River Arts District, Asheville NC

If you have never visited Asheville, you need to, it is a beautiful place to visit! Its filled with stunning views, tasty food and awesome shops.

On our trip to Asheville we decided to visit the River Arts District. Its an area of industrial and historical buildings that run along the river that is full of studios, galleries, food, cafes, stores, breweries and more. There are over 200 artist there that work in all different types of mediums creating beautiful art. If you are looking to buy art its one of the best places I’ve ever been to because there are so many artist of all different styles you have a lot of great art to choose from.

You can walk through the galleries and studios and look at all of the amazing art as well as interact with the artist to here more about them. Most of the artist are happy to chat and talk about the art that they make. You can also watch them work, some do live paintings and things like that where they welcome people to come and watch. I didnt take any pictures inside the galleries or studios because I wasn’t sure If that was really allowed, I’m sure you could ask if you would like to take pictures of the artist or in there studio space. All these photos were of just walking around outside in the area.

Not only is there a ton of art to look at the buildings are covered in graffiti. Its a great place to shoot photos, when we were there we saw mostly photographers walking around.

There is also a skate park area where people skateboard which was fun to watch.

Here is a map of the area, there are train tracks running through the area too. It can be a little confusing at first so if you are unsure of where to go talk to someone in a gallery and I’m sure they would be happy to explain where you are on the map and how to get to where you need to go.

We were there for a couple of hours and needed a lot more time to explore the area, so plan for at least a full day to go through all of the galleries.

When you first arrive I would drive along the river and down the roads that are part of the river arts district so you get a good idea of the area.

There are lots of cool places to photograph outside, the graffiti is a super cool backdrop to photos and you get a chance to look at the graffiti art too!

We didn’t get a chance to eat at any of the restaurants but they all looked really good and I have heard good things about the white duck taco shop as well as 12 bones.

If you don’t want to eat in the river arts district, Curate and The Marketplace Restaurant are really good choices in downtown Asheville.

Asheville is a beautiful place to visit and there is a lot to explore and do. Its nestled in the mountains and has so many unique shops, great food and its the home of the Biltmore Estate which is always excellent to visit. If you like to hike too there are lots of places close by to hike with stunning views. A great nearby hike is up chimney rock in Lake Lure(pictured below).