Swing into a round of golf on the legendary 18-hole course at The Omni Grove Park Inn. The 6,400-yard championship course has been played by PGA stars Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus and even President Obama. Feel a sense of pride and accomplishment after navigating the tree-lined fairways and bent greens with amazing views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Elevated tee boxes on the par-70 course provide perfect sight lines for each drive.
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Guided float fishing on the French Broad River North Carolina’s premier smallmouth bass fishery.
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If you’re wondering what to do around Asheville, NC, look no further than Asheville Adventure Company to get the insider “local” experience. We are long time Asheville residents and we are passionate about showing people what we love about Asheville and the surrounding area.
For too long the guiding industry has been ruled by a collective of companies that build their business by charging crazy money to take customers to the most popular spots around. We want to change the game. We strive to offer the same level of service (or better!) as our most prolific competitors but opt instead to build meticulously planned trips that are as unique as the many visitors that flock to this area. We hope that every trip leaves customers with a sense of awe and wonder for this incredible area. We want to push our customers outside of the tech and stimulus heavy world that we live in to a place where they can explore and push their own boundaries as far as they feel comfortable. We hire only the best guides, and we refuse to offer a trip unless we think it’s awesome (as a group of adventure nuts we have a pretty high standards).
We currently offer a selection of day hiking trips, e bike trips, overnight backpacking trips, and paddling trips. We are also always open to crafting private trips. If you have a trip that you have been dreaming up but need some help getting it across the finish line then contact us and we will help you plan something amazing!
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Broadmoor Golf Links is located in the greater Asheville area in Fletcher, North Carolina. Scenery from the Blue Ridge Mountains and the French Broad River Valley create a beautiful backdrop for your golf experience.
Broadmoor is a championship golf course designed by noted golf course architect Karl Litten – recognized alongside Nicklaus, Palmer, and Fazio by the PGA as one of golf’s fab four designers. Litten is famous for designs that are all unique. His courses do not have the same “signature” qualities, making each course a hand crafted work of art. Broadmoor Golf Links is also designed to be enjoyed in 4 hours, whether you like to ride or walk. With tees measuring from 5600 to over 7000 yards, Broadmoor appeals to every level of golfer.
Broadmoor’s clubhouse features spacious accommodations to enjoy after a day on the links. Our site is also the perfect locale for weddings, company outings, business meetings or birthday parties. Our event staff will customize your event from start to finish to ensure that you and your guests will have a memorable outing.
Randall Glen is a hundred-acre farm with its own mountainside, creeks, and wildflower meadows. Here you can experience the simple Smoky Mountain lifestyle that Southern Highlanders have known for hundreds of years. You can celebrate an unforgettable North Carolina mountain vacation. You can also just plain have fun. Spend your day with the animals at our interactive farm, mining for gems and gold in our creek-side sluice, or hop on a horse and enjoy the mountain views from a whole new perspective. For extra adventure and a truly memorable mountain experience, we offer deluxe overnight trail rides.
The North Carolina Arboretum’s 434-acre campus is nestled off the Blue Ridge Parkway minutes from downtown Asheville and offers beautiful gardens and natural areas, including the Bonsai Exhibition Garden, 10 miles of forested hiking and biking trails, garden tours, nature activities for families, changing science, art and cultural history exhibits, an on-site bistro and gift shop.
Daytime admission into the Arboretum is free; however, a $16 parking fee applies for personal vehicles. To view full listing of parking fees and hours, click here.
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I am a lifelong cyclist, enjoying the aspects of both road and mountain bike culture. My entire adult life has been in bicycle retail. Beginning my career in 1974, I began as a bicycle mechanic, moved on to manage a high end shop, then opened and operated my own pro shop for over 25 years. Throughout this period I never lost interest in the mechanical development of cycling: I very much enjoy building wheels, complete frame builds, and restoring both mountain and road bikes.
BikeWorks in Sylvania, Ohio was my life for the past 28 years. The shop expanded and changed with the times from a small retail space to a larger location that made space for custom bike and fit studio, establishing BikeWorks as northwest Ohio’s premier bike shop.
Through the decades, I was witness to the monumental advancements in cycling technology that have revolutionized bikes and the way people ride them: new frame materials, electronic shifters, disc brakes, and carbon fiber advancements to name a few.
Through these same decades, I was at the forefront of fit training and technology: FitKit, Pro Bike Fit, Trek School of Fitting, Paul Swift and since 2009, 3D Motion Capture by Retul. It is with the advancement of fit technology that my career has taken shape from a retail store owner to a custom bike and fit expert.
Having the knowledge, expertise and tools to connect a customer to a one of a kind custom bike has been the most satisfying aspect of my years in the bicycle world.
My collection of personal bikes ranges from restored vintage race bikes to cutting edge road and mountain bikes, custom road, mountain and randonneur bikes and tandems. My enthusiasm as a cyclist, collector and purveyor of fine cycling products has only grown over the years and continues to fuel my passion as a business owner. It is with great excitement that I bring my experience to Asheville, North Carolina as Tangent Cycles.
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Explore Western North Carolina’s great outdoors with Nantahala Outdoor Center. The nation’s largest outdoor recreation company, NOC has led outdoor adventures since 1972 and earned recognition as “One of the Best Outfitters on Earth” by National Geographic Adventure. Over a million guests visit NOC annually to embark on a diverse collection of more than 120 different river and land-based itineraries! Learn to kayak at NOC’s world-renowned Paddling School, or test the latest outdoor gear and shop at retail stores in Asheville, Gatlinburg, and Nantahala. Book a trip on one of seven rivers in the Southeast, or fly through the skies on the Nantahala Mountaintop Zip Line Adventure!
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Liberty Bicycles has been proudly serving the cycling community of Asheville and the surrounding areas for the last 40 years. Some may know us for our exceptional products and top notch fitters & mechanics, but it is our personal connection that has put us on the map as one of America’s Best Bike Shops since 1993. We are avid cyclists and we advocate strongly for cycling and for our community.
Explore the amazing work of nature on the “inside” of a mountain. North Carolina’s only show caverns features stalactite and stalagmite formations, an underground stream with native trout, hibernating bats, amazing mineral colors, the Bottomless Pool, and total darkness. The guided tour educates you on caverns ecosystems, geological history, and local history of the area. Gift shop located on premises.
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Wildwater Adventure Centers wants to share their 42 years of rafting and outdoor leadership experience with your family, group, high adventure trip or team building retreat on four Southern rivers: the Chatooga, Nantahala, Ocoee & Pigeon. Wildwater offers the best in outdoor adventure in the Asheville area with attention to detail both on and off the water. Wildwater also offers their exclusive Quality Service Guarantee! In addition to great whitewater adventures, join Wildwater for scenic Jeep and train excursions combined with your rafting trip. Elevate your vacation and take flight on one of their 5 zipline canopy tour adventures including the newest right in the heart of Asheville. Only Wildwater can provide unique Raft & Rail, Rails & Trails, or Float & Fly packages. Wildwater is a family owned and operated business focused on providing a unique Western NC outdoor adventure vacation experience. They create memories and family traditions that will last a lifetime. Please join them!
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The O-RIGINAL Motion Makers was founded by Norm and Dianne Harrell in 1986 when their son, Benji, was riding skateboards and BMX bikes. Norm was good at helping Benji’s friends with their wheeled fun and opened Motion Makers on Hwy 107 in Sylva, NC as a way to provide this sport to the Sylva market. Around 1993, they moved into a 1920’s building in the heart of downtown Sylva, which was just starting to revitalize from many years of vacant buildings.
In 1997, Dave and Sandy Molin purchased the store. They had moved down from Vermont to escape the winters. Dave, a practicing Pharmacist, worked at several pharmacies in the area until he noticed that Motion Makers was for sale. An avid cyclist, it looked like the perfect job to relax and enjoy his sport and get out of the corporate world of pharmacy.
In 2007, “Surly” Dave convinced Kent Cranford to consider buying the shop.
Kent started racing and working on bikes as a BMX kid in the late 70’s. Spurred on by his father’s love of riding and tinkering with bikes, he quickly learned the basics of flat changes and converting coaster brake hubs into freewheels and other BMX mods of the day.
At age 16, the local bike shop, Bicycle City, offered him some work during Christmas building bicycles, then during summers. While in college, he worked at Harper’s Schwinn in Knoxville, TN, then at Skedaddle Bicycles in Murfreesboro, TN.
After graduating from MTSU, Kent headed out to Colorado to visit his brother who was in school at CSU. While there, the call of the Rockies sent him job hunting where he found a job at Keystone ski resort for the rest of the winter. Near the end of the ski season, he took a job at the Knorr House in Breckenridge, CO assembling their fleet of rental bikes for that summer. Later that spring of 1991, a stop in Crested Butte, CO led to a two-year job at The Alpineer, one of the original Mountain Bike shops of the late 70’s.
An annual pilgrimage back East to the Tsali trails led Kent to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, where he took a job working in the “original” store and tasked with creating a real “Bike Shop” in NOC’s new outfitter’s store that was built in 1994. In 1995, he accepted a job with Litespeed Bicycles in Ooltewah, TN and worked as Marketing Director for two years. The job took him all over the US and Europe to attend shows and events helping to grow this small company. It was a dream job getting to rub elbows with all the cycling greats and seeing so many of the legendary cycling destinations.
The mountains of NC have a strong draw and in 1997, Kent came back to NOC to continue growing NOC’s biking program and interest in cycling in Western NC.
In 1999, Kent had tired of the tourism retail trade and decided to pursue his newest love in computers. After two years in that industry, with the “dot-com bust” looming, Kent saw a listing for the Territory Manager position with Specialized Bicycles covering the Southern Appalachian region, home of the greatest cycling anywhere and where he happened to live.
Over the next five years, Kent enjoyed his 1000-mile weeks on the road and spending half the weekends of the year at events representing Specialized. His 2005 marriage to Sarah and impending birth of their daughter, Beverly, in 2006, sent Kent into the booming real estate industry to stay home with his new family. This job allowed him to spend a lot of time in Sylva and Jackson County, re-kindling his belief in what a great cycling region WNC is. Little did he know that Dave asking him to come look at Motion Makers would save him from another Bust!
In 2009, the opportunity to open a second store 45 minutes away in the cycling mecca of Asheville, NC, could not be ignored. Kent had frequently asked his sales reps why there was only one large bicycle store in the booming town. One of those reps was Ben Hinker, who also wondered why someone hadn’t opened a big store in Asheville. He immediately signed on as Manager of the store as soon as he learned of Kent’s plan and was involved from the early stages of deciding where to put this new store. Another key person, Sara Jarrell, a Cullowhee native, had moved back home to WNC from California a couple of years earlier. She had quickly become a trusted source of knowledge at the Sylva store but had been making the commute from Asheville to Sylva to work. This gave her plenty of reason to help make this new store a place that people could trust with her skills as Service Manager.
Calling on the design expertise of the Specialized Retail Services team, the Motion Makers crew signed on to become an Elite Store with Specialized. This allowed for a quick opening in March of 2010 with a very clean and professional look that the team knew they wanted for Asheville while allowing it to remain a locally owned store, not just a factory footprint. The store is one of the largest in the region and has, we believe, the best selection of bikes and equipment so you can always find what you need.