If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD193.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
When it comes to creature comforts, Blind Tiger Asheville is a marvellous specimen. This bed and breakfast moved into an utterly charming 19th-century Queen Anne house close to Downtown and quickly embodied the Asheville spirit, with statement furnishings sourced from thrift and antique stores, local snacks stocked in the (free for guests) pantry, and an itinerary by a different notable resident in each room. With its frisson of creative energy, and laidback nature too, plus easy access to culture, food, nature and all that’s good, we’ll happily bite.
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Local treats from Hop’d lemonade and the Cathead Cannery
14, including seven suites and one standalone cottage.
Check–Out
11am. Check-in is from 4pm to 6pm. Both can be flexible, subject to availability and on request, and if you’ll be checking in late, please try to let hotel staff know in advance.
Prices
Double rooms from £174.64 ($218), including tax at 13 per cent.
More details
Rates include a help-yourself grab-and-go breakfast, and snacks and beverages from the pantry.
Also
Room 9 is accessible and adapted, with a nearby parking space and grab bars in the bathroom. However, the main entrances to the hotel have either a gravel path or steps.
At the hotel
Garden and furnished patio, parlour, lounge with a piano and workspaces, open pantry filled with local snacks and drinks, concierge, and free WiFi. In rooms: waffle bathrobes, black-out shades, and DS & Durga bath products. Some rooms have heating and air-conditioning, a mini fridge, wine glasses and a corkscrew, and hair straighteners.
Our favourite rooms
Each of the 14 rooms is uniquely decorated using vintage pieces (we especially love the light fixtures, colour-pop desk chairs, sculptural recliners, woven-leather headboards, and mid-century seating) and local artworks, from paintings to wicker installations – all very Asheville indeed. You could have a bright white artist loft, one of the 19th-century house’s original bedrooms with a cozy fireplace, or one with a separate sitting area, private porch or patio – there’s one to suit every personality. And for a bit more space and privacy, book Cottage 8, which stands alone in the grounds.
Packing tips
If you forget anything, go check in the pantry – with toothbrushes, eye-masks and more, it’s not just for snack raids.
Also
Tune in – the hotel has carefully curated playlists too. And guests can tinkle the ivories on the antique piano in the lounge.
Pet‐friendly
Studio Suite 7 and Cottage 8 are both pet-friendly. Up to two dogs (under 70 pounds) can stay in either for $50 each a night. They’re not allowed in public areas and must be leashed; and a $250 cleaning fee applies for stains or damages. See more pet-friendly hotels in Asheville.
Children
Small families will be comfortable here as long as they plan on exploring (there are no facilities or distractions for kids on-site), and rooms 9, 10 and 11 all have a day-bed one child can sleep on for $50 a night.
Sustainability efforts
Asheville is forward-thinking when it comes to sustainability, and so the hotel follows suit, with vintage pre-loved and repurposed furnishings throughout, and a strong sense of locality in the snacks and drinks, breakfast offerings and art displayed throughout.
With fill-yourself picnic baskets and blankets to borrow here, the concept of a ‘table’ expands to a rocky ridge at Beacon Heights, grassy trail on the Biltmore Estate, slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains, or by the spray of Crabtree Falls.
Dress Code
It depends on how dressed up you want to be for breakfast, but you will want to take notes from Asheville’s artistic nature, so even if you’re just wearing jammies, make sure they’re a fashion fit.
Hotel restaurant
The hotel only serves breakfast, which is a very casual grab-and-go affair, with cookies, oatmeal, granola, yogurt, muffins with toppings, and more. The ‘go’ isn’t mandatory – you’re welcome to sit in the lounge or kick off your day by the garden’s koi pond. And if you’re peckish in the day, the pantry is filled with free snacks and drinks from expertly chosen Asheville indie suppliers (from pretzel braids to cookies, to gourmet chips, to penny candies).
Hotel bar
There’s a n espresso machine and French presses filled with decaf, plus soft drinks aplenty in the pantry. Otherwise you’re welcome to dive into your hauls from local breweries (after all, Asheville has the most per capita in the US), uncork bottles from Metro Wines down the road (your room has glasses and a corkscrew), or pick up a bottle of spirits from Trader Joe’s on Merrimon Avenue and mix up cocktails using the fixings at the hotel.
Blind Tiger Asheville’s white porch and picket fence is a welcoming sight amid the Queen Anne and Victorian houses of historic residential ’hood Chestnut Hills, close to Downtown.
Planes
Domestic hub Asheville Regional Airport is just 20 minutes’ drive from the hotel and has connections to major cities across the country. The closest international hubs are Greenville-Spartanburg (around an hour’s drive away) and Charlotte Douglas near the capital (about two hours’ drive).
Trains
Amtrak trains traversing the south-east stop at Greenville.
Automobiles
A car won’t just come in handy, but it’ll let you experience the famously scenic (especially during fall) Blue Ridge Parkway; each room has an allocated parking space for one vehicle.
Worth getting out of bed for
Here you can get your exploring tips straight from the horse’s (tiger’s?) mouth, with local guides curated by Asheville creatives and luminaries left in each room. These include the founder of the LEAF arts festival, chef Jacob Sessoms, founder of the Wild Bird Research Group, general manager of Wedge Brewing Co, and more. And there’s plenty to prowl close by: have a wizard time at the Pinball Museum, have a Rousseau moment in the botanical gardens, and tour Bonfire of the Vanities author Thomas Wolfe’s magnolia-hued Queen Anne house. Tour studios and score some original artwork (from paintings to pottery, jewelry and sculptures) at the River Arts District (RAD for short) and Downtown Art District; and find more creative souvenirs at shops such as Loft of Asheville, non-profit Ten Thousand Villages, Harvest Records, and Malaprop’s Bookstore (which also has a cute café). Sauna House’s sauna-to-cold-plunge-pool experience has proved very refreshing, as has the city’s rooftop bar tours, albeit in a different way. And, Asheville rounds off its cultural scene at the Orange Peel, an iconic venue for live music, and the riverside Salvage Station.
But as great as Asheville city is, its outdoors might have it beat, with wildflower-strewn, waterfall-revealing trails criss-crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains, climbs to scenic viewpoints at Chimney Rock Park, Wai Mauna SUP Tours along the French Broad River, and other ways to turn the wilds into your playground. While the Biltmore Estate (America’s largest home, built by phenomenally wealthy George Vanderbilt) might be best known for its grand residence and important artworks, its grounds are perfect for a ramble too. And the Blue Ridge Parkway is a hell of a ride, especially in fall when the foliage is aflame with color.
Local restaurants
Asheville’s culinary scene – at the delicious juncture between southern comfort food and fine dining – is so lauded that you might be forgiven for thinking that James Beard awards are handed out as standard. Take cool casual dining spot All Day, Darling, the project of Beard recipient Jacob Sessoms, where days start with fried-chicken biscuit sandwiches with honey and harissa aioli, then move on to quality takes on classic sandwiches and burgers, and imaginative salads. Chai Pani’s accolades stem from its flavorful Indian street food and thalis, and Neng Jr’s has also been awarded for its heartfelt Filipino fare. For trays of smoky-sweet meats, Luella’s Bar-B-Que will leave you loosening your belt, and Plant redresses the balance with its creative vegan menu (wild nettle masala, crispy mushroom mole or lasagna cruda). And with dishes more imaginative than its name, Table is a New American hotspot and another win for Sessoms, serving up swordfish with persimmon, roasted chicken and dumplings, hanger steak, and more seasonal delights.
Local cafés
Liberty House Coffee & Café is beloved for its sourdough pancakes and seasonal espresso flavours, but really all of the breakfast menu will keep you coming back. And if you’re craving true southern delicacies (shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, chicken and waffles), Tupelo Honey Café will be delighted to be of service.
Local bars
You won’t make much of a dent in the Crow and Quill’s 600 whiskeys and 1,000 spirits (including rare and out-of-production bottles), but you can certainly try, or at least knock back one of the ‘top-shelf’ cocktails, such as the Super Premium #7 (Old Forester 1920 Craft bourbon, Gran Classico Bitter liqueur, house vermouth, rose water and rose-petal smoke). Sour beers might be an acquired taste, but everyone will love Wicked Weed’s Funkatorium, which specialises in cheek-puckering sips, but has a broader range of drinks and a brilliant roster of live acts. As does Asheville Guitar Bar, whose Sunday house jams pack the place out.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this historic homestead with an artistic side close to Downtown and unpacked their paintings and pottery, a full account of their creatively charged break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Blind Tiger Asheville in North Carolina…
With his dapper cravat and frosted flakes, Tony the Tiger has stood alone as an arbiter of large cats with taste for years. But now, art-led bed and breakfast Blind Tiger (part of the Lark group) has come roaring into Asheville, taking up residence in a restored 1889 house littered with locally made artwork and statement-making furnishings scavenged in thrift and antique stores. Each bedroom – from an all-white artist’s loft to cosy standalone cottage, to mid-century nest – has a unique character, and most come with working fireplaces and jetted tubs to make them all the cosier. But don’t get too comfortable – lounges and coffee shops make this stay very sociable, local luminaries have left curated guides for guests to follow, and you’re in pole position for discovering Asheville’s art and food scenes, and jaw-dropping natural scenery beyond. And, at the end of the day you can raid the pantry for (free) local snacks and cocktail fixings (you’ll need to BYO spirits) to enjoy by the garden’s koi pond or the lounge’s flickering fire, or nab an eye mask and flump onto your king-size. It’s a whole new beast when it comes to hospitality, and – with all respect to Tone – we think this tiger is pretty grr-eat.
