Highlights

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Itinerary

Day 1 – Asheville, NC

Today, arrive in Asheville, NC where you check into your hotel for a two-night stay.  Dinner is included this evening at a local restaurant. (D)

Day 2 – Full Day Biltmore Estate Experience – Lunch at Deerpark Restaurant

This is a full day at the Biltmore Estate the luxurious family home of George and Edith Vanderbilt is a marvel of elegance and charm, as magnificent today as it was more than a century ago. Faithfully preserved and filled with original furnishings and masterpieces of art, no other residence in America offers a more authentic and inspiring view of Gilded Age life while suggesting that the Vanderbilts and their guests are still at home.

Savor a self-guided visit, with audio headset, to the Biltmore House exploring grand spaces filled with masterpieces of art and stunning antiques, into private family quarters, indoor pool and bowling alley, and kitchens and servants’ areas.

Lunch today will be at the Deerpark Restaurant located on the estate grounds.  At Deerpark Restaurant you’ll savor mouth-watering southern cuisine served buffet-style in a peaceful, natural setting with plenty of rustic charm and sweeping views of estate pastures from its front door.

This afternoon, enjoy a tour of the winery.  At the Biltmore Winery you delight in free wine tastings and a redesigned self-guided tour to learn how they make award-winning wines. You will also have time to browse Antler Hill.

At Antler Hill Village, step into the everyday lives of families who lived on the estate raising livestock, tending crops, and working at Biltmore Dairy in the 1890s. The Barn in Antler Hill Village – once the social and work center for these families – is alive again with blacksmiths, woodworkers, and other craft demonstrations; The Barn Door featuring a unique selection of American made arts and crafts items; and a Smokehouse offering Carolina barbeque, quick sandwiches, and other Southern favorites.

Visit the exhibits at The Biltmore Legacy, located in Antler Hill Village. The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad exhibition offers you: an opportunity to view rarely-seen treasures from the Biltmore collection, a first-hand look at the Vanderbilts’ lifestyle and, deeper insights into George, Edith, and Cornelia’s personalities, both at home and on their extensive travels.

Returning to the hotel this evening, dinner is on your own. (B,L)

Day 3 – Great Smoky Mountain Railroad w/lunch – Pigeon Forge, TN – Choice of Show

This morning it’s “All Aboard” for a scenic train adventure through the fertile valleys and rolling river gorges of the Great Smoky Mountains. This area of Western North Carolina offers a vast array of ever changing, beautiful landscapes. Spring brings a sweet fragrance of flowers in bloom, summer offers a cool mountain breeze and autumn’s fall foliage sets the mountains ablaze. Truly spectacular!

Your excursion on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad is a 4 1/2-hour, 44-mile round trip ride along the Tuckasegee River and over the impressive Fontana Lake Trestle into the Nantahala River Gorge and back again arriving at the Bryson City Depot.  Your excursion also includes a boxed lunch.

The afternoon features travel to Pigeon Forge, TN where on arrival, check into your hotel for a two-night stay.  This evening, enjoy your choice of show or dinner show.  Choose from: Country Tonite Theatre, The Comedy Barn Theater or Paula Deen’s Lumberjack Feud.  Dinner and Show options include: Dolly Parton’s Stampede, Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud, and Pirates Voyage Dinner and Show. (B,D)

Day 4 – Smoky Mountain Troubadour Tour – Free Time at the Island – Titanic Museum – Molly Brown Gilded Age Dinner on he Titanic

This morning, enjoy the new Smoky Mountain Troubadour Tour.  Your local guide, also a talented musician, will lead you on a tour of the Great Smoky Mountains.  Enjoy the beauty and splendor of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park while listening to your guide play a little mountain tune.

Next, enjoy some free time and lunch on own at The Island, boasting 23 acres of entertainment. With over 80 shops, restaurants and attractions, The Island offers a diverse selection of activities. The Island Show Fountains are programmed to music and lights year-round and you can purchase a ticket to ride “The Wheel” which is 200 feet tall.  There truly is something for everyone to enjoy at The Island.

This afternoon you have s guided tour of the ship-shaped museum. This one-of-a-kind attraction lets guests experience what it was like to be a real passenger on the ship, to walk Titanic’s passageways, parlors, cabins and Grand Staircase while surrounded by more than 300, rare artifacts.  Along the way, guests can steer the ship,  touch a real iceberg, reach their hands into 28 degree water, try to stand on a gradually, sloping deck and sit in a lifeboat and listen to the voices of actual passengers recall their narrow escapes.   Guests do all of this in the name of one of the passengers or crew members that were on the Titanic.  The fate will be revealed in the Titanic Memorial Room where the names of survivors and victims are posted.

After the special, Titanic Royalty Dinner-Tour, guests will sit-down with Margaret “Molly” Brown in Titanic’s “Secret” private dining room for a first class dinner in her honor. Learn how she became one of the most successful and famous women in the world, how and why she was on Titanic and the truth about her actions during and after the fatal sinking disaster.  It promises to be a Titanic experience that your guests will never forget, especially if you dress for the evening in style for the occasion.  (B,D)

Day 5 – Depart for Home

After breakfast, depart for home. (B)

Tour Map