We visited Asheville in May 2025 as part of our May Carolinas loop. Read alllll of our other Asheville posts here.

We spent the final night of our May trip in our favorite close-to-home RV destination, Asheville, an easy 40-minute drive north from Brevard. With just one night in the city, we focused on our standard Asheville activities: looking at art, eating, drinking, and working out.

Campground

We stayed at Bear Creek RV Park and Campground, our new usual, I guess. I miss the convenience of Wilson’s, and the riverfront campsites and greenway access, but Bear Creek is SO much quieter. The campsites on the hill at Bear Creek have pretty views of the mountains and no jake brakes roaring through the night!

Food, drink, and activities

Downtown

Food: After dropping the Airstream at Bear Creek, we headed to lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant, Chai Pani. After a short wait, we pigged out on pani puri, aloo chole, and saag thali. YUM. Bonus: we got carryout salads to eat on the road the following day!

Art: Our three favorite art galleries in downtown Asheville are Blue Spiral 1, Momentum, and K2 Studio, so we made a sweaty circuit around downtown to hit all three of them.

Drink: In search of a refreshing beverage in some refreshing a/c, we landed at Times Bar for a cocktail. It’s a popular and cool spot in a historic Art Deco building, my favorite building in downtown Asheville.

Exercise: before leaving town, we got in a workout at our favorite gym in Asheville, MADabolic.

River Arts District

The RAD, ravaged by Hurricane Helene, is slowly rebuilding and reopening. We drove through, admiring the cleanup progress, on our way to Ultra Coffeebar… twice.

Drink: Post-Indian feast, we needed to pep up, so had a chai and some computer time at Ultra.

Food: Our after-MADabolic breakfast tradition has become a breakfast bagel and latte from Ultra, to enjoy as we pack up the Airstream to leave town.

West Asheville

Food: We love dinner at the bar at The Admiral. The food, drinks, and service are consistently stellar, and this time was no exception.

Drink: After dinner, we walked down Haywood to The Whale for a local beer and to enjoy the spring evening on their big dog-friendly patio.

Drink: Reddit was abuzz about Potential New Boyfriend so we had to pop by. Unfortunately for us, they only serve wine, and J wanted a beer. It had a really cool vibe, and they’re known for their desserts, so maybe we’ll try again another trip. Instead, we got J a beer at a fun divey neighborhood joint, Haywood Country Club.

To do

Regina’s, a self-described “modern diner” in West Asheville is on our radar after winning a USA Today award. It’s not walkable to other West Asheville stuff though so who knows when/if we’ll get there.

RAD Brewing, a new brewery in the RAD… no excuse not to try it next time

Whistle Hop and Dssolvr, two more breweries on the to-do list, carried over from our last Asheville post

And that’s a wrap on our May Carolinas loop. We had some good experiences that influenced our next trip plans (a trip that we just got home from as of this writing), and some really sad times, missing Bugsy. It’s hard carrying on AirstreamDog without our Airstream dog, but we’re muddling through, focusing on the many, many, many wonderful memories from our travels with her over the last ten years!