Non-Rev Trip to Asheville, NC – No Car & On a Budget

Like many flight attendants around the country, I have been on a furlough mitigating leave much of the summer. In just a couple weeks I am excitedly returning to work for the month of September. After September, I do not know my future due to covid-19, but I can tell you I am praying about it, and staying cautiously optimistic that the CARES Act might be extended to give the airlines a chance to rebound without furloughing thousands of us. We just don’t know what tomorrow holds, which is all the more reason to appreciate, and use, the benefits I have while I have them! Of course the benefits I am referring to, are my flight benefits. We call this non-rev travel , and in this post I explain a little more in depth what that entails, if you are interested.

Today I want to tell you about the recent trip my husband Joe and I took to Asheville, NC. You may find this post interesting because it is written from a budget minded perspective. I will tell you exactly how we got around on the buses, the value hotel we stayed at, and a few good inexpensive but delightful experiences.

First, let me break down some specific details about our Non-Rev.

Flights: (Free) Non-Rev Travel on American Airlines

To Asheville, NC RSW – CLT & CLT- AVL Back home to Fort Myers, FL AVL-CLT & CLT-RSW – All went off without a hitch! Thank you American Airlines!

A Value Hotel in Asheville

$62 Best Western Asheville 501 Tunnel Road – Free Breakfast – This is a very standard hotel, clean enough, and we were happy with it. It is not located near any walk-able restaurants, so keep that in mind when you are planning your evening. There is a gas station a short walk if you need beverages or snacks.

Getting Around in Asheville, Inexpensively (Free actually), Without a Car

The following information was written as of 8-22-2020, for most current info see the ART Bus website

AVL to Downtown

Let’s start with the arrival to AVL airport. Once we arrived, we wanted to start our adventure by getting downtown. Uber costs $24- $28 when we tried it on different days to get a perspective of the cost. However, if you are willing to have a little patience, you can get there for $1, (or free, like us, because buses have been free to ride during covid). Once you follow the signs guiding you out of the terminal, past security, and into the airport lobby, step outside the airport and turn LEFT, following the sidewalk up a hill a little yonder past the airport. Once you are at the top of that hill, look around and you will see two bus stop shelters. You want the one closer to the airport. There is actually a spot on the ground painted in white that says “locate bus”. This is the right place. You will catch the ART S3 bus, which comes every 90 minutes. This bus will take you to the main downtown bus station in a little under 40 minutes.

Downtown to Best Western at 501 Tunnel Road

If you end up staying at Best Western, which was the most affordable, but decent, hotel option for us, you will take the ART WE2 bus, that you can pick up right there in the same central downtown bus station, where the S3 had dropped you off before . The bus will take a deviation from Tunnel Road up a hill to a social administration office, but don’t worry, it goes right on back to Tunnel Road ( I am telling you this ahead of time because we got a little nervous for a moment when it left Tunnel Road before seeing the hotel). You will see Best Western on the right hand side, and request a stop. It will let you out just a short walk away near a Sunoco station, kind of near a Subaru dealership.

Best Western back to Downtown in the morning, cross the street from the bus stop WE2 dropped you at the night before, and you will see a covered bus stop. This is where you can take the ART WE1 back to the downtown. Let me give you a helpful tip here, to best save your time. Before you leave your hotel room, text this phone number 41411 the following message exactly : nextART 551

Make sure the space is between the word ART and 551, and the capitalization is the same. What should happen then, is you will receive a text back telling you how many minutes until the next bus will come. This way you can gauge when you want to walk over there to meet the bus.

Downtown back to AVL airport To get back to the airport, you can once again catch the ART S3 from the main downtown bus station. Make sure you get the schedule since it only comes every 90 minutes. Also, I would advise you to try to get on that bus the second it opens it doors, if you are traveling during covid, because the capacity is capped.

Additionally, the bus system can take you from the downtown to Biltmore Estate/ Biltmore Village quite easily if you would like to go there. The people who work at the downtown bus station’s front desk will be happy to guide you on what bus to take. They helped us often. Consult the website for more information.

The Value “Gems” we Discovered in Asheville

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Double D’s Coffee & Desserts 41 Biltmore Ave downtown

This is such a cool coffee shop, which is a 1960’s double-decker bus imported from England, and it fits into our budget friendly theme. We got a 12oz hot coffee for $2.50 and split a huge blueberry muffin ($3.50).

Farm Burger 10 Patton Avenue in the downtown – This casual hamburger restaurant had outside seating only due to covid, and we had a delicious and filling basic grassfed hamburger for $6.50, which is by far a value option for downtown Asheville.

A free thing to do : admire the architecture inside the Grove Arcade 1 Page Avenue downtown

This building from the 1930’s was just beautiful. Inside there are shops. On a rainy day, this would be a good place to hang out with a coffee and a book.

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Battery Park Champagne Bar & Book Exchange 1 Page Ave #101 downtown

This is a very elegant and special place we found in downtown Asheville, NC. When you walk in you feel like you are almost in a European cafe, surrounded with red and black walls with marigold accents, antique Persian rugs on the floor, and soft French-like music playing delicately in the background. Champagne is flowing, used and rare books surround you in bookshelves, and portions of food look very generous. We chose to experience this high end ambiance, with a more value-minded approach, opting to have the “tea for two” for $8, and split a rich piece of Snickers pie (the total bill coming to about $15) . The tea, featuring five rotating selections from from Asheville Tea Company, is served in an elegant tea set, in a very British fashion. After enjoying our personal tea party, we looked both downstairs and upstairs through the books. I left feeling like I had found my favorite place in the city.

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We arrived in Asheville, NC around noon on a Thursday, and we were flying back by 6pm on Friday, as this was meant to be just a quick and inexpensive exploration, on little more than a whim. We felt like this was a worthwhile trip overall, citing the examples above as our favorite experiences, along with the beauty of the mountains in the distance, and the variety of local art and goods. If a person was visiting with a bigger budget allocated for it, the Biltmore Estate is very popular (although it costs $65 a person). Also on the more pricey side, having dinner at the Omni Resort Sunset Terrace would be fun, as well as taking a rental car out to the mountains to hike and see waterfalls. Additionally, you can rent motorcycles, which is an investment, but it would be a memorable and beautiful ride.

Asheville, NC was more on the hippie-ish side than I had imagined ahead of time. Some compare it to Portland, OR. It did not leave an impression on us as favorable as say beautiful, Savannah, but it was interesting and fun to explore nonetheless! Have you ever visited Asheville, NC? What did you think about it? What were your favorite experiences there?

I hope this post will help you want to give this city a go for yourself, and maybe it will save you some money.

adventureAshevilleNon RevNon rev tripNorth Carolina