Spent a fun weekend in Asheville with our food tour hosted by Lindy serving as one of the…read morehighlights. The tour featured 6 great local spots, with a fun, tasty bite and/or beverage at each stop along the way. Lindy did a great job sharing the rich history of Asheville and providing a personal take on each of our stops. I highly recommend the Taste Carolina Food Tours as a great way to get to know the heart of the town.

On a recent anniversary trip to Asheville, my husband and I enjoyed Eating Asheville's historical…read moredowntown food tour. We decided to splurge for The High Roller option as it was only around $10 more a person and included beverage parings with the food. Included is up to 6 stops at restaurants, bars, or desserteries with at-least 3 alcoholic beverages pairings and then other non-alcoholic options. The tour lasts about 2.5- 3 hours. This is a walking in food tour, so you have to be able and willing to travel on foot some. It wasn't a ton of walking, but did work up a little sweat as it was a warmer Friday afternoon (this tour is offered Thursday- Sunday). We had a small group of 6 people plus our tour guide. She was very sweet and personable. I think she may have been semi new at this as her story flow was a little jumbled, but it didn't bother me too much as honestly she was trying and I was interested in food way more than history. She did point out some important sites along the way and give us some fun Asheville facts. Great thing about these tours is they do vary. While the company has a number of places they work with which ones are selected for you, depends on the day, time, season etc. So you could honestly do these tours more than once and experience new things still. Our tour began at Asheville Charcuterie where we each enjoyed a personalized board of meat, cheese, cracker, fruit, and a local spicy honey. It was also served with a Bold Rock cider. This was a cute shop where you can get a drink or snack there or take items with you to go. Next was to the Grove Arcade where we hit Bebettes, a New Orleans coffeehouse with fresh out the oven beignets with a warm chocolate dipping sauce, served with a shot of coffee. So yummy. I felt bad about all the power sugar I got everywhere. Gotta love a dessert on stop 2! For the third s location was Strada Italiano. The food here was excellent. We sampled one of their arancini balls and a grilled Florentine ravioli. Both were delicious bites and executed flawlessly. Great Italian fare with some red wine. My husband and I agreed we want to come back here for a full Italian dinner experience on our next trip. Starting to feel a little full at this point, not gonna lie but things continued to get more hearty at The Rhu. We got to enjoy their house breakfast sausage and pimento cheese on a buttermilk biscuit. Thank goodness they only gave us half each as these bad boys were thick. All three components were so tasty, with the pimento cheese winning for me. It came with some iced tea, which was definitely southern and sweet. I knew we had one more food stop left before dessert. Imagine my surprise when it was an Indiana buffet at Mehfil. On the fifth stop? Lord, a bad day to wear jeans! They place was so generous giving us a like private mini buffet of items like tandoori chicken, saag paneer, naan, butter chicken, rice and more. I truly wish I had room to eat more as everything was so tasty, especially their tandoori chicken. Also they had the best beverage pairing with a pear mule cocktail - perfectly light and smooth for a warm day. Our tour guide joked that we would need to cancel our dinner reservations, turns out they weren't kidding. The last stop was Asheville Chocolate. So many amazing sweet treats you could enjoy at this place. We wrapped up our tour with a chocolate truffle and cookies and cream gelato. I had to ask my husband to help finish these as I was stuffed. Before departing, we tipped our guide. This is not required, but we were happy to do so as she worked hard and took great care of us. After the tour, not gonna lie went back to our hotel and had an amazing nap! Sign of a good food tour! I thought this food tour was a great deal for the $90 per person price. I know at first it sounds like a lot. But we more than got $15 worth at each place from the food and drink itself, plus to convenience of being able to just walk in to a reserved table at a popular restaurant with a planned bite ready in a few minutes. Not to mention, having a personal tour guide to take you around and teach you about where you are, what you are eating , and Asheville in general. If you like to eat, and can eat a lot (you will be very full but it's worth it), take this tour. It was a great way to get a taste of places you've never been and decide where you wanna go back to and try a full meal next time!

Did we have a good time overall? Yes. However, do I think…read moreit's worth the $92/person price tag all in with taxes and fees... to sample 5 places with varying portions of food and drink? Not quite. The classic before fees is $79/person. It offers "minimum of 5 stops and at least 2 drink pairings" from their website. Don't get me started on the 15.5% extra they tack on for "taxes and fees". If the unavoidable city tax for Asheville is 7%, the remainder is 8.5% for what? Their website/payment services? To be fair, the pricing is similar to one we took part in NOLA $78/person with Destination Kitchen but the food and portions were more balanced (albeit without drink pairings). For $10 more base price, you can book the high roller tour $89/person. After all is said and done I'm wondering if we should have spent the extra amount and upgraded to the high roller since the descriptor highlights "most elegant, trendy, and acclaimed" options. I understand the business also needs to make a profit along with giving a cut to the tour guides. At the beginning and throughout the tour, the guide continued to emphasize that if we were still hungry by the end that they have not done their jobs. However, there's more to consider. I'll go through the 5 places we tried and how one of the newest additions isn't even listed still on their website so if you were to look ahead of time for the offerings you would not expect it! We met our group inside the Grove Street Arcade on a Monday in September which is a great spot with some shops and public restrooms before we started. STOP 1 - The Rhu https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-rhu-asheville This is the cafe/breakfast bakery sister to Rhubarb, which is more upscale. They prepared a small cup of iced sweet tea with half of their breakfast sandwich. The refreshing tea with sugar cubes paired nicely with the buttery biscuit sandwich. Value: $8.50 for full sandwich and drink was not listed so going to estimate total is worth one sandwich. STOP 3 - Bold Rock https://www.yelp.com/biz/bold-rock-asheville-asheville The Cidery story actually started in VA but I'm glad they expanded to NC. We sampled a 6~7 oz cider paired with a Bruschetta and Bacon Apple Grilled Cheese. (American, cheddar, goat cheese, local apples, bacon, Dijon aioli, sourdough) It was super tasty and really enjoyed everything!! Value: ~$5 half pour, ~$10 for the food so one of the better values STOP 3 - Mëhfil https://www.yelp.com/biz/mehfil-asheville-2 Full buffet spread of ~6 Indian dishes with Mango Lassi and a tasty alcoholic beverage too! Now this place is the spot I mentioned isn't even listed with their logo on the restaurant page... I checked their Instagram which isn't updated frequently either and they announced just the day before our tour so this is brand NEW. Unfortunately this is one of the cuisines my SO does not eat. We would not have known that reserving in advance... which is a shame. Value: ~$25-30 honestly since they were offering generous full size portions of their dishes that you could serve yourself, this was hands down the best cost wise. If you were to fill up it would be at this stop. The staff were also super nice and hospitable! STOP 4 - Manicomio Pizza https://www.yelp.com/biz/manicomio-pizza-asheville Plain and simple pizzeria with some funky designs. We sampled a single slice which may have been their special of the day with cherry tomato and artichoke and a lemon wedge to spritz. It tasted good, but forgettable. They just gave us water. Value: $5.50 by the slice for daily special STOP 5 FINAL - Sunshine Sammies https://www.yelp.com/biz/sunshine-sammies-asheville Makes sense we'd end on dessert and we sampled 1/2 a sandwich of I believe their seasonal pumpkin! It was a sweet way to conclude the tour. Value: $4, a full size seasonal flavor is $8 I was full from the generous spread offered at Mëhfil which carried the food and drink side of the tour. Unfortunately my SO didn't get to fully enjoy the experience, and there was no way we could have expected they'd take us to the new restaurant that was just announced. Even being generous with some of my estimates, I landed at value of ~$60, which is still short of the cost you're paying especially when more than half of these locations are more fast casual spots. The most disappointing was the pizzeria, since aside from the artwork I didn't feel anything unique about the taste and seems like a wasted opportunity given the list of other more interesting restaurants. I enjoyed the historical information the guide sprinkled throughout along with background about each of the locations. Next time I'll keep in mind for Mondays where many restaurants aren't open.

Riding a Segway was a bucket list item for me. When I got to do it a few years ago I couldn't wait…read moreto share it with my family. We took a two hour tour today and it was great! Ben was a great teacher and had us all (Mom, two teens) riding in no time. We had a great tour and got to see notable landmarks. For me it was the ride and bonding with my younger son over the experience. We had a blast riding the Segways. I highly recommend, 10/10, would do it again!

Three of us took this Segway tour and it was a really fun, unique experience. The price with tax…read morewas right at $200 not including the tip. We had such a great time exploring the city of Asheville and playing tourist. None of us had ever been on a Segway and we were happy for the time spent to make sure we were comfortable before heading out on the tour. They have a limit of 6 people per tour so it's a nice group and you can hear everything the guides have to say. I would highly recommend this as a great place to start on your visit to Asheville. You get to know the city, get recommendations for what else to do and where to eat for the rest of your trip and it's just a really fun way to start off your vacation!

A food tour is always a must for us. On our latest visit we decided to go on the food fan tour. It…read moreis $85 per person and that includes all of the food and alcoholic beverages. On this tour our stops included: Mountain Madre, Strada, Miyako House, White Duck Taco Shop, Mehfil and Asheville Chocolate. Our guide, Stu, was very knowledgeable and easy to talk to. Downtown Asheville is small so there wasn't a long time to wait between stops. Every restaurant had a great portion to offer so come very hungry. If this is your first time to Asheville then I highly recommend a food tour with Asheville Food Tours.

Had a fantastic food tour yesterday with Sarah. The restaurants were great, Sarah was delightful…read moreand the food..... outstanding! We were all so stuffed! Cannot recommend highly enough!

We really enjoyed the brewery facility tour. Sarah did an awesome job sharing information about the…read moregrounds and the Burial company.

We had an awesome tour with Sarah then dinner. The brisket cheese steak was off the hook. From the…read moredry hopped Pilsner to the imperial stout the beer was great. I especially loved their hazy beers.

What a wonderful tour with Mountain Mural Tours! We were lucky enough to score a last minute added…read moretour and just loved it! Thanks for all the information! We felt so familiar with the Asheville art scene when we were done! Plus it was very fun and lively! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Super fun and informative tour around The River Arts District and the city of Asheville. We learned…read moreso much about the local mural art and the cultural references surrounding each one. Would 200% recommend!

I can't recommend JuneBug Retro Resort enough as a wedding venue. We got married there in October…read more2025, and from the very beginning, the owner, Charlene, blew us away with her attitude, integrity, and thoroughness. She and the venue were the perfect fit for us. We were looking for a unique venue that celebrated our love of nature and allowed the celebration to continue into the night. Having our guests stay and camp with us in tents and the retro campers made the entire experience even more special. With all the effort and planning that goes into a wedding, one of our priorities was that the celebration didn't feel like it ended too soon. Charlene gave us incredible vendor recommendations and put us at ease countless times with her knowledge and experience. She is a rockstar! She knows how to keep things organized, how to keep everyone on track, and how to advocate for her couples when needed. Charlene, Tom, and the entire JuneBug crew are a well oiled machine that knows how to make your day run smoothly. The venue itself was absolutely beautiful, during our ceremony the creek was flowing behind us and the afternoon sun was filtering through the trees. It was peaceful and magical. There was plenty of space for guests to wander, and endless scenery options for wedding photos. The proximity to Weaverville and Asheville was also such a bonus compared to many other venues that require a longer drive. We felt that JuneBug offered incredible value for the cost. As a bride, the entire experience felt like a dreamy movie. Our original wedding date was scheduled for a week after Hurricane Helene came through, and sadly, we had to postpone. During that incredibly difficult time, Charlene showed her strength and compassion. She was there for us through the entire process of navigating a sudden rescheduling of our wedding. They were dealing with so much of their own recovery, yet they never missed a beat communicating with us and supporting us. They went through so much in the following months to make sure all of their couples still had the weddings they dreamed of. I will forever be grateful for everything they did for us, and JuneBug will always hold a very special place in my heart. You will be so glad you booked this venue!

As soon as I stumbled upon Junebug, while browsing wedding venues, I knew this was the perfect…read moreplace for our destination wedding! Our first conversation with Charlene, only further solidified that decision. We wanted to find a location with a unique, adventurous, whimsical-vibe, and could not have found a more perfect place! Not only is Charlene the kindest, sweetest person ever, but she is extremely organized and detail oriented, making the entire planning process smooth from start to finish. It was so reassuring, especially the day-of, to know she had everything handled and I could just be present and enjoy the day. Our guests have been raving about our wedding, saying it was the most fun wedding they have ever been to. Our friends loved staying in the on-site vintage campers. I would choose Junebug over and over again, and highly recommend them to anyone! I cannot say enough positive things about our experience.

I'm going to go ahead and give this business five stars but really I should give them 4 stars or…read more4.5 stars! I had a great time at this place. The staff is great! They are organized and very good at keeping guests safe and giving instructions on how to safely and properly throw your axes. The only thing I would say in a negative light is that the parking lot is too small and it's a little pricey. It cost us $25 per person for just one hour of axe throwing! It would be better to rent by the lane as we had three people at each lane! So it was about $70 a lane for an hour!

My best friend and I went Sunday and had the best time!!! Online reservations were very easy! Nice…read moreand easy location with parking! Wide variety of beers and other beverages! The music could have been better but I guess each to their own! The staff was very friendly and helpful with teaching me how to throw AND making sure that I could throw the axe so I just didn't think I had wasted my money! I will be going here again and again!