We visited Hendersonville as part of our Thanksgiving Mountains loop in November 2025.

Hendersonville is only twenty miles from Brevard, our previous stop, and only thirty miles from Asheville. We could have easily visited as a day trip from either of those places, but we are so glad we spent two nights in Hendersonville instead. It’s fantastic, from it’s cute downtown shopping area, to the high-quality food and drink offerings, to convenient hiking.

The day before we arrived, the New York Times published an article about Hendersonville. Good timing, but we’d already done our research–we knew Hendersonville had a historic downtown, was spitting distance from both Dupont State Recreational Forest and Pisgah National Forest, and there was a good deal of crossover between our food/beverage lists and theirs.

We explored two sections of Hendersonville’s downtown on foot: Main Street, and the Seventh Avenue Depot District. Main Street, while charming, was packed on Black Friday. We popped into a couple shops, and tried for coffee at Black Bear Coffee Co and Art and Coffee Bar and bailed on both because they were too busy. Instead, we had a beer. Did I mention Hendersonville is home to eleven breweries? The Seventh Avenue area was much more relaxed: way fewer people, and cool restaurants, bakeries, and, yes, breweries.

Campground

We stayed at Lakewood RV Resort, an adults-only campground at the back of a small retirement community. It’s near the interstate but very peaceful. RVs must be less than 10 years old, more than 20 feet long, and have a toilet onboard. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the age limit rule, and we’re about to bump into it as this year (2026) our Airstream is 10!

Hiking

The moderate five-mile Strawberry Gap hike took us through the woods up to beautiful Blue Ridge Pastures. There, you can connect to the Trombatore Trail, an old favorite that we’ve done a couple times, in 2016 and again in 2021. It’s a 35-minute drive from the campground.

We were happy that this 4.5-mile hike through the grounds of the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site was easy to shorten to just a few miles since it started sleeting as we begin the hike. Carl Sandburg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, bought the 264-acre property in 1945 to facilitate his writing and his wife’s goat-rearing. The trails were very pretty, with a surprising view at the top, and the drive from home was only ten minutes.

Eating and drinking

Before hiking Strawberry Gap, we made an early lunch reservation at Claywood, 12 minutes away in the Seventh Avenue area. It’s a gorgeous farm-to-table restaurant in an old farmers’ cooperative building, and we were thrilled with the food. Here’s my note about my lunch: “Brussels sprouts and hush puppies yay!!!” Their veggie Reuben looked fab too, as did the seasonal cocktails; I’d love to return and try those.

The other meal we ate out was at Trailside Brewing. We both ate rice and veggie bowls and added protein, and they hit the spot. I have more to say about Trailside below.

Breweries

J the beer guy read up on the Hendersonville breweries and targeted six, and we at least peeked in the windows of all of them:

Boodas Brewing Co, Main St area of downtown. It was crammed full of families with small children so we left.

Oklawaha Brewing, Main St area of downtown. Now we’re talking. Good beer, friendly people, cool space, and J was very excited about his pork sandwich from the popup Italian sandwich restaurant.

Dry Falls Brewing, Main St area of downtown. Their beers were not to our liking.

Guidon Brewing, Seventh Ave district of downtown. Nice people and entertaining dogs, but the German-style beer is not our cup of tea. FYI, it’s pronounced “guide-on”; a guidon is a small military flag.

Southern Appalachian Brewing, Seventh Ave district of downtown. They weren’t open yet when we walked by (which seemed odd as it was late Friday afternoon) and we couldn’t see the taproom through the front windows.

Trailside Brewing Co, just west of downtown. Oh man we loved Trailside. Along with a market/cafe and a bike rental shop, Trailside is part of a huge complex , Lennox Station, a historic building from 1915 sitting right next to the Ecusta Trail (more on that under To Do below). The taproom is large and very dog-friendly, and the beer was so very good. They had me at key lime sour, and I also tasted and loved the tangerine sour: both perfectly tart, not too sweet.

We strolled through a Christmas craft market while sipping, then ate dinner from their in-house restaurant while watching the awful first half of our college football team’s season finale game. Except for the football results, it was a fantastic evening and our favorite place in Hendersonville.

We also enjoyed a beer at:

• Blue Ridge Beer Garden, a neat place in an old filling station downtown, with lots on tap and seating both indoors and outdoors
• Turgua Brewery/Cidery/Meadery, which we spotted on our way to the Strawberry Gap hike and so stopped on the way home. It was too cold to sit in the big backyard, but we liked the bird theme inside the taproom. Beers were creative, making use of local ingredients.

To do

Hiking

• Check out the view on a clear day from Jump Off Rock, 15 minutes west of downtown
• Visit the Arboretum: admire plants, go for a hike, maybe eat at the bistro. It’s also easy to do from Asheville
• If we’re looking for a more urban hike/walk/bike ride/rollerblade situation, Hendersonville is home to two paved multi-use trails, Ecusta Trail and Oklawaha Trail. The Ecusta Trail, built on an old railroad bed, is currently six miles long, and will eventually connect downtown Hendersonville with downtown Brevard, for a total of 20 miles. The Oklawaha Trail is currently 3.5 miles long, connecting four parks a short drive from downtown.

Eating and drinking

• Hearth and Herron restaurant caught our eye while strolling the Seventh Avenue area
• West First for ridiculously good-looking wood-fired pizza downtown
• Postero is an upscale restaurant on Main St
• Pinky Promise Bar for craft cocktails and funky decor on Main St

From Hendersonville, we drove 35 minutes past Asheville (gasp! Asheville is one of our favorites!) to Black Mountain.