from Walnut or Rankin (262 spaces)
- Wall Street Parking Deck (adjacent to Grove Arcade) is entered from Otis Street near Patton Avenue (232 spaces)
- Aloft Hotel Public Parking Deck is at 51 Biltmore Avenue (412 spaces)
There are a couple of privately owned parking garages in Asheville downtown that are usually more expensive, but very convenient.
ON STREET PARKING
There are more than 700 on-street metered spaces in downtown Asheville. All meters are for short term parking (two hours or less, as marked) at a cost of $1 per hour. All meters accept coins only. The metered spaces are enforced from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Parking is FREE each Sunday and City holidays. Designated City holidays include New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Friday after Thanksgiving, and Christmas (3 days). There is no need to "feed the meters" on these days. However, regulations for Handicapped Parking and Loading Zones are still enforced.
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